Lime Pepper Fried Fish & Jamaican Festival

What is the meaning of Escovitch?

Escovitch refers to the style of cooking we employ when we serve fried food. Typically reserved for seafood, it is pan fried, and then served with a delicious, slightly acidic topping that consists of onion and peppers, allspice, and sometimes carrots.

I discovered a new Lime Pepper seasoning from Badia and I couldn’t wait to try it. I just knew it’d be perfect on fried food, but in particular the citrus undertone would complement fried seafood. The first thing I did was use an escovitch fish recipe to to inspire this Lime Pepper Fried Fish.

What is Jamaican Festival?

Jamaican festival is a delicious. sweet, fried dough that made with flour, cornmeal, sugar, salt, and baking powder. It can be eaten by itself, or alongside another fried food such as fish. It can also be eaten with jerk chicken.

What kind of fish should I use for this recipe?

My favorite fish to fry is snapper so I’d always recommend red snapper, b-line snapper, or yellow tail snapper. You can also use porgy, parrot, butter, or doctor fish. To fry it, you can use corn, canola, or vegetable oil.

Ingredients

-2 lb Snapper (equivalent to approximately 3 fish)

-1 tsp Seafood Seasoning (brand I used was Jamaican Choice)

-1 tsp Fish Seasoning (brand used: Blue Mountain)

-1 tsp of Badia Lime Pepper Seasoning

*If you’re unable to source the seafood & fish seasoning, then simply salt & pepper to taste will also work just fine)

-1 1/2 cups of Corn oil

-4 garlic cloves

-1 scotch bonnet pepper

-Few sprigs of Thyme

-Optional: 1 1/2 cups of All purpose flour to coat fish

For Escovitch Sauce:

-1/4 cup of oil fish was fried in

-1/2 red onion, finely chopped

-1/4 green pepper, finely chopped

-1/4 red pepper, finely chopped

-2 scotch bonnet peppers

-small handful allspice berries

-1/4 cup vinegar

-1 tsp Lime Pepper seasoning

For Festival

-2 cups of All Purpose Flour

-1 tsp baking powder

-1 tbsp butter

-1/4 cup cornmeal

-1/4 cup granulated sugar

-1 tsp salt

-1 1/4 cup water (ok to use 1/4 cup of milk in place of water)

Directions

Rinse your fish with fresh lime and water and pat dry. Score each fish with 3 slices on both sides and season each fish with seafood seasoning, fish seasoning, and lime pepper seasoning. Add oil to a shallow frying pan allow to heat on medium/high for 3-4 minutes. Add thyme (be careful, oil will pop), garlic cloves, and scotch bonnet pepper. Coat the fish in flour and shake off excess flour. Fry for 7 minutes on each side and place on a paper towel to drain excess oil. To make escovitch sauce, discard all but 1/4 cup the oil you fried the fish in, place your fire on medium, and sauté onion & peppers for 1 minute, add vinegar, lime pepper seasoning, and sauté for another minute. Place on top of fried fish as topping.

To make Festival:

Combine flour, baking powder, cornmeal, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl. Slowly add water and knead dough until it forms a solid mound. Cover with a wet paper towel for 20-30 minutes. Flour your surface and continue to knead the dough for 1 minute. Pinch off sections of dough and roll into oblong shapes, or roll the dough lengthwise until it’s long to tie into a knot (as pictured). Place your fire on low/medium, add your oil to a frying pan, and allow to heat for 3 minutes. Fry your festival until golden brown. Serve and enjoy!