Fantastic fishless fillets with crispy skin served with bitter sweet peas!
The longing for a crispy on the outside, moist on the inside, sea fresh fillet still has not left me nor most of the family. Natasha (the other half) was never a fan, she was a veggie for 25 years before going vegan. After I made these ridiculously similar fillets, she told me not to make them again as they resembled the real thing too much. I am going to test them out on some fish loving omni's and see how I get on with fooling them. To me it reminded me of summers gone, strolls on the beach and off to the chipper for a fillet and chips (fries to our American readers) or a 1 and 1 to the locals.
Serve these on a bed of seaweed salad with a wedge of lemon, Chips what ever way you want and our bitter sweet garden peas for a real stroll down memory lane! The only thing we are missing is the sand between your toes and some seagulls trying to rob your lunch.
Ingredients:
2 cans Young green jack fruit drained (280 g drained weight each) Make sure they are in brine not syrup,
1 Tbsp nutritional yeast,
2 Tsp lemon juice,
1 Tsp Garlic powder,
1 Tsp Sea Salt,
6 Sheets Sushiori, (thats sushi wraps)
2 Tbsp or 2g Dried seaweed salad,
6 Sheets Rice paper wrapper,
Method:
- Put the 2 Tbsp of seaweed salad into a bowl and cover with plenty of cold water. Drain after 10 min and add 500 ml new fresh water. Set aside
- Rinse the jack fruit in a colander or sieve. Remove hard core and seeds. You only want the flesh.
- Break up the jack fruit into strands, leaving a lot of larger clumps (this gives the fillets the flaky texture of fish)
- Rinse the broken up jack fruit again, and press hard in your sieve as you want to get as much moisture out of it as possible.
Keep the flesh on the left and discard the core and seeds on the right
- Get 360ml of water from the seaweed salad add to a pot, Scoop out all of the suiginoriao, suginoriaka and tsunomataaka (what the hell???) that's the pink, white and light green seaweed from the salad. You could use any seaweed from the salad but I find the flavour and colour from these to be best suited for the recipe.
- Dice into very small pieces (the smaller the better). You should have about 2 tbsp full. Add this to the drained Jack fruit.
- Add the jack fruit, yeast, lemon juice, garlic powder and sea salt to the pot. Bring to the boil and reduce to simmer for 10 min.
- After 10 min of simmer remove from the heat and drain the remaining water in a sieve. Do Not press the jack fruit, you want to retain as much water as possible without having water dripping out.
- Place 1 sheet of sushinori on a clean counter top and scoop about 1/6 of the jack fruit into the centre of the sheet and fold into a parcel.
- The moisture of the jack fruit should seal the sushinori, if it doesn't seal you will need to wet your finger and run it inside the seam to seal it. Cut off the ends.
- Set this one aside and repeat until you have 6 fillets. I make some smaller ones for the kids but 6 gives you easier job of cooking.
Wet a large dinner plate (Larger than the rice paper wrappers) This will stop the rice paper sticking to the plate and make the final wrapping process much easier. Next get a large sauté pan or wide bottomed pan and add enough water to give you about 1" depth. Add 1 rice paper and let it soften about 40 - 60 seconds, you will know when it is ready to use as it will be soft and bendable.
If it breaks or resists bending it has not soaked long enough.Remove the rice paper from the water and lay flat on the plate. Take one of your fillets and trim off the edges to using a wet, sharp knife. Place the fillet on to the rice paper about 1/3 from the bottom and wrap the remaining bottom part of the wrapper over the fillet. Fold the two sides over towards the centre, then fold towards the top giving your fillet a parcel wrapping.
Repeat with the remaining fillets.
The rice paper is extremely sticky now, I wet 2 side plates and place 3 the fillets on each.
- Add 200 ml neutral oil I.E. sunflower, rapeseed etc to a pan and heat to a med / high heat just below smoking. Add the fillets one by one to the pan and allow to cook for 12 min. Turn 3 times and DO NOT allow the fillets to come together during cooking as they will stick.
- Once golden brown remove from pan and pat dry with some paper towel. Now that they are cooked they wont stick and will be crispy to the touch.
Serving suggestion:
Slice and serve on a bed of the remaining seaweed salad, with a side of fresh cooked chunky chips (fries), and some Garden peas mixed with a tablespoon of mint sauce and a hand full of fresh chopped basil. The bitter vinegar and mint are enhanced by the sweet basil to bring these humble peas to a whole new level.
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This is my entry for #fruitsandveggiesmonday a wonderful competition to get the crème of the crop of fruit and veggie recipes. The competition is run by @lenasveganliving, if you are creative this is a great competition for you!
You can enter this week here ==> https://steemit.com/fruitsandveggiesmonday/@lenasveganliving/czyzm-steemit-fruits-and-veggies-monday-competition
This post was first featured on my personal blog at feoilfreefamily.com.
I use jackfruit for tacos, pizza and stir fries! I have never thought about using it as a vegan fish alternative.
I am sure the sushi nori makes it taste very real. 🐟 It looks so good and paired very well with the chips and peas. What an awesome classic combo.
Thanks so much, You really cant beat a 1 and 1. I was a big fish eater too I'm sad to say. However since going vegan I've decided that there is nothing I could eat as an omni that I cant make now, well at least make it taste the same. This recipe comes so close that people who don't like fish wont eat it!
If you are really feeling bold I recommend battering them after frying and cooling and then deep fry till the batter is cooked! OMG, pants wetting territory!
Got you on insta too!!
I'm with your lady--never really liked fish even when I was an omnivore! But I think it is fantastic to have a recipe like this for people who do miss it. Very creative way to use jackfruit, as well!
Thanks a million, Yeah fish can be quite divisive alright. It was far too fishy for her and Grace face. She wasnt a fan either, I ate their leftovers too 😉😉
I was not a fish fantast as a omni. And now I don't like when it tastes like real fish. But it's such a great way to get more omnis to try vegan food :)
Yeah totally, I have fooled quite a few omnis with my recipes. It isn't all greens, that is the biggest fear for people who want to try Vegan food.
Haha. Your other half sounds like me. I bought some Quorn fishless fingers and once I’d cooked them I was like, why did I even get these? I don’t even like fish! 😂 they were soooo fishy!
Oh well, if you didn't like the quorn ones you will 100% not like these, they are super fishy. Thanks for checking it out though.