Fish & Chips......

 Well known, well loved, and now also served (in Britain anyway) with "Curry Sauce"......!

I've mentioned this famous and beloved "mass" British food before, and just this week, I let people on Facebook know - 'cos I'm kind - that in France, the shops "Lidl" were specialising in a product from UK called "Fish'n Chips" a sort of bastardized product....frozen, just needs throwing into hot deep oil (or the dustbin). I know lots of those people will be off, on Monday, to Lidl to stock up with this product, and yet - it's so easy to make yourself!
OK - it is a bit messy, and it does need a bit of practice, particularly for the Fish. Everything is in the secret of the "coating batter", and I'm going to break (a little bit) the rules of the pro chef, and I'm going to give you the recipe (almost all of it) for my famous batter, which is great for all batter dishes, sweet and salty....fruit beignets - fish - or even "spam fritters" which, strangely enough are actually quite delicious.....

Other uses are for scampi or king prawns, peeled and just with the tail left on to pick it up with - dipped into the batter and deep fried...also delicious ....  onion rings in batter.....
and many, many more things......

The secret is the batter....I repeat....

 This one shows a batter used which is made with beer instead of water as the liquid ingredient, and that is one part of the secret, not Beer, but an ingredient found in beer - YEAST...!
It's so easy, flour, water(lukewarm), yeast (dried or fresh), a little sugar (for the yeast to nourish itself from), salt and pepper (add later), a little colouring of a yellowish hue (saffron is the best but also the most expensive, and other colourants can be used). This is to give the slight colour of "golden" without risking burning the batter and the contents trying to get the correct attractive looking finished item.
Just mix them all together, get the thickness right (it should cover the back of a spoon without dripping)  (never mind the colour, the thickness is about right here).....
Now you need time, a cloth to cover the mixture, a warmish place so the yeast can rise to at least 3 times the volume, then beat it back down,,,,and YER READY......!
 Deep frying in oil is the best, although lard or dripping can be used. A decent oil (not palm oil though) should be used. Olive oil is the most expensive, but supports higher heat than sunflower or colza. It must be HOT...HOT....HOT.... otherwise the deep fried article will soak up the oil and be oily and greasy, not crispy as it should be......
Don't over cook......a typical Scampi needs only 2-3 minutes, a fish filet typically 4-5 minutes, or until the agreeable colour is achieved. Over cooked, the product dries out underneath the batter.
So....go enjoy.....This batter does not like being frozen and used again, but it can be used up to make a kind of pancake or even a version of the famous Yorkshire pudding.....try 'em....
There ya go...SOME of the secrets, the others you will all figger out by trial and error....I promised Harry  (Harry Ramsden - Yorkshireman of high reputation for Fish & Chips) not to give it all away when I worked for him for a short period just outside a place called Ilkely (on Ilkley moor 'bat hat fame) in Yorkshire, England.....we did daily around 3,000 portions of "Fish & Chips" - with tourist buses coming from all over....to see the famous Moors ..but really for the Fish & Chips....

Enjoy!