Flounder Kara-age

Kara-age is a technique for deep frying without a batter, to highlight the natural taste of an ingredient. Foods are simply dredged in flour or starch, to seal the surface, and plopped into a vat of bubbling oil (okay, not literally a vat -- a saucepan is fine!). Flat fish like flounder is delicious deep-fried this way (so is tofu and chicken). I made the flounder last night, and paired it with a simple dipping sauce along with grated daikon and sliced scallions. The grated daikon adds fresh flavor, and when added to the dipping sauce, thickens it and helps it adhere to the flounder. The method for this dish is super straightforward: Cut the flounder into chunks and lightly salt. Thickly peel daikon and coarsely grate. Thinly slice scallions and soak in water for 10 minutes; then squeeze the scallions dry (you'll squeeze out any slime, a good thing). Prepare the dipping sauce by bringing 1/2 cup mirin to a boil in a small saucepan, then adding 1/2 cup soy sauce and 1 1/2 cups dashi; bring the liquid to a boil again, turn off the heat and set aside. Fill a pot with 2 inches of vegetable oil and heat to about 340 degrees F (170 degrees C). Dredge the flounder in flour and deep fry for about 4 minutes, until golden; do this in batches. Transfer the flounder to a plate lined with newspaper or paper towel to drain excess oil. Serve like you see in the picture above. To eat, add the daikon and scallions to the dipping sauce, dip in the fish and go to town! Questions? Please post them in comments.

Posted by Harris Salat in Fish | Permalink | Comments (2) | Email | Print

Comments (2)

Of course if you walk into a restaurant and ask for karaage, you'll get fried chicken. That requires pretty small pieces of boneless chicken, but does it have to be cooked a bit first, or not? Otherwise it would have to take longer than the fish. Totally off the subject, but I made fresh takenoko tonight for the first time--boy is it good! I'm told you can buy it at classy stores in the US but I wonder if it comes with a little bag of rice bran, nuka, to boil with it.

John Campbell | Posted 08:26 24 April 2011

When you make chicken kara-age (which I'm going to talk about before too long, since I seem to be in a deep frying jag these days!), you start with raw chicken and just deep fry it longer than the fish. Regarding takenoko, I haven't seen fresh in the USA, only preboiled. -- Harris

Harris Salat | Posted 08:48 24 April 2011

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