CookEat Recipe
Butter-Fried Breaded Tench
Boneless tench fillets in a double breadcrumb coating, gently fried in butter and served with lemon and fried mushrooms.
Method
Steps
Step 1
Gather the ingredients: 2 large whole tench (Tinca tinca), about 1.2 kg before cleaning, professionally gutted and filleted into four long boneless halves, with heads, fins, tails and backbones removed; 120 g plain flour: 80 g for the fish and 40 g for the mushrooms; 2 eggs; Salt and black pepper; 120 g fine breadcrumbs; 80 g butter; 1 lemon, cut into wedges; 250 g cultivated mushrooms, cleaned and thickly sliced; About 200 ml olive oil for frying the mushrooms.
Step 2
Use fresh food-grade tench prepared by a fishmonger. Check the four long fillet halves carefully for small bones and pat dry. Keep chilled until ready to coat.
Step 3
Beat the eggs with salt and pepper. Coat each fillet lightly in 80 g flour, dip in the egg, then coat in breadcrumbs. Dip into egg and breadcrumbs once more for a double crumb coating, pressing lightly without making a heavy mound.
Step 4
Heat the butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Cook the fillets in batches if necessary for about 4–6 minutes per side, adjusting to thickness, until the coating is golden and the centre reaches at least 74°C. Lower the heat if the butter or crumbs darken too quickly.
Step 5
For the mushroom side, toss the thick slices in the remaining 40 g flour and shake off excess. Fry in a shallow layer of olive oil at about 170–175°C in small batches for 3–5 minutes, until golden and tender. Drain and season with salt and pepper while hot. Serve beside the fish with lemon wedges.
Step 6
The mushroom side can be omitted when mushrooms are unavailable; in that case omit its 250 g mushrooms, 40 g flour and frying oil. For the historical blanching option, use only fresh sound fish: before coating, briefly blanch the prepared fillets in boiling water for roughly 1–2 minutes, just until the skin loosens, then cool briefly in clean ice water. Drain, dry thoroughly, coat and cook immediately as above. Blanching is not a way to make spoiled fish usable.
Cooked it? Rate it.
Cooked 0 times