Both white and yellow cornmeal give a nice crispy, flaky, and golden-brown coating to the frying fish. Not limited to just this, cornmeal also bestows umami corn flavor to fish making it more appealing, appetizing, and palatable. By the way, is there any cornmeal substitute for frying fish with similar versatile attributes?
Well, frying fish in cornmeal is a beloved tradition still followed, served, and enjoyed either as an appetizer or central meal. Thereby, it should be made and served the way it meant to be traditionally.
However, you can make swapping of one or more ingredients while frying the fish if you are coming short on them. Today, we brought a group of alternatives for cornmeal for frying fish, you can try in case of shortage.
Cornmeal Substitute For Frying Fish
No cornmeal for frying fish? Don’t worry, we are here to serve you in this regard. Take a look on the following closest substitutions you can make to fry any fish deliciously.
Here’s you have a couple of amazing options while switching cornmeal with a suitable alternative. For instance, you can go for corn-based substitutes when don’t want to sacrifice the corn flavor.
Secondly, you can choose non-corn replacements when want to make a dish gluten-free or have any diet specifications. Thereby, we have covered both kinds of substitutes in this article to guide you comprehensively.
Corn Flour – Your First Preference
Corn flour is a whole grain flour made from either white or yellow corn. So, you can substitute cornmeal with corn flour to acquire a similar corn flavor in fried fish.
However, the textural difference would always be there. This is because cornmeal is coarsely ground corn with a grainy texture while corn flour is finely milled and ground corn. Despite this, corn flour is the great and closest alternative to cornmeal we’ve ever encountered.
Corn Grits – Most Relevant
Want to get the flaky, cranky, and crunchy coating of the fried fish, what about corn grits? Corn grits have a similar coarse and grittier texture as cornmeal enough to make fish super crispy.
Corn grits offer an earthy and mild sweet corn flavor to the fish with the only difference in grit size. Here, you must know that corn grits are coarser with a larger grain size than cornmeal.
So, process corn grits further a bit in the blender to get a similar texture as cornmeal great for coating the frying fish.
Corn Flakes
Corn flakes are so delicious, crunchy, and satisfying to become staple breakfast of every morning. Could you imagine them as the best cornmeal alternative for frying fish?
If not, try them once and you will be amazed by the crispy, satisfying, and intended corny outcomes. Crush them or process in the blender to get the texture like cornmeal and that’s it.
Polenta
Closer to corn grits, polenta could be your next substitution when nothing seems on hand. It offers the same cornmeal flavor to the frying fish that is hard to guess and notice.
Polenta is also coarser like corn grits with a difference that it comes from yellow corn and is used to give a yellow-golden hue to recipes. So, you are free to process it further according to your textural preferences.
Gluten-Free Cornmeal Substitute For Frying Fish
Cornmeal contains gluten and thus become an unsuitable ingredient for diet-restricted people. Therefore, they must know some healthy and reasonable replacements for cornmeal for either frying fish or any other cornmeal containing recipes.
Following is the list of gluten-free and non-corn based ingredients that you can use to switch cornmeal easily.
Ground Oats
Oats are super easy to find and use instead of cornmeal for frying fish. They work just fine and the same way as cornmeal when processed properly.
For substituting cornmeal, crush them and add spices or seasonings of your choice to make the coating of fried fish more flavorful and mouth-watering. To date, oats are available in gluten-free versions to serve you greatly.
Rice Flour
Rice flour is packed with great binding and coating properties as compared to cornmeal. Although, it’s flour and finely ground rather than cornmeal, still complement well with frying fish in place of cornmeal.
Most importantly, pure rice flour is gluten-free meeting your diet preferences perfectly. If not seems suitable, you can process whole rice grains up to the grain size similar to cornmeal to get the crunchy crust of the fish.
Breadcrumbs
Breadcrumbs are a frying staple and complement well with each and every recipe you are deciding to fry. The same goes for frying fish too. Substituting breadcrumbs instead of cornmeal seems a more suitable and handy option rather than trying any new replacement.
They give the closer crisp, brownish hue, and unnoticeable non-corn flavor that works amazingly great. Moreover, breadcrumbs are available in gluten-free packing to satisfy your restricted diet plan.
Ground Flaxseeds
Ground flaxseeds work well as a cornmeal substitute for frying fish when available on hand. It’s a gluten-free, healthy, and full of essential nutrients that can significantly increase the nutritional value of the whole food recipe.
Instead of using ground flaxseeds as-is, turn them into a thick batter to give a thick, crunchy, and uniform coating to the frying fish.
Homemade Cornmeal Substitute
Preparing your own replacement to swap cornmeal is always a great experiment and achievement. So, if you are ready to do that, get fresh dehydrated popcorns ahead.
Here what to do is grind and process the popcorns until you get the cornmeal like texture and fineness. This homemade alternative works just fine in place of cornmeal and you’ll be amazed.
So, substituting cornmeal in frying fish isn’t challenging when you have an idea about all the possible replacing ingredients. Just pick up anyone and make your recipes even more palatable and irresistible than the original.
