The Birthing of Walleye Fingers

OK. Wine batter recipe.

1 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup cold water
1/2 cup white wine

Start w/ the dry ingredients in a bowl( add a teaspoon of salt if you wish), mix, add wet ingredients and whisk till smooth.A very simple recipe. You could add cajun seasoning to the batter, as well, as you wish.

You will be dredging the fish fingers in plain flour, first, and then dipping them in the batter.A medium high setting on your range for the oil - you don't want the oil to smoke, of course - adjust temp as necessary.As I mentioned yesterday, I prefer flour and batter unseasoned as it produces a clean pure fish flavor that is then enraptured by the dipping( tartar) sauce of your choice.

How did Mn's "original walleye fingers" come about?

In the early days of Headquarters Lodge on Lake Mille Lacs( late 70's, early 80's), we closed and worked in Florida at a dockside fish cafe', where fresh caught fish were bought from the crew of sport fishing charter boats. They( crew) filleted them dockside just off the boat. We portioned them in the kitchen. Remaining portions of fish( grouper, cobia, wahoo) were cut into strips and sold on the menu as the beer battered daily fish fingers. It was a way to not waste good fresh fish that was too small for a broiling portion.

It did not require much intellectual effort to decide to do this with walleye back in Mn at HQ Lodge. It was an immediate thought. At first, customers would make jokes and laugh about walleye having fingers, and so on, but soon they were famous.

Simple math conservatively indicates that we served 1,085,ooo individual walleye fingers over the 19 yrs that we owned HQ.

The wine instead of beer batter idea came via a chef named "Heavy" that used to work at Breezy Point. One of our cooks, Mike Mosimann, had worked with him.It gives a sourdough flavor.

Can you get a good walleye finger on Mille Lacs these days? Don't know. The secret , as with most recipes, is that there is no secret. Use fresh fish and fresh batter, and fresh oil and don't under or over cook them. Serve them cooked to order and hot. Make sure the batter has become golden and crispy. Serve a variety of tartar sauces along w/ the fingers.

Minnesota Walleye Fingers

Minnesota's original Walleye fingers include long finger sized portions of the fish that have been floured and immersed in a wine batter and deep fried in vegetable oil. Golden and crispy on the outside, moist and tender on the inside. A finger food too, that you can dip in your favorite tartar type sauce, which could be traditional style, or a mayonnaise w/ salsa stirred in, or mayo incorporated w/ pesto, or a stringer full of other concomitant ingredients.

A general rule of thumb is 7 minutes per inch of fish to cook till done. Oil should be 350 to 375 degrees. I generally use unseasoned flour and an unseasoned batter. Most, probably all, of the fish seasoning mixes include an excess of salt for taste and health considerations. The batter is 1 part dry white wine to five parts cold water and 1 teaspoon baking powder per quart of batter. Baking powder makes it airy and crisp. Enough flour to make a batter just thin enough to coat the fish.I do the flour am't by touch and feel, but will do a batch tonight and measure the flour so I can pass it along.

I like unseasoned flour and batter becauseI like the contrast of pure fried fish dipped in a seasoned tartar sauce. Also because of differing salt tolerances of the eaters.