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Recipe

Fish and Chips

home made fried fish n chips w tequila, everyone invited!!!!

Two fryings, two batters' worth of patience, and the whole thing lives or dies on one idea: cold batter into hot oil. The shock is what makes it puff and shatter instead of going to soft bread.

The chips get fried twice as well, and for a different reason. The first fry at a low temperature cooks the potato through; the second, hot and fast, is only for the outside. Do it in one go and you get a chip that is brown outside and raw in the middle.

Pepper over everything the moment it leaves the oil. Look at the picture — the fish, the chips, all of it is speckled.

Feeds
4
Hands-on
45 minutes
Chips
Fried twice
Batter
Ice cold, mixed last

Chips first all the way through their first fry, then fish, then chips again. Everything meets at the end.

Fish and chips draining beside the frying panBattered fish and chips plated with ketchup
Shot the night it was made. Open any picture for the full photograph.

What you need

The chips

  • 3 lb russet potatoes, cut into thick chips, skin on
  • Cold water, for soaking
  • Oil for deep frying
  • Flaky salt and coarse black pepper

The fish

  • 2 lb firm white fish — cod, haddock or pollock — in large pieces
  • 1/2 cup flour, for dusting
  • Salt and pepper

The beer batter

  • 1 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 cup cornflour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 1/2 cups very cold lager, straight from the fridge

How it goes

  1. 1 — Soak the cut chips in cold water for thirty minutes

    It washes off surface starch, which is what makes chips stick together and go grey. Then dried thoroughly — and that means thoroughly, with a towel.

  2. 2 — First fry the chips at 300°F for six minutes

    They should come out pale and floppy and cooked through. Drained on a rack and left to cool completely. They can sit for an hour at this stage.

  3. 3 — Mix the batter at the last possible moment

    Dry ingredients whisked together, then the cold beer poured in and stirred just until combined. Lumps are fine. The bubbles in the beer are part of the leavening and they start dying immediately.

    pro tip — Keep the bowl of batter sitting in a larger bowl of ice while you work. Warm batter is the single biggest cause of soggy fish.

  4. 4 — Dust the fish in flour first, then dip

    Patted bone dry, seasoned, dusted in plain flour and shaken off. Batter will not stick to wet fish and will slide off in sheets in the oil.

  5. 5 — Fry the fish at 350°F, five to six minutes

    Lowered in away from you and held for two seconds before letting go so it does not sink and stick. Two pieces at a time. Turn once.

  6. 6 — Second fry the chips at 375°F

    Hot and fast, two to three minutes, until they are properly gold and rattle against each other in the basket.

  7. 7 — Rack, never paper, and season at once

    Everything onto a wire rack over a tray. Salt and a lot of coarse black pepper thrown on in the first few seconds while the surface is still hot.

  8. 8 — Serve it immediately

    Fried food has about four good minutes. Have the plates out and everybody at the table before the last piece comes out of the oil.

With tequila, apparently. Everyone invited. LFG.

More of what comes out of this kitchen on the food wall.

Every picture on this page is one of mine. I paint for a living the rest of the time — that is the gallery, and the originals are for sale.