Red Lion Inn Inspired Fried Fish

This past weekend we took a mini vacation to Stockbridge, Massachusetts. It was a great time with plenty of fun driving, good eating, and a heavy dose of Norman Rockwell. During our stay at the The Red Lion Inn, we had a phenomenal plate of southern style fish and chips. They used catfish with an airy, crunchy, baking powder batter and instead of regular "chips" they had spicy sweet potato fries. We ate like kings, and paid like them too. So when we got home we were inspired to try and replicate their crispy batter. Our take is definitely more Cajun inspired than the original, but we think this dish is pretty easy and a lot of fun... not to mention a close second to the Red Lion Inn version. Enjoy!

• Fish Batter 
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Whisk together the flour, milk, water, baking powder, and salt in a bowl until smooth

We added a little of our home made Cajun spice blend to the batter to add a little extra kick. From there it's pretty easy, just dip the fish....

and fry.

And you know fried fish isn't complete without tartar sauce. So we whipped up an "experimental" batch that we thought came out pretty good:

Tartar Sauce

• 1/2 cup mayonnaise
• 1 Tbs sweet pickle relish
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• Chippotle pepper powder to taste 

Instead of fried chips, Kate made up a batch of her delicious family recipe smashed dill potatoes. MMMMMMM....

And Bon Apetit!