Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce and Sweet Potato Fries

Baked Fish Sticks with Tartar Sauce and Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients: 

Fish Sticks:

• 1 lb white fish such as cod, halibut, or tilapia (I used halibut)
• 1 Tbs canola oil
• 1-2 eggs
• 6 Tbs flour
• 1 tsp seasoned salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 1/2 C panko bread crumbs
• 1/2 C unseasoned breadcrumbs

Tartar Sauce:

• 1/2 C mayonaise
• 2 Tbs sour cream
• 1/4 tsp dried dill
• 1/2 tsp dried parsley
• 1/2 Tbs finely minced onion
• 1 T minced dill pickle
• 1 pinch seasoned salt
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Directions:

Tartar Sauce: Mix all tartar sauce ingredients and stir well to combine. Chill for at least one hour before serving. (The longer the better, make ahead if you can!)

Fish Sticks: Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush canola oil on a rimmed baking sheet and set aside.

Crack egg(s) into a shallow dish and beat lightly (start with one egg and crack another if you run out). In a separate shallow dish combine flour, seasoned salt, pepper, and paprika. In one more shallow dish combine panko and bread crumbs.

Cut fish into sticks about 3-4 inches long and 1/2-1 inch tall.

Working with a few pieces of fish at at time, dredge first in flour and then shake off excess. Then dip each piece in the beaten egg, and finally the bread crumb mixture. Make sure all sides are well coated with bread crumbs and then place fish on the baking sheet.

When all pieces are on baking sheet, place in oven and cook for about 10 minutes. Cool for a few minutes and then serve with tartar sauce for dipping.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries

Ingredients:

• 1 lb peeled sweet potatoes cut into 1/4″ match-sticks
• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 t cumin
• 1/2 t oregano
• 1/2 t coriander
• 1 t kosher salt
• 1 t parsley
• 1/8 tsp black pepper

*you want 1lb sweet potatoes after they are peeled, sliced, etc. If you weigh them at the store make sure you have a little more than a pound to allow for the peeling, and tossing of small pieces.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In a small bowl combine cumin, oregano, coriander, salt, parsley, and pepper. 

Place sweet potatoes in a pile directly on baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil.  Use hands to toss until all pieces are well coated.  Sprinkle seasoning mixture on top and toss again with hands to coat. 

Arrange sweet potatoes in a single layer so that pieces are not touching each other.  Place pan in oven and bake for 15 minutes.  Use a metal spatula to gently flip fries and then return pan to oven. Cook for an additional 15-20 minutes or until fries are starting to lightly brown and crisp.  Remove pan from oven and cool 5 minutes.  Serve immediately.

Notes:

We love ourbestbites at our house! I guess this should really be a summer post, but we inherited some free halibut from a friend's brother who lost electricity during hurricane Sandy and couldn't keep the fish he caught in Alaska frozen. I don't often make breaded items just because to make enough for our family it is kind of time intensive. However, because the cooking time is only 10 minutes, it makes up for some of the three-dipping prep work. We also LOVE sweet potato fries at our house, and this is one of the best recipes I have tried! I haven't tried the honey-lime dip (see link below) but I'm sure it's great, too. The tartar sauce was great, but I may adjust it to my tastes (like make with plain yogurt instead of mayo). These could've been two separate posts, but I like to put like things together. We make sweet potato fries as a side to all sorts of dishes though. The boys thought it was great that I gave them permission to use their fingers at this meal - they loved picking everything up and dipping it in a sauce! 

As you know, I like to do most of my prep work in the morning. So I cut up the fish into appropriate sizes, mixed the tartar sauce, and mixed up the flour and bread crumb mixtures. That allowed me just to bread the fish and pop it in the oven that night! 

Recipe and pictures from: http://www.ourbestbites.com/2010/04/baked-fish-sticks-with-tartar-sauce/ and http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/03/baked-sweet-potato-fries-with-honey-lime-dip/