If I had a penny for every piece of Fried Fish I cut, cooked, and sold while at Luby’s… I’d have me a whole bunch of pennies. Back when I was a Luby’s manager and I was a number four man which meant I was low man on the totem pole… I did everything. Somebody didn’t show up, I did their job in addition to everything else I was expected to do. I opened up at 7:00 am and locked up at 12 to 12:30 or 1:00 am four days a week and if I sat down for 15 minutes to eat supper with my young family, I considered that to be an easy day!
Luby’s back then bought all their fish from a small fishing village. Luby’s would buy the entire stock from this village for a year at a time. I use to know the name of the village but for the life of me can’t remember it anymore. I do know it was Icelandic Haddock and we would get boxes of frozen blocks of the stuff. In the kitchen we had an area where there was a huge ban saw that we would use to cut the blocks of fish into the familiar rectangle shape all weighing exactly the same weight. When we would disassemble the equipment, we would even collect the fish dust that would later be cooked off in big pans and used as filler when making salmon croquettes. Luby’s wasted nothing.
Ingredients :
- 1 c flour
- 2 1/3 c finely crush saltine crackers
- 1 c buttermilk
- 3 xl eggs
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- 6+cod pieces (you can use Kroger brand)(Cod is similar to Haddock)
- TARTAR SAUCE :
- 1/4 c finely minced yellow onions
- 1/4 c finely minced fresh parsley, stems removed
- 1/2 c dill pickle relish, drained
- 2 c mayonnaise (Luby’s made their own and I’ll give you that recipe later but for now Hellman’s will do just fine.)
Directions:
Step 1 :
Place flour in a bowl and place crackers in another
bowl. (Make sure bowls are big enough so you have enough space to coat fish)
bowl. (Make sure bowls are big enough so you have enough space to coat fish)
Step 2 :
In medium bowl, wisk together buttermilk, eggs, salt and pepper.
Step 3 :
Coat fish pieces with flour, shaking off excess. Dip into buttermilk mixture, then crackers, coating evenly and pressing crackers firmly onto fish. The fish would then be refrigerated until needed.
Step 4 :
Deep fry in oil (350-365) till done & gold brown.
Step 5 :
For tartar sauce: In a medium bowl mix onions, parsley and relish. Using a rubber spatula, fold together mayonnaise and the onion mixure. Refridgerate to chill before serving.
Step 6 :
Always make the tartar sauce ahead of time so the flavors can blend.
