Traditional Fish n' Chips

Traditional Fish and Chips
Not the most original of dishes yet even so this is a dish that is well loved by many. Learning the skills necessary to produce this dish is a must for most aspiring chefs and cooks.

Once you have learnt to make this dish you can then begin to experiment and play with the batter. (Using beer, spices, different flours, whisked egg white etc)

Serve with chips, peas and tartar sauce

Serves 4

Recipe Ingredients
4 x fish fillets (any white flesh fish that has been trimmed and pinned)
Plain flour
Salt and Pepper

For the batter:
570ml / 1pint water
225g / 8oz plain flour
4 eggs
1 Tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 Tsp tumeric

Lemon wedges to garnish

Mise-en-Place:
Preheat the deep fryer to 180°C / 350°F (Or 1/3 fill a deep saucepan with vegetable oil and place over a medium heat)
Line a wide plate or tray with a handful of plain flour (in which to coat the fish before placing in the batter)
Prepare a wire rack or a roasting tray lined with paper to drain the deep fried fish
Wash the fish with cold water
Measure the batter ingredients

Cooking Method:
The batter:
Whisk all the batter ingredients together.
The batter is of the right consistency when if a finger is drawn across the back of a spoon coated in the batter a sharp, decisive trail is left behind. (Generally the thicker the batter the better and crisper the results)
Check the batter seasoning and adjust to taste with salt and pepper

To deep fry:
Liberally dust each fillet of fish in the prepared flour
Lift each fillet from the flour and lower into the batter, ensuring each fillet is generously coated
Gently lower the fish into the oil (gently to avoid any splash!)
Leave the fish to cook for 3-5 minutes depending on size
As the fish cooks the batter will darken in colour and when each fish is nearly cooked it will rise to float on the oil's surface
The fish is cooked when if broken open the interior flesh is white - if the flesh is still slightly translucent it will need longer cooking
Remove the fish from the oil with a spider or slotted spoon
Place the fish on a wire rack or prepared roasting tray to drain
Sprinkle a little salt across each fillet to soak up any excess oil
Serve

Adjust: A good batter should be thick and well seasoned
Too thin: Add more flour and whisk through
Too thick: Add a little water
Too bland: Add salt, pepper or lemon juice

Where you went wrong:
No rise in the batter when cooked: Add more bicarbonate of soda or more egg / or the cooking oil wasn't hot enough
The fish cooks slowly and remains soggy: The cooking oil was not hot enough
The batter falls off when cooked: The fish was not liberally coated in flour / or the fish was pre frozen and not defrosted properly before cooking / the batter was too thin
The batter turned a deep red: Too much tumeric added (although there is nothing really wrong with this, it won't detract from the overall taste and sometimes the reddy colour looks good served with different side dishes!)

Presentation:
Try to avoid serving fish and chips on a plate, it almost always looks too flat and is hard to achieve centre height
Serve the peas in a bowl, place the chips on an accompanying plate and lay the fish across the bowl
or
Slice the fillet in half diagonally, arrange the sliced fillet across the chips or peas to achieve centre height

Garnish with a lemon wedge and a small bowl or tartar sauce

Chef Tip: If you are using a fat fryer with a wire guard or basket more often than not the fish will stick to this surface. To prevent this gently lower the fish into the oil whilst holding onto the fish's tail. Do not release the fish, allow it to cook for 5 seconds before releasing the fillet. This ensures the batter's exterior has cooked before it comes into contact with any potentially 'sticky' surfaces.

Cleaning Tip: When using batter combined with deep frying your kitchen will be guaranteed to be full of batter droplets that have baked hard to almost every nearby surface. To avoid this line work surfaces with tin foil, then remove and discard (recycle) after cooking for easy cleaning

Chef Insight: The technical term used for describing the occurrence of fish batter flowing off frozen or overly wet fish during deep frying is known as 'blow out'.