The Best Way to Cook Fish ‘n’ Chips

GOOD old fish and chips, usually called fish ‘n’ chips, is one of the greatest seafood meals that there is. Crisp batter coated fish and crunchy golden chips, served with a dash of vinegar or a sprinkling of salt is simple enough to prepare, but there are a few golden rules that will make your battered fish taste that much better.

The quality of the fillets that you are use are, of course, very important to the quality of the completed dish.

BATTER

There are couple of batters that I use when I prepare fish and chips that are easy to prepare and taste good with seafood. One is a very light batter that is almost tempura style, and the other is a heartier batter tinged with the yeasty flavour of beer.

Light Batter

Ingredients

• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup very cold water
• 3/4 cup plain flour

Preparation

•Place the egg yolks in a bowl. Pour in the water and mix well.

•Add the flour all at once and mix lightly until the batter is just combined. The resultant batter is lumpy in appearance, but this doesn't affect the completed dish.

Beer Batter

I like to use a full flavoured beer (full strength beer) when making this batter. The beer will add oomph to the batter, but won't overwhelm the flavour of the fish.

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 3 good pinches of salt
• 4 tablespoons Bertolli olive oil
• 300ms beer
• 1 egg white

Preparation

• Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre of the bowl and add the olive oil.

• Gradually pour the beer into the bowl, stirring with a spoon until the batter is completely smooth. Allow the batter to stand for at least an hour before use.

• When ready to use the batter, whisk the egg white until nearly stiff. Fold the egg white gently into the batter and the batter is ready to use.

FRYING

Whether you are going to shallow fry the battered fish fillets or use a deep fryer, make sure the fillets are prepared properly so that the batter adheres to the fish, and that the oil in which you are cooking the fish is at the correct temperature.

If you are using a deep fryer that has a wire basket, remove the basket before cooking the fish because the batter will stick to the wire of the basket. The oil should be clean and heated to 350F/190C. This temperature is easy to gauge if you have a thermostat on your deep fryer or an electric frypan, but can be a bit more difficult when using an ordinary frypan. If you are using ye olde basic frypan, ensure that you have enough oil in the pan to come at least half way up the sides of the fillets. When you think the oil is hot enough add a small square of fresh bread to the pan. If bread turns golden brown in one minute, your oil is hot enough. Ideally, we don't want the oil to soak into the batter (temperature is too low) or cook the batter too quickly with the fish only half cooked (temperature is too high).

To cook the fish, pat the fillets dry on both sides with some paper towel before dusting with a light coating of flour. Dip the fillets one at a time into the batter, lift from the batter and allow to drain slightly before placing the fish into the hot oil. Add as many fillets as your pan will allow without overcrowding. When the battered fish is a beautiful golden brown, carefully remove from the pan, drain on some paper towel and eat straight away. Absolutely delicious!

The seafood used in these recipes was supplied by Sam’s Seafood, Hamilton (ph. (07)3268 7088).