DIY fish and chips

I was just reading the Macdonalds french fry thread and the talk about chips and batter and I thought it strange that nobody seems to want to make their own fish and chips.
OK, accepted some spuds will never make decent chips in lifetime, but I have made succesful chips from many varieties of potatoes. That having been said, some people like soggy chips like you get back home, and I'm afraid I'm not great at making soggy chips, only crispy ones.

Cut your chips almost the same size, I reckon thumb size is good, and dry all the moisture of them in a tea towel or kitchen paper. Now as anyone will tell you the trick is to twice fry them in good oil like canola (I think it's rape seed in the UK). The first 'frying' should be a sort of poaching. It's easy with a deep fat fryer because there is a temp guage, and fair enough not so easy in a wok or something, but the idea is to fry the chips (I said poach) at a lower temp for about 5 minutes to essentially cook them. Drain and leave to the side to cool. NExt time round have the oil well cranked up and re-fry them and they will get nice and crispy.

Great fish batter is easy. I use the Rick Stein method. You need warm beer (The English should be used to that ), a packet of yeast, a pinch of salt and flour.
Put a tablespoon of yeast in a small bowl and pour in a wee bit of warm beer and stir well until the yeast is all dissolved. Sift some flour into a bowl and pour in some beer, mixing to make a batter. Add the yeast dissolved in beer and continue adding beer with stirring (or more flour if you overdo the beer) until you have a batter like wallpaper paste, not too thick. Cover and leave 30 minutes out of the fridge.

Dip fish pieces in flour and then into the batter (it will stick to the flour) and then into the oil at the temp you used for the second frying of the chips-again easier if you have a fryer. If you follow this you will have a beautiful light, tasty, crispy batter.

WOW great post!!!!!!!!!! thanks for some yummy info...

Those sound delicious!Might have a go at them myself!

Maybe I will start ordering large bottle beer and save the excess that gets to warm(I hate the taste of beer that is not ice cold and I don't like ice in my beer) for me to drink!

My pleasure. I also have simple recipes for other hard to get things like onion bhaji and naan bread.

Hi,
petemcc, nice to see on a web sight the correct way to cook decent chips. Always told people you have to fry them twice. At different temps. I call the first fry blanching. People laugh at me when i say this. The only trouble, you can get only one type of spud in LOS. IMO. and they don't even know what type. Asked in Tescos once, what type of spud they were. Was told potato. When cutting the spud I use a crinkle cutter, more surface area on chip and i think they cook better. I use red desiree potatoes at home. Makes a lovely chip and also great roast potatoes. These are also done in two stages. One par boil potato drain and then put in oven with oil. The only thing i don't do is dry the chips between cooking stages, will try next time to see if there is any difference. Never in my life have i cooked the frozen rubbish they call chips. Have tasted them in the lower class of restaurant.
As for batter, shipped a lot of the powder type from home, next time i will try your way.
Cheers Doug.

Agree Douglas, however my favourite spud for chips and roasties is the Maris Piper. You need a good 'floury' spud and the ones we get here in Thailand are quite 'waxy', (too much starch), which tend to brown rather than crisp up. In addition to Pete's excellent advice, after the first blanching, (about 150-170 degrees), let them get as cold as possible, put in fridge for a couple of hours before second frying of about 190 degrees. This gives them a nice even consistency throughout and stops them burning on the outside and soggy in the middle.

Also instead of using all beer in the fish batter, can also use warm soda water 50/50, makes a lovely crisp batter or if you want tempura just use all soda and plain flour, (no yeast), and ensure batter is of a more liquid consitency. Ideal for smaller bite-size deep frying such as prawns or fish bites.

An excellent way to save beer, good thinking!

Forgot to say, for spuds that are too starchy, soak them in cold water for an hour or so then drain and dry, that gets rid of some of the starch.

Cheers Pete, will give it a go.

This kind of deep-fat fried fare blows-up all the attractive, lithe, Isaan girls like a bunch of damn bullfrogs.

Take that foul garbage back from whence it came. I for one, will never ingest such putrid filth.

Gee, this is fun!

Out fishing today eh TP? Not taking the bait anymore....tight lines my friend!!!!!!

The poor Isaan children exposed to such artery-clogging gluttony gain 5kg just waiting in the queue...

Think of the CHILDREN! Oh the humanity!

Texpat wrote:The poor Isaan children exposed to such artery-clogging gluttony gain 5kg just waiting in the queue...

Think of the CHILDREN! Oh the humanity!

Your humanitarian concerns are admirable. However everything (except sex) in moderation is the way to go. The occasional portion of fish and chips, or onion bhaji will do little harm.

One could of course make chips in the oven, and there are fat free ways to do that. Fish can be covered in crumbs and grilled. These are alternatives to keep the future breeding population of Issan below size 10 if you care so much.

OK Pete, quit holding back....what about the Naans and Bhaji recipe's you have up your sleeve, bearing in mind that not everyone here has an oven?

Garlic nann bread recipe please please please please please please?????? ha ha ha ha