Cooking With You: At-home fish fries

On Saturday's Good Day Wisconsin, Rick Lemmens of Catch5 Breading in Neenah joined us for a Cooking With You segment.

Lemmens is an avid fisherman and developed his own special recipe for fish breading more than a decade ago.

Today, he is licensed by the state to make and sell the breading from his own home. It's sold in more than a dozen different stores:

Captain Hooks (Lake Tomahawk, WI)
Anglers Bait Shop (Fremont, WI)
Woodman’s (Appleton, WI)
Woodman's (Green Bay, WI )
Cedar Creek Meats (Appleton, WI)
Jacob’s Meat Market (Appleton, WI)
Freedom Market (Freedom, WI)
Haen’s Meats (Kaukauna, WI)
Center Valley Co-op (Center Valley, WI)
Lake Tomahawk Meat Market (Lake Tomahawk, WI)
Eden Meat Market (Eden, WI)
City Meat Market (Naperville, IL)
Mikes Market (Villa Park, IL )
Roskom Meat's (Freedon,WI)

For more information, contact Lemmens at (920)428-9852 or rlemmens@new.rr.com.

Here are Lemmens' tips for the perfect, at-home fish fry:
1) It starts with proper care of your catch. Keep fish cold. When filleting your fish, it’s important to remove any dark or red colored meat.  This will remove any bad flavor.             
           
2) A quality deep fryer with a temperature gauge or a cast iron skillet is a must.

3) Purchase a quality oil, like peanut oil.  Or, a peanut/canola oil mix.            
                                                             
4) Preparing meat: Try to cut pieces to the same thickness, no more than a ¼”. This will even & reduce frying time. For chicken breast & pork chops, place between plastic wrap and strike with a pan or mallet to reduce thickness.                  
                                                                                                 
5) Mix one egg & ¼ cup milk or beer in one bowl.  Pour Catch5 Breading into another bowl and place each piece in egg bath and then in breading covering both sides.                              
                              
6) Preheat oil to instructed temp.  DO NOT OVER-HEAT or BURN OIL. This will affect the flavor of your food and shorten the life of your oil. Do not overload fryer.  Also, before placing next batch in fryer let oil --  return to proper temp. Let basket drain well before emptying onto wire rack or toweling. Do not put finished fillets in covered pan.  This will cause condensation and make fish soggy.                                                

Lemmens' Recipe For Tartar Sauce

30oz jar of Mayo or Miracle Whip

         8oz Sweet Pickle Relish

       1/2tsp Yellow Mustard

         2tsps   sugar

          1/4 cup Milk

Mix all ingredients into a large bowl. You may use more or less mustard and sugar to your taste. Add more milk if you want creamier sauce.