Gluten-Free? You Can STILL Have Frozen Breaded Fish!

Canadian seafood provider, Toppits, has just launched its gluten-free line of breaded fish which I recently had the chance of trying at a luncheon, courtesy of High View Communications. Currently, there are three in the line, black pepper cod, lightly seasoned haddock and savoury lemon sole. The fish can last for 18 months in the freezer and ingredients for the gluten-free breading are as follows:

Packaging for the lemon sole

Rice flour
Water
Toasted rice crumbs
Corn flour
Potato flour
Salt
Modified corn starch
Spices
Leavening (sodium bicarbonate, sodium aluminum phosphate, monocalcium phosphate)
Canola oil,
Spice extracts
Soybean oil

To be quite honest, I’m not really that big on frozen, breaded fish. I like being a creative home chef, seasoning fish the way I want. However, the packages are great for busy people who want to have something ready on the dinner table within half an hour and each package contains four or five pieces of fish – perfect for a family. And of course, there are many ways of serving the fish besides the standard fish and chips with a side of coleslaw.

Sliders (with lemon sole)

Tacos (with haddock)

At the lunch, we tried all three and in several different dishes, including a salad, sliders as well as scrambled eggs and tacos. Even more than a week later, I can’t decide whether I liked the sliders (lemon sole) or tacos (lightly seasoned haddock) more. The meal did give me some ideas of what to do if I am entertaining, since I don’t really like sit down dinners if I’m having a big group. The scrambled eggs, which were served in shooter sized glasses, are perfect for brunch! What I would have liked was to have seen at least one of the dishes demonstrated by the chefs, however. I would like to see more offerings, perhaps something with more garlicky breading.

Black pepper cod on lettuce

We did leave the event with a package that included not only two boxes of fish, but also some of Toppits’ frozen herbs and spices. I have yet to try anything, but will likely do so very soon.

The frozen, gluten-free fish are available at supermarkets like Metro and at the Toppits shop in Vaughan.

Images courtesy of High View Communications/Toppits Foods

About Cynthia Cheng Mintz

Cynthia Cheng Mintz is the founder and webitor-in-chief of this site and the petite-focused site, Shorty Stories. She has also written for other publications including the Toronto Star and has blogged for The Huffington Post. Her first novel, Aspirations, was published in 2007. Outside of writing, Cynthia researches and advises philanthropic ideas for family funds and foundations and also volunteers.