Bluefish (Fried) with Jalapeno Pepper Salsa and Fries

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With an abundance of Bluefish on hand, I decided to fry a batch up in Cajun fish batter. I had no dipping sauces other than boring same old same old ketchup and I wanted to spruce up the fried fish with something… I had an image in my head of a heaping plate of fresh fried fish with some sort of a tropical mango salsa either draped on each filet or served along the side.

There was only one problem: I had no mango. In fact, I had nothing other than a basket of fresh garden veggies at my disposal.

I dug around in the basket to see what I could make. With an already running out of control imagination, I was nervous that I would chop up all of these vegetables and whatever kind of salsa I was trying to conjure up would completely clash. I didn’t want to waste garden fresh vegetables.. no no.

I chopped up 8 jalapeno peppers (some seeds left in to add a dab of heat), 2 tomatoes, 1 medium yellow onion, 2 green bell peppers, and 1 banana pepper.

I mixed them into a bowl and added the juice of half a lemon. Then I seasoned liberally with salt, mixed the bowl again, and let it rest in the refrigerator until the fish was ready.

Then I heated enough oil (medium high) to cover this fish in a large stock pot and coated the fillets of 6 Bluefish in Cajun fish batter (or regular fish batter with Cajun seasoning). As a test, take a pinch of batter and toss it into the hot oil. If its ready to go, the batter will brown, if not , keep warming. I fried the Bluefish in batches of 3 for about 3-4 minutes until the fish is a crunchy golden brown. I served the crispy fried fish with my fresh garden Jalapeno salsa, fry wedges, and fry sauce: -fry recipe below.

I had fry wedges soaking in water for about an hour and a half prior to frying to release the starch. -I cut 3 potatoes into wedges with the skin on for this.

Once the fries were ready for cooking, I turned down the oil heat to medium. I used the double frying method-as is the proper french fry frying method- and put the potato wedges into the lower heat oil, frying for about 5 minutes. I removed the fries and sat them on a paper towel pedestal to pat dry. In the meantime, I cranked the oil heat back up to high. Once the oil was hot enough, I tossed the fries back into the pan and fried them until a crispy golden brown. I salted the wedge fries liberally in the end and also sprinkled some old bay seasoning all over them. Talk about delicious. I served them up with “fry sauce” – a 50/50 mixture of ketchup and mayonnaise. I don’t eat fries without this sauce. This was the most flavorful fried fish recipes that I’ve ever cooked. Period.