Fish sticks – Fish Fingers Recipe

Looking to a cheering up dinner or just need to make some fish? Let’s try fish sticks that will make any meal feverish!

Cultural differences are hard to digest. When people move to another country, state or sometimes just another town, they are faced with a series of unexpected challenges that are quite straightforward for the people growing up there, yet completely alien to anyone trying to blend in.

Of course, such differences can come quite handy when we want to change some aspects of our life, creating new habits in a brand new environment, but once the fascinating  the “honeymoon” period is over, the “negotiation” part of to the new reality can be challenging.

We can easily get annoyed by local people inability to understand our accent or being the butt of countless jokes, just because we don’t get it.

Once we “adjust” to the new environment though, things even out. We can move around in our new culture comfortably and respond to a variety of situations without raising an eyebrow of fellow passersby.

At this stage, we may even try to crack a few jokes on the expense of our host nation but not until we swim gaily among the society’s waves, currents and intricacies, we are truly “adapted” to our new home.

It doesn’t mean that we are not bothered by some small nuances, like calling fries to chips, zucchini to courgette or fish sticks to fish fingers but we can get where these terms come from and accept their place in the culture.

Of course, some people are better at coping with culture shocks than others, similarly as some people are better at getting jokes than others.

Fish sticks, or as known in the UK fish fingers, are pieces of white fish, covered in breadcrumbs. Ideally, the fish of choice is haddock but depending on the quality of the fish fingers, any white fish would go under the outer layer of carbs and fat.

Shop bought fish sticks are created by endless conveyor belt connected machines from blocks of frozen fish to the perfect precision we all grew to love or at least to get familiar with. If we have trust issues with factory food production about the quality of food they produce and choose to make our own, we have to say goodbye to such perfection and appreciate the free flowing spirit of our own skills and our kitchen knife.

Once we get over the uneven size of the fish pieces, making fish sticks isn’t that difficult or demanding, rather than sometimes daunting. We may be able to get away with the breading process though if we have kids readily available to have some fun in the kitchen.

It’s surprisingly easy to make kids do the dirty work beginning at the age of 2 and up until they leave the house. It’s harder to sell the activity as fun, after a certain age so better to start creating family customs sooner than later.

If we don’t have kids, spouse or just can’t bear the thought of cleaning the kitchen up after a communal cooking session (kids are good at cleaning too), we are left with the company of the breading station and our musings about the eternity of time or why we don’t bread the whole fish fillet.

Of course if we have a screen with a funny show readily available at the breading station or we really more into deep fried starch than fish then putting the extra time to create fish sticks is absolutely worth it.

Ingredients

• 1¾ lb / 800g Fish fillets
• 1 teaspoon / 5g Salt
• 1 teaspoon / 1g Black pepper
• 1 squeeze / 5ml Lemon juice
• ⅔ cup / 50g Flour
• 1 cup / 110g Breadcrumbs
• 2 medium / 100g Eggs

(Flour, breadcrumbs and eggs amount are stated for nutrition calculation only. The actual amount for comfortable breading will require much more of these ingredients.)

How to make Fish sticks – Fish fingers

1. Cut the fish fillets up into sticks we are comfortable with. Sprinkle salt, black pepper and a bit of lemon juice over them then mix well.
2. Take one fish fillet and dunk into flour on all sides.
3. Immerse the floured fish fillet in the beaten up eggs.
4. Transfer the egged piece into the breadcrumbs and cover all sides of it. Set it aside on a separate plate then do the same thing with the other fish fillets.
5. Once we have enough fish fillets ready to be fried, heat as much oil as fully covers the fish sticks to medium to high temperature. Place a batch of fish sticks into the oil.
6. Deep fry the fish sticks until they are golden brown.
7. Take them out and let the excess oil drip. Sprinkle some salt on top, gently shake and serve.
8. Mix the leftover eggs, flour and breadcrumbs in a bowl with a bit of salt, black pepper and paprika. Once all the fish sticks are done, spoon the mixture into the frying dish and fry until golden brown.

Enjoy!

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