Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Heavy-bottomed frying pan, 28cm or wider
• •Three wide shallow bowls for crumbing
• •Kitchen paper for draining
• •Fish tweezers or sturdy kitchen tweezers

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the fish

   Pat the fish dry with kitchen paper. This matters more than you think. Wet fish won't take the breadcrumbs properly. Cut the fillet into strips roughly the width of two fingers, working with the grain of the flesh so they hold together. They don't need to be uniform. Some will be fatter, some thinner. The thin ones will get extra crisp and someone will eat them standing at the stove before the rest reach the table. That's fine.

   Run your fingertips along the fillet to feel for pin bones. A pair of tweezers pulls them out cleanly. It takes a minute and saves someone an unpleasant surprise.
2. 2

   Set up the crumbing station

   Get three wide, shallow bowls in a row. Flour in the first, seasoned well with salt and pepper. Beaten egg in the second. Breadcrumbs in the third, mixed with the lemon zest. The lemon zest is the quiet difference here. It doesn't make this taste of lemon. It lifts the fish, gives the crust a brightness that you'd miss if it weren't there.

3. 3

   Coat the goujons

   Take each strip of fish and roll it through the flour, shaking off whatever doesn't cling. Then into the egg, letting the excess drip back. Then into the breadcrumbs, pressing them on gently so they stick. Lay each goujon on a plate or board as you go. Don't skip the flour. It gives the egg something to grip, and the egg gives the crumbs something to grip. The whole thing is a chain of small kindnesses each layer does for the next.

   Use one hand for the dry bowls and the other for the egg. It keeps you from ending up with breadcrumb gloves, which is inevitable otherwise.
4. 4

   Fry until golden

   Pour oil into a heavy frying pan to a depth of about a centimetre. Set it over a medium-high heat. The oil is ready when a breadcrumb dropped in sizzles immediately and turns golden in a few seconds. Not smoking, not timid. Confident. Lay the goujons in the pan without crowding them. You may need to do two batches. Cook for two to three minutes on each side, turning once, until the coating is deep gold and properly crunchy. The sound should be a steady, contented sizzle, not a furious splutter.

   If the oil is too cool, the crumbs soak up fat and go soggy. If it is too hot, the outside burns before the fish cooks through. Trust your ears. A steady sizzle means you are in the right place.
5. 5

   Drain and serve

   Lift the goujons onto a plate lined with kitchen paper and season them with a pinch of salt while they are still hot. The salt sticks better when there is warmth to receive it. Serve within a few minutes, with lemon wedges alongside. These are at their best the moment they leave the pan: the crumb still crackling, the fish inside white and just set, pulling apart in clean flakes. A bowl of tartare sauce if you have it. A pile of something green. We're only making dinner.

Chef Tips

• •Buy your fish from a fishmonger if you can. You want a thick fillet, not the thin tail end that dries out before the crumb has coloured. Press the flesh with your finger. It should spring back. Smell it. Fresh fish smells of the sea, not of fish. Trust your nose. It knows before you do.
• •Make your own breadcrumbs from a day-old white loaf. Tear it into rough pieces and pulse in a blender until you have coarse, irregular crumbs. They fry up lighter and crunchier than anything from a packet. The unevenness is the point: you get craggy edges that catch and crisp.
• •If you are feeding children, cut the strips a bit smaller and they become proper fish fingers. Honestly, these are fish fingers. Just made with care and real fish, which puts them a world away from the frozen sort. No guilt, no apology.
• •Tartare sauce takes five minutes: mayonnaise, chopped cornichons, capers, a squeeze of lemon, a scattering of parsley. Stir it together in a bowl. It keeps in the fridge for days and makes these goujons feel like a proper occasion.

Advance Preparation

• •The goujons can be crumbed up to four hours ahead and kept on a tray in the fridge, uncovered, until you are ready to fry. The coating firms up in the cold, which actually helps it stay on in the pan.
• •Fresh breadcrumbs freeze well for up to three months. Make a large batch when you have stale bread and keep a bag in the freezer. One less thing to think about on a Friday.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 175g)