Instructions
Tartare Sauce:
Mix ingredients in a bowl. Set aside for 10 minutes+.
Toast Breadcrumbs:
Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Spread breadcrumbs on a tray. Spray with oil directly down, not from side.
Bake for 3 – 5 minutes until golden. Immediately transfer to bowl.
Brush tray clean, spray with oil.
Crumbing / baking:
Cut fish fillets into square-ish shapes slightly larger than the buns (they shrink when cooked).
Mix Batter ingredients in a bowl.
Carefully coat fish in batter (handle with care, fish fillets can be delicate).
Place in breadcrumbs. Use other hand to cover top and sides with breadcrumbs, pressing to adhere. Transfer to tray. Repeat with remaining fish.
Bake 12 – 15 minutes until fish is cooked through. Immediately top with cheese – allow residual heat to make it semi melt (do not oven melt processed cheese, you get a plasticy film!).
Assemble:
Cut buns in half, microwave for 20 seconds to warm through (microwave = stays soft).
Top with fish and cheese, dollop with tartare sauce. Devour!
Recipe Notes:
1. Panko are Japanese breadcrumbs which are larger than standard breadcrumbs. Nowadays they are available in all major supermarkets, usually in the Asian section, and cost just a fraction more than ordinary breadcrumbs. It is well worth using because the breadcrumb pieces are bigger so they create a far better “crunch” than standard breadcrumbs.
I know 2 cups sounds like a lot but you need it. Also if you skimp on the breadcrumbs, crumbing the last fish gets messy!
2. Fish -This recipe will work with any white fish fillets but the best to replicate the square, flat fish patties in Filet-O-Fish is to get flat, thin fish fillets that can be cut into square-ish pieces. I use Ling, Maccers uses Pollock. I don’t get too hung up on perfect square shapes because the fish shape warps when it bakes because we’re using real fish here. That’s just real life, my friends!
Note: the fish will shrink and increase in height once baked by about 20%. Crumb off cuts and pop them on the tray, good for nibbles.
3. Buns – The super soft Maccers buns have a LOT of sugar in them. The closest in flavour and texture are brioche buns. Soft hamburger buns are also suitable, if you can find a suitable size (I only seem to see giant ones, too big to make fillets that fit though you could totally double up)
4. Processed Cheese – just like Maccers! I used a smoked processed cheese from Coles (Aus supermarket, Coles brand) which is the orangey Maccers colour and doesn’t even taste smoked.
5. Dredge Batter – created especially for “oven-fried” crumbed recipes, I use it for all my baked crumbed recipes like these Crunchy Chicken Tenders, though for this recipe the batter is slightly thinner because fish is more delicate than chicken. It’s got more flavour than just using egg & flour as well as oil, compensating for not deep frying in oil (because let’s face it, frying makes everything taste better). It’s also thicker and a stronger glue for the breadcrumbs.
6. GENERAL NOTES:
* Tartare Sauce – Makes more tartare than probably required but it’s a tragedy if there’s no enough so I err on the side of caution. Keeps for ages in fridge.
* Fry option – follow dredge / crumb / fry steps in this Schnitzel recipe (video included)
* More background about this toasting / unusual single Dredge Batter / oven-fried technique in this Crunchy Baked Chicken Tenders recipe. It’s all driven by love of fried food / attempt to control waist expansion.
7. Nutrition per serving, assuming 1/2 cup of tartare sauce is used across all 4 burgers.
