British Beer-Battered Fish & Chips

As a British expat, there is always some form of food that I miss from home, one big one being fish and chips. And what does a creative expat do while far from home? They make it themselves of course. And may I say, this is the best fish and chips I’ve ever had. I suppose because the batter doesn’t get soggy while being transported wrapped in paper? No need for any paper; this fish goes from hot oil to your plate in seconds.

Cooking fish and chips from scratch is seriously easy, not to mention cheaper than buying it from a local chippie yourself.

In this recipe, I deep-fry the cod – I simply refuse to make the battered fish part healthy. But, just to simplify the cooking process, I oven-baked the chips. And, honestly, they were crispy enough!

Ingredients

2 x cod fillets

2-3 medium potatoes

100 g plain flour + 100g to dust the fish

50 g cornstarch

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/4 tsp tumeric

1/2 bottle lager

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 190 C. Drizzle some vegetable oil on a baking tray and put in the oven for 7-10 minutes. Peel the potatoes, rinse and cut into thick chips. Submerge in cold water to rinse the starch off. Dry. When the oil is hot, carefully drop the chips onto the baking tray and put in the oven for 20 minutes.
2. Make the batter: Whisk the 100 g flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, tumeric and lager together until the mixture resembles a thick but pourable batter.
3. Put the extra 100 g flour in a separate bowl.
4. Fill a large saucepan, frying pan or wok halfway to the top with vegetable oil. Heat on medium-high until the oil reaches 185 C.
5. Coat each fillet in the flour and then dunk in the batter, ensuring it’s entirely covered. Then in it goes into the hot oil.
6. Let the fish fillets sizzle in the oil for 2-3 minutes, then gently lift the fillet up with a metal spatula and drizzle over more batter to fill in the gaps. Set the fillet back in the oil and allow to cook for two more minutes. Flip and cook for 4 more minutes. If you see more gaps, you can fill them in with remaining batter. Just make sure to flip the fillet over again to cook the uncooked batter.
7. Stick a food thermometer into the middle of the fillet. If it reaches a temperature of 63 C or higher, the fish is cooked. If not, flip the fish over and continue cooking for a few more minutes or until you get that internal temperature. Remove the fish and place onto a plate lined with kitchen paper to drain some of the oil. Remove the chips from the oven when lightly browned and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
8. Serve your fish and chips with some nice, crusty bread and salted butter and a lemon wedge. Enjoy!

Tip

Collect any scraps of cooked batter from the pan, drain and enjoy on top of some bread and butter. Naughty but nice!

If you don’t put salt and vinegar on your chips, British people will disown you.