This recipe is a nod to my favorite British YouTube cooking mama, Titli Nihaan of Titli's Busy Kitchen. When Christmas rolls in, my country can't enjoy the winter-y wonder that occurs in temperate and frigid countries. I miss the comforting feeling that a piping hot serving of shepherd's pie brings. I decided to whet my appetite for this dish today, but found that my fridge is in need of restocking.
All I found in my fridge were a frozen pack of creme dory fillets, a can of my dad's favorite beer, milk and french fries. Thank Heavens my baking pantry and spice rack is always well-stocked!
Forgive me for calling them 'chips', it doesn't feel right to call it 'Fish and Fries'. I also found potatoes in my vegetable crisper, but I only realized this after I have taken this photo.
Okay, the purists would argue chips=thickly-cut potatoes and American fries=thinly-cut potatoes. Oh. Also, in the UK, tartar sauce is not the condiment of choice. They slather it with malt vinegar, or just vinegar, really.
'Ho-hum, pig's bum,' as what my friend Justine would say :D
For those who'd like to try making chips, I've included Titli's recipe below :D
Great British Fish and Chips with Tartar Sauce
Ingredients
1/2 cup all purpose flour
4 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup fizzy water OR milk OR beer (water should be fizzy to yield a light, fluffy mixture)
(optional): 1/2 tsp of each:
ground black pepper
garlic powder (or you could use 2-3 cloves of finely chopped garlic)
paprika
In my case, I also added cayenne pepper, thyme and basil. But if you don't have these at home, it's ok. (^_^)d
500 g. potatoes
2 large creme dory fillets, I sliced mine to small chunks (yielded around 12 chunks per fillet)
1 hard-boiled egg
2 tbsp minced white onion (1/2 of a medium-sized onion)
2 tbsp minced parsley (if you don't like the taste of parsley, you can skip this)
1 small pickled cucumber (chopped finely)
2 tbsp mayonnaise (you could add more to suit your taste)
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp lemon juice
Directions
To Make the Batter and ‘Fish’ Part of ‘Fish and Chips’
1. Sift the dry ingredients into a large bowl.
2. Stir in the liquid of choice and stir until batter-y. Add more liquid to suit your prefered consistency.
3. The fish fillets could be coated in batter whole or you could cut them into bite-sized pieces.
4. Fry them when the oil is hot and drain with paper towels.
Some people add bread crumbs or panko to the fish after they coat it in batter. But, it's your call. Either way's good and ends inside the tummy :D
To Make the ‘Chips’ Part of ‘Fish and Chips’
For chips (or fries), you could go lazy and fry a store-bougt pack. But, if you want to make your life more difficult, you could:
1. Get two to three potatoes (adjust the amount accordingly), wash and peel them and cut into sticks.
2. Blanch the potatoes for two minutes. Drain and run under cold water; then drain again.
3. You could allow them to drain in a colander for 5 minutes, or pat dry with paper towels.
4. Fry in oil under medium heat (150 degrees Celsius for those with high tech stoves) for 3 minutes. The point of this step is half-cook it. So, it shouldn't stay long or it will cook through.
5. Drain. Make use of this waiting with preparing the batter for the fish.
6. Fry in hot oil. For the temperature conscious, it's 180 degrees Celsius from 8-10 minutes. Removes from oil when it's golden brown. Season with salt to taste.
NOTE/S:
1.Some people do note peel the potatoes to give the chips a rustic feel. But if you're paranoid about dirt, peel away~
2. In Europe, chips/fries have thick cuts. American fries are thin. Cut the potatoes according to your colonist's preference :P
To Make the Tartar Sauce
For the sauce, I used the recipe from Cooking With Dog's 'How To Make Ebi Fry'. I'm allergic to shrimp, so it's a shame I can't enjoy the 'ebi fry' part. On the other hand, I love the nice Japanese lady's recipe for tartar sauce :D My teenage bro still prefers the artificially-flavored gunk that supermarket brands call 'tartar sauce', but oh well... Nothing beats actual tartar sauce! :D
1. Finely chop the egg and put in a mixing bowl.
2. Dip the finely-minced white onion in water, then add salt. Drain the water and pat-dry the excess water with a kitchen towel. Add this to the egg. BTW, if you're feeling lazy, you can totally just dump the onions on the eggs.
3. Finely mince a sprig (or two) of parsley and add to the bowl. SKIP IF: you hate parsley. Or can't find one.
4. Add the pickles and slather with generous two tablespoons of mayonnaise.
5. Add salt, lemon juice, and mix until smooth.
Some add cheese to their tartar sauce. I tasted a version with blue cheese in it, but I wouldn't recommend that because adding fancy cheese is pretentious and expensive.
TIP/S:
Do you cry when you chop onions? You could avoid being a chopping drama queen by doing any of the following:
a) Chilling the peeled onion in the fridge before chopping it.
b) Running the onion in water.
c) Wetting your kitchen blade while chopping.
WHY FOLLOW THIS TIP?
Onions have acid that latches on to the nearest water source. Without doing any of these anti-cry methods, the onion acids latch on to the nearest liquid source: your eyes.
As an after-note, I just realized that while it's Friday in my country, it's Thursday in blogspot's time zone. If you get slightly confused with the title and the date on the post, I hope my explanation clears it up :D
I should probably post my stuff for Fried Food Friday on a Saturday here in my country :D /pats self/ Lesson learned.
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