Fish Fingers and Custard
Fish Fingers & Custard (quick version)
I have a little confession to make: I’m a Whovian. For those that don’t speak geek, this means I love Doctor Who more than should probably be legal. (Of course, now that I think about it, this isn’t so much a confession as it is a declaration but, you know, whatever works, right?)
If you’re not familiar with Doctor Who, to quote the awesome Neil Gaman:
People are intimidated. They think that there’s 47 years worth of stuff they need to know before they can enjoy anything. And what you want to say is, No. Look, there is a blue box. It is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside. It can go anywhere in time and space and sometimes even where it’s meant to go. And when it turns up there’s a bloke in it called the Doctor, and there will be stuff wrong and he will do his best to sort it out and he will probably succeed, because he’s awesome. Now sit down, shut up, and watch “Blink.”
Psst… there’s also this handy Beginner’s Guide to Doctor Who. (Yeah, I’ve got a purpose to this. What of it?)
Anyhow, the Doctor does this handy thing where instead of dying, he regenerates into a new one. Different body, different personality but with all the same memories as his predecessor. The Doctor is currently on his 11th incarnation, played by the wonderful Matt Smith.
After he regenerated, the Doctor crash landed at the house of a little girl named Amelia Pond and immediately asks for something to eat. Amelia obliged and prepared some food (including apple, yogurt, beans, bacon, butter and bread) only to have the Doctor reject them all. “New mouth, new rules.” He finally settled on the strange combination of fish fingers (fish sticks) and custard.
The 11th Doctor eating fish fingers & custard
(BTW this is NOT my animated gif! I’d give credit if I knew who did it.)
But being the obsessed Whovian that I am, I decided that I had to try it. (Fandom makes you do stupid things sometimes. This can account for pretty much the entirety of my adulthood, now that I think about it.) While not as gross as I expected, I decided to try another take on them except this time, I’d make them delicious.
(Sorry, Doctor. I adore you like no one’s business but I just don’t share your taste buds.)
If you Google “fish fingers and custard recipes” you’ll find a bunch of different takes on the snack. Matt Smith admitted in an interview that the fish fingers were actually breaded cakes. I took that idea and ran with it for an almost too-easy take on the Time Lord’s favorite snack.
| Fish Fingers and Custard |
- Pound cake
- Vanilla glaze
- Graham cracker crumbs
- Vanilla pudding
- Prepare the vanilla glaze by combining 1/3 cup of sifted powdered sugar with 2 tablespoons of milk and 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract. Stir to combine; the mixture should be quite thin.
- Cut the crusts off the pound cake and then cut the cake into fish stick-sized batons, about 1/2″ or so squarish sticks. No need to be precise.
- Coat a pound cake stick evenly in the glaze, letting the excess drip off before placing in the graham cracker crumbs. Roll to coat evenly and remove to a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining pound cake sticks.
- Let the coated “fish fingers” set for at least 30 minutes.
- Serve with English-style vanilla custard or slightly thinned out American vanilla pudding.
This is a great dessert to have your little geeklings help with, especially with the dipping and coating of the “fish fingers.” My Whovian 3 year old now insists that vanilla pudding must be eaten with fish fingers “just like the Doctor!”
If you wanted to fancy it up a bit, you could make the pound cake from scratch. And the graham cracker crumbs too, if you really wanted to show off your mad baking skills. But using store bought pound cake makes it simple and really, no one will call you out if you go the semi-homemade route. (Really, this is what I had to tell myself.)
More Fish Finger and Custard recipes
Want more takes on the Doctor’s favorite snack? Try some of these sites out!
- Fish Fingers (& Chips) with “Custard” at the official Doctor Who BBC America website
- Darla at Bakingdom has an great sugar-cookie based Fish Fingers & Custard recipe (Also check out her Weeping Angel cookies!)
- Fish fingers & custard at Andy’s Kitchen (UK)
- J’aime Le Gateau created a fancy fish croquette with vanilla bean aioli! Wow!
Furikake Snack Mix
Furikake Snack Mix
I was first introduced to the wonders of furikake snack mix when my friend mentioned that his mom had just made a whole pan full of the stuff. If you’ve never had it before, furikake snack mix kicks all other snack mix butt. It is rice/corn cereal and rice crackers lightly covered with a slightly salty, crunchy caramel coating. This is a great snack mix for sweet/salty lovers. This always goes well at group gatherings but I also tend to make batches to sneak in to the movie theater instead of popcorn. Nom.
If you’re not familiar with furikake, its rice seasoning. Nori-fumi is the most basic type and consists of seaweed flakes, salt and sesame seeds. Personally, we prefer katsuo-fumi furikake which has bonito flakes when we’re eating but plain nori-fumi furikake is best with furikake snack mix though I suppose wasabi would give it a nice kick, too.
The original recipe from Food Geeks makes enough to feed a small army so I cut in in half. It calls for a mixture of rice and corn Chex. I love the corn and rice mixture but I don’t love paying for two boxes when I’m only going to use one so I opt to buy Crispix instead which gives me the same mix in one box. I also slightly reduced the sugar for a more savory end product.
Recipe: Furikake Snack Mix
Summary: An island take on the ubiquitous Chex snack mix
Ingredients
- Snack Mix
- 12 cups rice/corn cereal (Chex, Crispix, etc.)
- Up to 1 cup of extra mix ins:
- Senbei (rice cracker) mix
- Sesame sticks
- Cheese Crackers
- Syrup
- 1 stick butter
- 1/3 cup oil
- 1/3 cup corn syrup
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1/3 cup brown sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 250F.
- Mix the snack mix ingredients together and set aside
- Melt the butter, oil, corn syrup and soy sauce together in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until all melted.
- Add the sugar and stir until all the sugar has been melted and mixed thoroughly.
- Working in batches, evenly coat the snack mix with the syrup and furikake, stirring to coat. Spread in two 9″ x 13″ baking pans.
- Bake at 250F for 1 hour, stirring every 15 minutes to ensure even cooking. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely before enjoying.
Quick Notes
Line the baking pans with parchment for ease of cleanup.
Cooking time (duration): 60
Meal type: snack
My rating:
Adobo Sliders
I’m a big fan of the blog Burnt Lumpia and as a fellow Fil-Am, I’m so happy to see that his Manila Machine is doing such great things for the promotion of Filipino food! I was drooling at my screen when I first read his menu. YUMMY! Unfortunately, the Manila Machine is based in SoCal. I’m out in the NorCal Delta so as much as I’d love to support the Manila Machine, I can’t go down and get his food for myself!
Unable to keep myself from wanting to try an adobo slider, I decided to make one for myself. If you’re down in LA, by all means, go down and stalk the Manila Machine and get the real one straight from the source! But if you’re feenin’ for some and can’t get to LA, here’s my version.
Homemade adobo slider
I took a toasted pan de sal roll — baked fresh daily by the Bulacan Bakery in Pittsburg, CA — and topped it off with some shredded adobo (made from my usual adobo recipe) and carmelized onions. I also added a half slice of grilled pineapple. DELICIOUS!!
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