Fabulous fish bites

I applaud parents who can get their children to eat plain fish.  Mine both did as babies but now will only eat fish fingers or smoked salmon. This can be tricky if you are gluten or grain free!  So I was delighted when we discovered that home-made fish fingers made with almond flour were delicious - both kids asked for seconds.  If you don't eat potatoes these could be served with celeriac chips but my kids are also happy just to have a big portion of vegetables.  (If you are trying to get soup or bone broth into your kids this dish also goes well with a mug of homemade tomato soup)

You could use plain flour if you tolerate gluten but almond flour is slightly sweeter than standard flour and works well - the resultant crumb has a similar taste to the ones you can buy in the supermarket which is handy for fussy kids.

We use cod or haddock. I also like coley but the kids find the taste too strong. Salmon would probably work too.

We fry them in grass fed beef dripping - you could use olive oil if you are happy to use that for high temperature cooking.  If we have veggie friends over we use ghee.

When we buy fish from fishmongers that has expertly boned we find we can make almost perfectly shaped fingers. Or we buy cod cheeks from our local fishmonger Out of the Blue.  They are succulent and really good value because a lot of people don't want such small pieces of fish.  They are also very easy as there is no chopping involved! If it's a fish my dad has caught that I have to prep we end up with very odd shaped bites but they still taste great!

Ingredients

Approx 100g almond flour
Salt and pepper to taste
1 egg (can manage without if cupboard is bare!)
1 fillet of fish per person cut roughly into chunks or 150-200g of cod cheeks per person
Beef dripping (ideally organic or grass fed)


Instructions

• Either put the flour and seasoning in a bag and add in the fish pieces giving them a good shake until they are coated in flour, or dip fish in egg then into a plate with the flour and seasoning
• Add to a hot frying pan with plenty of beef dripping
• Cook for a couple of minutes on each side until the fish is cooked and outside crispy