Real English Fish and Chips With Yorkshire Beer Batter
I was taught how to cook fish and chips by my mum when I was about 12 years old; we were living in Hong Kong at the time and it was my mum's way of treating us to a little bit of home as a treat! My mum had this recipe written down on the back of an old envelope stuck inside her Be-Ro cookbook from 1952 - I never use any other method now! One trick is to make sure that everything is prepared and assembled ready for frying takeoff!!! If you are cooking for two or more people, have your oven on with a lined tray to keep the fish and chips warm. If you really want to be totally authentic, cut up squares of greaseproof paper and sheets of newspaper - place the fish and chips onto the greaseproof paper and then into a sheet of newspaper. All you need now is a pickled onion, salt and MALT VINEGAR!
TIPS for CHIPS: I notice one reviewer had difficulty with the chips. Here are a few tips or tricks for chips: Make sure they are DRIED thoroughly. Make sure the fat is VERY hot - 190 degrees C. Certain potatoes are better for chipping, such as King Edwards, Desiree, Majestic, Maris Piper, and Romano. You can soak the chips for an hour before the first frying - it extracts excess starch, which helps in the "crisping" process! Always drain them thoroughly before serving. I hope these tips will help!
Reviews
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Excellent! Very easy recipe with a light, crisp batter. I used Tilapia as my fish & used a Heffen Weisse beer (closer to 10 ounces). I used a plain old Idaho potato, but initially put my potato wedges in ice water before putting them in for their first frying. The "chips" turned out great as well. For those of us in the States, 6 ounces of flour is roughly 1 1/3 cups, 190 C = 374 F, and 160 C = 320 F.... -
Excellent batter!! I have made this a number of times using it to batter both fish and chicken. Turns out perfect everytime and is delicious. Thanks French Tart. PS. For those of you that do not know, when food is deep fried in a batter it will remain cooking when taken out of the fryer, turning the batter 2 shades darker, keep this in mind so you do not overcook or burn it
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18 months of living in Thailand and one thing I realy missed was a good plate of fish and chips, it was a regular thing in Blighty.
Anyway this recipe fitted the bill nicely. I used tempura flour and a local Thai lager for the batter, and Dory made an acceptable alternative to cod or Haddock, (don't tell Nemo). Im a very happy and full man. Thanks. "Highly recommended" -
Fantastic! Used a Murphys stout for the beer. And it was delish! Golden Brown, and flaky. I cooked the fish (cod) about 8 minutes, which seemed to be perfect, as I had some fairly decent sized fillets.
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Excellent recipe, just like the fish and chips I loved as a boy. For those that found the recipe "bland" it is worth noting that this is an authentic recipe. You can of course change it as you like but real English fish and chips don't have a lot of spices and seasonings - that's what the malt vinegar is for! Furthermore, putting tartar sauce on proper fish and chips is tantamount to blasphemy. You may as well just pick up a box of Gorton's fish sticks from the supermarket if you're going to do that.
