Fish & chips at home

Last Friday I made a faux fish & chips with banana blossoms that needed using up. It was nice but it made us crave more for the real fish & chips.

So come next Friday I made this. All home made from scratch. I thought I should post the recipe of the batter and the tartare sauce as they were spot on.

Batter for the fish is half a cup of plain flour mixed with 1/2 teaspoon salt, pinch of turmeric. Then 2 tablespoons of pickle juice (from my homemade gherkins) and enough beer to have a consistency like a pancake batter. I used about 3/4 of a cup of beer.

I had cod fillets which I salted 10 minutes prior to frying. Dipped the fish in the batter then into the frying pan.

I used sunflower oil and made sure it’s really hot before the fish goes in. It was on high heat for at least 10 minutes before I put the fish in.

If you fry the fish in two or more batches make sure the oil heats up again before you start frying the next batch.

Also I triple drained the oil from the fried fish. Once when taking off the pan I drained the oil well back into the pan while holding the fish above the pan with tongs. Than I had 2 plates lined with thick kitchen towel. Drained 1 side on first plate and the other side on an other plate.

I made the tartare sauce from this recipe on BBC Good Food magazine website. I used 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise 2 gherkins, 1 tablespoons capers, chopped parsley, tarragon and half a lemon juice.

Chips are thick cut, with skin on then cooked in salted boiling water for 8 minutes. Drained, dried and baked in 220° fan oven with 3 tablespoons of sunflower oil and 1/2 teaspoon salt about 30 minutes . Mix it half way though for the chips to cook evenly.

Fish batter

Ingredient

1/2 cup plain flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

pinch of turmeric

2 tablespoons pickle juice

3/4 cups beer

Method

1. Mix the flour, salt and turmeric.

2. Add the pickle juice and beer and whisk until it’s lump-free.

Tartare sauce

Ingredients

3 tablespoons mayonnaise

2 gherkins diced finely

1 tablespoons capers

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

2 tablespoon tarragon

1/2 lemons juice

Method

1. Mix all the ingredients and check fir seasoning.