Mojarra Frita

A whole fish scored to the bone on both sides, which is the only way the middle cooks before the outside burns.

Fish. Not vegetarian — contains fish.

Ingredients

• 4 whole tilapia or sea bream, about 400 g each, gutted and scaled
• juice of 3 limes
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 4 tablespoons plain flour
• oil, for frying, about 3 cm depth
• lime wedges and salsa, as on its own page, to serve
• corn tortillas, as on their own page, to serve

Method

1. IT IS SCORED TO THE BONE ON BOTH SIDES, and that is the only way the middle cooks before the outside burns. A whole four-hundred-gram fish is thick through the shoulder and thin at the tail, and dropped into hot oil whole the tail is leather by the time the thickest part is done. Three or four diagonal cuts each side, right down to the bone, open the thick flesh up and let the hot oil get in; the shoulder then cooks in roughly the same time as the tail. The cuts also hold the marinade, and they show at a glance when it is done, because the flesh pulls away from the bone inside them.
2. THE SKIN IS DRIED THOROUGHLY BEFORE THE FLOUR GOES ON. Patted with kitchen paper, inside the belly cavity and into every score. Wet skin in hot oil spits violently and steams rather than crisps, and the flour turns to paste wherever there is water.
3. THE MARINADE IS BRIEF AND IS DRIED OFF. Twenty minutes in lime, garlic and salt, no longer, and then wiped. Lime juice on fish for an hour begins to firm and whiten the flesh the way an aguachile does, and a fish that has already part-cooked in acid goes dry and cottony when fried.
4. THE OIL IS DEEP ENOUGH TO COME HALFWAY UP THE FISH AND IT IS TURNED ONCE. Three centimetres. Shallower and the upper half steams under its own cover; deeper is unnecessary for a flat fish. Five or six minutes a side, turned ONCE with two spatulas, because every turn risks the skin.
5. IT IS DONE WHEN THE FLESH IN THE SCORES PULLS AWAY FROM THE BONE. That is a better test than time or colour, because fish vary. A knife tip into the deepest score at the shoulder: the flesh should be opaque and should lift cleanly off the backbone.
6. The fish SCORED with 3 or 4 diagonal cuts on EACH side, cut right down to the bone.
7. Rubbed all over and INTO the scores with the lime juice, garlic, salt and pepper, and left 20 MINUTES only.
8. WIPED and patted thoroughly DRY with kitchen paper -- the skin, the belly cavity and inside every score.
9. Dusted all over with the flour, into the scores too, and the excess shaken off.
10. The oil heated in a wide deep pan to 3 cm, over a medium-high heat, until a pinch of flour sizzles at once.
11. One fish lowered in away from the body and fried 5 to 6 MINUTES without moving.
12. TURNED ONCE, with two spatulas, and given 5 MINUTES more.
13. TESTED with a knife tip in the deepest score at the shoulder: the flesh must be opaque and PULL AWAY FROM THE BONE.
14. Lifted onto a rack -- not paper, which steams the underside -- and kept warm.
15. The oil brought back up to heat between each fish.
16. Served whole with lime, salsa and tortillas.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Mexico · All recipes