Homemade Fish Finger Sandwich

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients

Fish fingers

500g boneless cod fillet (thawed if frozen)

250g Panko breadcrumbs

2tbsp plain flour

1-2tbsp mayo

1 egg, beaten

Lemon Pepper Mayo

1 egg yolk

3tsp lemon juice

1tsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp Dijon mustard

Pinch salt

Freshly cracked pepper to taste

180ml vegetable oil

To serve

Rocket salad

Ketchup

Seeded bread slices

At our wedding we decided to serve fish finger sandwiches in the evening. Sadly we didn’t get to try them as we explain in the video, but this is exactly what we wanted made & we hope our guests enjoyed. Rather than a tartar sauce, we’re having a homemade lemon pepper mayo which works an absolute charm! This is one of my most favourite things to make and I wanted an excuse to show it to you on here, so we really hope you try it!

Lets start off by making the mayo as we use that for the fish fingers too. Whisk the yolk, half of the lemon juice, vinegar, mustard and salt together for about a minute using an electric whisk until well combined. Slowly add in the oil in ½ teaspoon measures as you whisk, keep doing this until you’ve got about a quarter of the oil mixed in, it’ll take a good few minutes, steadily adding the oil with the teaspoon and ensuring you are whisking the oil through. Slowly add the rest of the oil in a steady stream using a jug, continuing to whisk steadily to thicken up the mayo, it will take a while at first then will suddenly thicken! Add the remaining lemon juice and the pepper to taste! Keep chilled.

For the fish fingers make sure your cod is dry, pat it using kitchen towel If needed. Slice the fish into chunky finger sized pieces. Scatter the breadcrumbs on a lined baking tray and spray with oil if you wish to make them a bit more golden, bake at 160fan/180c for around 5 minutes or until golden brown, shaking them around as they bake. You don’t have to do this, but it did help make the panko breadcrumbs go from being white until golden for a nicer even finish. Remove from the oven when golden and allow to cool for a moment.

Make the batter by mixing together the egg, flour and the first tbsp of our homemade mayo, whisk this through until smooth and lump free, if it is still too lumpy add the other tbsp of mayo – you want it thick so it will cling to the fish but not too runny.

Dunk the fish in the batter mix, then into the breadcrumbs coating them on top too, then lay onto the baking tray and repeat with the rest of the fish. Spray the fish fingers with spray oil and bake until golden for at least 15 minutes, we pushed it to 25 minutes to get a deeper colour. Remove from the oven and allow to cool.

Serve in the seeded bread with mayo brushed on both slices, the fish fingers piled on top with rocket salad and ketchup drizzled over…. True comfort food!