Good Ole Fish & Chips

Beer-battered (yes, beer) fish & chips, just like how I wanted it :)

As I was driving to pick up my little missy from school one day last week, I was mentally going over what to cook or have for dinner that night. Was pondering whether to cook (the daily norm) or not to cook. ( the weekend norm). Hubby was away on an overnight trip and Jeremy had announced earlier on that he won't be home for dinner so that just left us gals to do as we pleased...which we did indeed!! Haha.

Flashes of Jamie Oliver's beer battered fish and chips kept flashing through my mind - chhhhehhh! the "naughty devil chef" was at it again, won't leave me alone I tell you, till I yielded. So we stopped by the supermarket on the way home and bought us some dory fillets, a bag of frozen chips and the esssential, one-musn't-do-without item; a can of beer. That must've been the one and only time that I've purchased beer in my life, and I tell you there's a good four decades of life in me; so go figure. No, I have nothing against beer or people who consume beer; lots of good/close friends enjoy a tipple or two. Hic, hic.. It's just that having grown up in the midst of people who were alcoholics and the pain in struggling to come to terms with their Jeckyll and Hyde personalities took a toll on me. I never ever wanted to touch a drop. But I so wanted a light and fluffy batter for my fish and chips dinner that I thought to hell with it-does this mean that the gates of hell or purgatory are beckoning me now?? Or was the guilt-ridden headaches I got a day after an indication of more to come?? Haha.

Jamie Oliver's recipe

Fish and Chips
Recipe courtesy Jamie Oliver
Show:
Oliver's Twist
Episode:
Fish and Chips at Home

For the chips: 3 3/4 pints (2 liters) vegetable oil 2 pounds (950 grams) floury potatoes, like russets, peeled and cut into large chips For the batter: 1 cup plain flour 1 cup beer 2 egg whites, whipped to soft peaks Salt 4 (9 ounce/250 gram) fillets haddock or cod, skin on, and pin boned
Pour all the vegetable oil into a deep pan or deep fat fryer, and heat to 300 degrees F (160 degrees C.) Blanch the cut potatoes in the oil until soft, but not colored, about 4 minutes. Remove and drain. Mix together the flour and the beer, then fold in the egg whites. Turn up the heat of the oil to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Dip the fish in the batter and fry for a few minutes with the chips until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and serve with bread and butter, wally's (battered, deep fried pickles served with ranch dressing), and pickled eggs.

Well, thanks Jamie, but this is how Iman and I had ours. With a good dollop each of tartare sauce and chilly sauce (tomato sauce/ketchup for Iman). Without bread and butter, deep fried pickles served with ranch dressing or the pickled egg. But with lashings, many, of vinegar. No malt vinegar in stock, so red cane did just fine. And it was good.