If you have gone to London or visited Great Britain - what surrounds London - you will have noticed the large number of fast food places that serve the famous Fish and Chips. There are places that serve it to the plate and others in paper cones to taste where you want, while walking or sitting on a park bench, those rare days when the sun shines on the British Isles.
Fish and chips is the food most loved by the British and although it does not seem a difficult recipe its preparation has a trick, both for the way it should be cooked and for the ingredients used.
INGREDIENTS (4 people):
For the fish:
4 fillets of 150 grams each (5 oz) of cod (spine-free loins) per diner (600 grams - 20 oz - total minimum)
5 tablespoons white wheat flour
5 tablespoons cornstarch
70 ml (1/3 cup)of sparkling water
70 ml (1/3 cup) of black beer
1 teaspoon of powdered yeast
Half teaspoon salt
Black ground pepper
For the french fries:
1 kg (2.2 pounds) of potatoes
Corn or sunflower oil
Salt
First we will make the sauce to batter the fish. For this we use a large bowl, at least enough big to fit the whole and submerged pieces of fish, and pour 2 tablespoons of flour (only two), 5 of cornstarch and the teaspoon of yeast and salt. If we want, we also season with ground black pepper, to taste. Mix with the rods.
Then we add the beer little by little and the sparkling water, while stirring with the rods until obtaining a homogeneous mass. Let stand in the refrigerator for about 1 hour.
Now let's fry the potatoes.
For this we are going to cut them into slices of 1 cm (0.4 inches) thick and then make them into thick sticks. We put them in a casserole with cold water and heat until it boils, gently, about 3 or 4 minutes.
We extract them from the water and drain, then drying with paper towels. They must be completely dry. Then we take them to the refrigerator rolled up in the absorbent paper towel.
As we have dried the potatoes, we must do the same with the fish fillets. If the cod was salted, we had to desalinate it with plenty of water for 24 hours, changing water at least twice. If it is fresh it is not necessary, but in both cases we must drain the fillets very well and dry them with paper kitchen towels. This step is very important, do not skip it.
Once dry to the touch, the fish should be seasoned with a little salt (if it is desalted, use very little). Make a "tactile" check to make sure filets don't have a thorn, it is important especially if you are going to give them to children. We pass the fillets through the rest of white flour and finally dip them in the batter made with beer, they must be well covered.
Now let's fry the potatoes. Attention to this trick! First we preheat the oil to 180 degrees celsius (350 F). Use a fryer with temperature control or use a kitchen thermometer. Add the potatoes and let them fry ONLY for 2 minutes. After this 2 minutes we remove them and let them drain on a rack or absorbent paper. We reserve.
Now we take the fillets and lift them to drain the excess batter. We immediately place them in the fryer basket - the same where we have fried the fish before - and let them fry, turning occasionally if necessary, for about 8 minutes or until they appear crispy and golden.
Once fried we remove them by placing on a rack to drain and on absorbent paper. They should not be oily.
Then we increase the temperature of the oil to 200 degrees - 400 F - (or to the maximum if you do not have a very powerful fryer) and put the potatoes again for 5 minutes until they are well browned and crispy.
We extract the potatoes, season them to taste and we can mount the plate. It can be served with sauces, mayonnaise, ketchup or as is. It is not to eat every day but if it is made with top quality ingredients it can be excellent.