Beer-Battered Seafood

Beer-battered seafood.

We've been pushing Wey's nose into revision papers to get him ready for his upcoming PMR exams in October. I know we aren't the only ones getting jitters because the friends I've talked to whose kids are doing PMR this year are all sitting at home this long weekend (today being Malaysia's Independence Day) tearing their hair out teaching their kids Science and Math, the only two subjects taught in English.

To chill out, Wey and I conducted some culinary experiments this afternoon. We wanted to find out if beer really made better batters. I've always doubted that beer would make any difference to batters, and that beer batters were created by beer lovers who had to have beer in everything.

The first thing to test was whether plain flour or self-raising flour would be better for batters. I wanted a batter that gave a light coating with body, so I used 50-50 plain flour to SR flour ratio. The 50-50 SR flour to plain flour batter made a lighter and crispier ball of batter than the plain flour batter which was heavy and spongy, so whole plain flour was out.


On the left, a ball of fried batter made from 50% self-raising flour and 50% plain flour. On the right, fried batter made from all-plain flour. The plain flour batter gave a spongy, chewy , thick-skin ball while the batter with the self-raising flour was crispy and thin.

We then proceeded to test if batters with beer and without beer were any different. When the beer-battered prawn turned out puffed and crispier than the no-beer battered prawn, I was ecstatic, shouting, "Beer is best! Beer is best!"


The fritter on the left was made without beer while the one on the right (and I made sure the prawns inside were the same size) was made with a beer batter. Notice that the beer batter coating not only puffed more, but was also smoother.

Finally, we tested beer batter with a stiffly-whisked egg white and one without. The result was as expected: the beer batter with the egg white was very puffed and very light. In fact, the batter was so light that it was hard to turn the seafood when frying because the lighter, unfried side would always turn upwards, like a fat bloated man who can't sink. The beer batter without the egg white, although not as puffed, was very good too. After all the photos were taken, the fritters without egg white stayed crispy while those with egg white had gone soft-crisp.


The no-egg white batter on left, the egg white batter on right. With the addition of a stiffly whisked egg white, the batter was lighter, in color and body, just like a sponge-cake batter.

The conclusion: I'll stay with beer batter without stiff egg white, especially for big pieces of seafood like fish. Prawns and calamari rings can go with the more delicate beer and egg white batter but personally, I wouldn't bother to whisk an egg white.

As I write this, I suddenly realized that my tests were not complete. To start off with, I had eliminated plain flour without adding beer to it. What if plain flour + beer made a batter that gave a crispy, stronger coating? Oh dear. But you know me, there'll be a next time.

And I forgot to tell you, the beer flavor was super.


Beer-Battered Seafood

About 1 kg white fish fillets, prawns, squid rings, oysters etc.
Beer Batter:
1/2 can beer (Carlsberg, Heineken)
6 T plain flour
6 T self raising flour
1/3 t salt
1 egg yolk
1 egg white (optional--I prefer not)

1. Sieve the flours together in a bowl, add the salt, yolk and the beer and stir with a fork until smooth, but do not stir too much. Add a little more beer if the batter is too thick, more flours if too thin. Leave batter for 10 minutes, covered with cling film.

2. Put 1/2 cup plain flour in a small dish, add 1/2 t salt and some white pepper, mix well, then coat the seafood with the mixture.

3. Heat up enough oil to deep-fry.

4. Whisk the egg white if using (like I said, I prefer not) and fold it into the batter.

5. Dip the seafood into the batter, let some of the batter drip off, then carefully slip the seafood into the hot oil. Do not fry too many pieces at one time. The temperature of the oil is very important. If it's too hot, the batter will brown too quickly, the seafood will not be cooked inside and the coating will not stay crispy for long. However, if the oil is too cold, the batter will be heavy with oil. You just have to know the right temperature and time by lots of frying experience.

6. Lift the seafood out onto kitchen paper to drain and serve immediately.