Oven-baked fish schnitzel with chips and tartare sauce
The fish schnitzel of Israeli tables, made extra crisp: a golden, lemon-scented panko crust, oven chips, pareve caper tartare sauce and a drizzle of vinegar over the chips.
Method
- Start the oven before anything else: 220°C fan, with both large trays inside, one in the lower third and one in the upper third. Peel the potatoes, cut into 8 mm chips, rinse in cold water until it stays clear, then dry thoroughly in a tea towel: remaining water would make them boil instead of roast.
- Mix the chips with 35 g oil, 2 g paprika and 3 g salt. Take out the lower tray, line with baking paper suitable for 220°C and spread the chips in a single layer without touching. They must be in the oven by minute 12 at the latest. Bake for 28–30 minutes, turning after 15 minutes: the edges brown and the centres soften.
- Meanwhile, toast the panko with 10 g oil in a frying pan over a medium heat for 3–4 minutes, stirring constantly, until evenly light golden; immediately spread on a plate. Once lukewarm, mix in the zest of the half lemon, 4 g parsley, 1 g paprika and 1 g salt. Prepare a plate of flour with 1 g salt, 1 g paprika and the pepper, and a bowl with the checked egg beaten with 5 g mustard. Pat the fillets dry with kitchen paper, salt both sides with 3 g salt and refrigerate for 10 minutes.
- Tartare sauce (skip this step if made the day before or in the morning): finely chop the drained gherkins and capers and very finely chop the shallot. Mix with the mayonnaise, 5 g mustard, 10 g lemon juice, 4 g parsley and a turn of pepper. Taste: the gherkins and capers already provide salt, so add a pinch only if needed. Cover and refrigerate for at least 20 minutes for the flavours to come together.
- When the chips have cooked for 18 minutes, pat the fillets dry again, then coat in flour, shaking off the excess, dip in egg and finally press gently into the panko. Take out the second scorching-hot tray, oil with the remaining 5 g oil and lay on the fillets: they should sizzle, which makes the underside crisp. Immediately bake for 10–12 minutes without turning or covering.
- Remove the fish as soon as the flesh is opaque and flakes under a knife tip, still just pearly in the centre (55–57°C in the centre of the thickest fillet if using a thermometer); rest on the tray for 2 minutes to finish cooking. Take out the chips, immediately season with 1 g fine salt and shake the tray. Serve one fillet and half the chips per person, with a heaped tablespoon of tartare sauce on each plate and the rest divided between two ramekins, one per plate; at the table, drizzle the 10 g vinegar over the chips and the 15 g lemon juice over the fish.
Fish-free
- Fresh white fish fillets (hake or Nile perch) → Skinless chicken breast escalopes (150 g each) 400 g (1 cm thick escalopes, about 100 g each, prepared by the kosher butcher: 4 for two fish-free plates; 2 for one fish-free plate (then use 200 g fish, 1 fillet, and 200 g chicken))
- add Eggs 55 g (1 extra egg: one egg per set of coating containers)
- add Sunflower oil, for frying or as a neutral oil 350 g (An oil depth of about 1 cm in the 26 cm pan (21–22 cm base): the escalopes need to float in it so the panko crust puffs and browns from edge to edge. 4 breaded escalopes (400 g) absorb 40–45 g, 2 escalopes about 25 g; filter the remaining oil when cold and reuse once for frying with the meat cookware)
- At step 3, before any contact with raw proteins, prepare two separate sets of containers: divide the seasoned flour in half, beat one egg with 2.5 g mustard in each bowl and divide the panko in half. Toast only the half intended for the fish (40 g, with 5 g oil; add the remaining 5 g to the chicken frying oil); leave the chicken’s half untoasted and season in the same way, as it will brown in the oil. Salt the fish and chicken escalopes with 0.75 g per 100 g (the planned 3 g). Coat each protein with its own utensils. For two fish-free plates, use one set of containers with both eggs and leave all the panko untoasted (add the 10 g panko oil and 5 g tray oil to the chicken frying oil).
- At step 5, when the fish goes into the oven, heat the 350 g sunflower oil, along with any unused oil from the base recipe, in a 26 cm pan from the meat cookware set over a medium-high heat to 170–175°C: a panko crumb should sizzle immediately and turn golden in 30 seconds. Add two breaded escalopes without crowding and fry for 2 minutes 30 seconds to 3 minutes per side, spooning oil over the top and turning only once: a golden, puffed crust from edge to edge, clear juices when pierced and 72°C at the centre. Drain on a rack or kitchen paper. For two fish-free plates, cook in two batches, starting when the chips have cooked for 15 minutes: between batches, skim out panko crumbs with a slotted spoon before they burn, top up the oil if its level has dropped and wait for it to return to 170°C. Serve at the same time as the fish with the same chips and tartare sauce, in a separate ramekin for each plate; fish and chicken must not touch during cooking or on the serving dish.
Pan-fried chicken schnitzel is the quintessential Israeli dinner: the same coating, chips and tartare sauce, with no shared oven for fish and meat.
Lighter version
- Potatoes : 450 g
- Fresh white fish fillets (hake or Nile perch) : 300 g
- Sunflower oil, for frying or as a neutral oil : 35 g
- Fine salt : 7.5 g
At step 2, mix the 450 g potatoes (3 medium, about 390 g peeled) with just 20 g oil and 2 g salt; add 1 g salt out of the oven. Use 150 g fillets, seasoned with 2.5 g salt at step 3 (panko and flour each retain their 1 g): allow 9–11 minutes in the oven at step 5.
Fewer chips, 150 g fillets and less oil on the chips: the same crust and tartare sauce. Choose Israeli salad as a starter rather than coleslaw.
On your plate
Recipe
1174 kcal · protein 55 g · carbs 103 g · fat 56 g
Quantities per person
- 200 g Fresh white fish fillets (hake or Nile perch)
- 375 g Potatoes
- 40 g Pareve panko breadcrumbs
- 15 g Plain wheat flour
- 27.5 g Eggs
- 25 g Sunflower oil, for frying or as a neutral oil
- 30 g Mayonnaise
- 12.5 g Gherkins / small pickled cucumbers
- 5 g Capers
- 7.5 g Shallots
- 5 g Hot Dijon-style mustard
- 30 g Lemon
- 5 g Cider vinegar
- 4 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 2 g Sweet paprika
- 4.5 g Fine salt
- 0.25 g Ground black pepper
Fish-free version
1470 kcal · protein 70 g · carbs 103 g · fat 82 g
Quantities per person
- 375 g Potatoes
- 40 g Pareve panko breadcrumbs
- 15 g Plain wheat flour
- 55 g Eggs
- 200 g Sunflower oil, for frying or as a neutral oil
- 30 g Mayonnaise
- 12.5 g Gherkins / small pickled cucumbers
- 5 g Capers
- 7.5 g Shallots
- 5 g Hot Dijon-style mustard
- 30 g Lemon
- 5 g Cider vinegar
- 4 g Flat-leaf parsley
- 2 g Sweet paprika
- 4.5 g Fine salt
- 0.25 g Ground black pepper
- 200 g Skinless chicken breast escalopes (150 g each)
Cooking tips
Buy the fish ready to cook from the fishmonger that day. Toasting the panko before baking avoids waiting for colour that would dry out the fillet. Never put sauce under the fish or cover the fillets: steam softens the coating. Make the tartare sauce the day before or in the morning (it only improves): in the evening, only the chips, breading and cooking remain, keeping active time under 30 minutes; allow another 5 minutes if making the sauce that evening. The chips do not reheat well.
The Israeli tradition of fish schnitzel (שניצל דג), with a nod to fish and chips: chips, tartare sauce and a drizzle of vinegar.
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