Fried Puffer Fish | Spectacularly Delicious

FRIED PUFFER FISH – LEGAL AND NON-LETHAL!

East Hampton's bays are teeming with puffer fish. Frequently served up in local restaurants this time of year, I scooped up a few from an honest-looking fisherman for some leisurely home-frying . The puffers here are apparently innocuous cousins of the notoriously lethal fugu of Japan, which packs enough poison in its liver that ingesting even the teeniest bit spells certain doom, most likely agonizing and horrific. For reasons inscrutable, that variety is still prized as sashimi over there and deaths are recorded every year. Go figure.

Oh well Japan is a world away. Around these parts people who know about these kind of things have even taken steps to keep our waters well stocked with these cute little balloons of spikes and spite. When I told my father about this tasty fry-up, he expressed mild surprise having been warned growing up in Rhode Island that puffer fish were poisonous. As my call came a few hours after the meal it turned him into a believer about the safety of the puffers around here.

Still, when I got home I took a scissors and sharp knife to the compact little bodies. They'd already been been cleaned but not enough to my liking. There were some unpleasant dark spots around the edges and one had an ominous blob of viscera still attached. After a careful snip and trim and filet we were good to go. Poisonous or not, the parts I cut off didn't look like anything I'd want to eat anyway.

Not much more to this fish story — dipped in milk, rolled in a mix of flour and panko with lots of salt and pepper, Fried for two minutes or so, served hot and crispy with a good salting and a spicy sweet and sour apricot dipping sauce.

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Written by skfsullivan on July 3, 2011 under ALL RECIPES, Fish and Seafood.

http://thehospitalityguru.com.au Anna Johnston

Isn’t it strange the way people continue to eat something even though the death rate from eating said something is so high. Not something I want to try, not even on a dare. Pass. Love the presentation of your fish, oh how I wish for Summer. Bet they were tasty little delights. Have a wonderful day.

http://www.spectacularlydelicious.com Sean

This has not be verified but I did once hear once that tiniest itty bitty
bit (mere molecules?) of Fugu liver produces some kind of wild high. So
thrill seekers place their life in the hands of their trusted sushi chefs in
order to get this dangerous buzz. It’s too good of an urban myth to bother
debunking. In this case I’d rather be ill informed, at least this makes some
kind of twisted sense. And I repeat — the blowfish here are safe. In our
overly litigeous culture no way would government fishery officials boost the
stocks of anything remotely poisonous. I played up the danger in the post
–S.D. has been known to resort to hyberbole from time to time… That said
I would NOT try the Aussie waters fish. From what I’ve read you’ve got
plenty of nasties in the waters down there. Sea snakes? Shudder!