Fried Fish Sandwiches

I usually think of this as a summer dinner–the kind of thing you make when you’ve been at the beach all day and it’s too hot to think about turning on the oven. But! But. My daughter requested them this weekend and when a family member wants to choose dinner, I try to make it happen (I get tired of planning dinner, too, sometimes). And they were so good! Like they seriously hit the spot and brought a little summer sunshine to this snowy January. Also, I made them, including the slaw, while my littlest daughter watched one Paw Patrol, which is to say, the whole dinner took less than 22 minutes

Recipe

Yield: 4-5 servings

For the Fish:
2lbs tilapia or any thin white fish, like sole, each filet cut into four pieces (better crust to fish ratio)
Kosher salt
½ cup all purpose flour
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1.5 cups panko
Vegetable oil

For the Slaw:
¼ head green or red cabbage, or a bag of pre-shredded cabbage
¼ cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
Optional: sliced cucumber, radishes, and/or apples
Kosher salt
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon olive oil

Assembly:
Potato buns
Pickles
Pickled onions
Slaw
Hot sauce
Potato Chips
Cut up veggies (for the kids)

Instructions

Lay out your dredging set up. One plate with flour, a shallow dish with the eggs, one plate for panko. A plate to land your breaded fish. Season fish with salt, dip in the flour, then egg, then panko, repeat with all the pieces.

Take a pause and make your slaw. In a medium bowl, add the cabbage, parsley, and the other vegetables/apple, if using. Season with kosher salt and drizzle over apple cider vinegar and olive oil. Toss. Pull out whatever else you might have in the fridge that would be good here–pickles, pickled onions, hot sauce, mayo, baby carrots or cut up veggies for the slaw averse, buns, potato chips.

Now continue with the fish. In a large frying pan, heat half an inch of oil over medium heat. Line another plate with paper towels. When the oil is shimmering, add the fish. Cook for about 2 minutes, until the underside is golden, flip, cook another two minutes until both sides are golden. Transfer fish to the paper towel plate, season lightly with salt.

To serve, put together sandwiches. Add a couple of pieces of fish to each bun and top with slaw, hot sauce, pickles, whatever you like. My kids go just fish and bread, with cut up carrots and potato chips on the side. Any which way you stack it, eat immediately and pretend it’s the summer.