Our Family Fish & Chips On Fridays

Fish ( cod loin) & chips, onion ring and minty mushy peas.

With Rumbusco fizzy Red

 

 

Our family's Friday dinner is usually Fish & Chips,  this a kind of tradition has been going for nearly 20 years since we settled in here in England from Athens.

If cod loin is fresh I prefer cod but haddock is good too.

 

Most important ingredients are fresh meaty fish and batter , of course a good oil.

 

Frying thick loin of fish is not an easy task, when  it has done well, crispy thin batter skin, white

steamy fish is moist because protected by the batter, it is so delicious.

A very simple dish but hard to get it right, need a few practise as any simple food it has to be right.

Fresh ingredients and a good cooking skill are the most important!

 

My method;

A good loin of cod or haddock

Cut the size as you wish, if you have a sophisticated electric  frying machine you might be able to control oil temperature better but I seldom use electric machine, because too much work for cleaning, as we eat fried food only once a week.

 

My advice is make your own the frying pan, buy not too expensive pan, deep and wide enough for the frying fish and use this only for the frying fish or any frying.

As I found much easy to clean after I fry the fish, I drain oil through the sieve and stored in the glass jar, use again,  2-3 times and get rid of it .

If you like fry vegetables after frying fish, just fry a few raw onion ( thinly sliced) , it will take away smell of fish.

 

Batter; I use plain flour mix with a pinch of salt, pepper, a pinch of Korean chilli flakes, 1tsp of turmeric powder,

Add beer ( I prefer larger beer) and lid on , keep in the fridge until you need.

Batter should not be runny, like thick pancake mixture. Do not stir too much, a few times with fork, or chop sticks.

 

When oil is hot, take out batter and put smaller bowl with 3-4 ice cube and  rest batter bowl to keep cold.

Slit fish a few times to cook easily and coat in the batter, fry in the high temperature 1 minute and reduce heat slightly  and fry  for 2-3 minutes depends on size and thickness of fish.

Shake fried fish and put on a rack for a short time, and fry onion ring.

 

Serve with potato chips and mashed peas.

 

Italian sparkling Red ( Rumbusco) and Romagna region White ( Dry)

 

 

It was perfect with Italian dry white, Compadora ( Romagna region) and even Rumbusco sparkling red was a good match.

 

Unless weather is very hot, our ritual Fish & Chips dinner on Fridays stays on.

Cutting thin crispy batter and seeing meaty white fish, pour vinegar or soy and vinegar sauce ( for me) is a mouth watering sight.