Fish and Chips

About this dish

Fried fish arrived in Britain with Sephardic Jewish immigrants and met the fried potato somewhere in the industrial north in the 1860s; the pairing was cheap, portable and hot, and it fed factory towns for a century. Two pieces of technique carry the whole dish. Chips are fried twice — once low to cook them through, once high to crisp them — and the batter is made with cold beer, whose bubbles and low temperature give a shell that shatters instead of bending.

• Lactose-free
• Not vegetarian because of Firm white fish fillets
• Contains gluten because of Plain flour, Cold lager, Malt vinegar

• 800gFirm white fish fillets
• 1200gPotatoes
• 220gPlain flour
• 330mlCold lager
• 3gBicarbonate of soda
• 1 ½lSunflower oil
• 40mlMalt vinegar
• 20mlLemon juice
• 2lWater
• 15gFine sea salt
• 3gGround black pepper
• 10gFlat-leaf parsley

Instructions

1. 1

   Cut the potatoes into thick chips, rinse them, then simmer in water for 10 minutes until just tender and leave to dry.

   10 min

   Tip: Rinsing takes off the surface starch that makes chips stick together, and drying matters even more: any water left on them will spit violently and steam the surface you are trying to crisp.

2. 2

   Heat the oil to 160°C and fry the chips for 8 minutes without colouring them, then lift them out and raise the oil to 190°C.

   8 min

   Tip: This first low fry is cooking, not browning. Skip it and you get chips that are dark outside and raw in the middle — the single most common failure of the dish.

3. 3

   Whisk the flour, baking soda and a pinch of salt with the cold beer to a batter about the thickness of cream.

   5 min

   Tip: Make it at the last moment and leave it lumpy. Whisking to smoothness develops gluten and gives a tough, bready coat; the bubbles in cold beer are what make it light.

4. 4

   Season the fish, dip it in the batter and fry at 190°C for 8 minutes, until the shell is deep gold.

   8 min

   Tip: Lower it in away from you and hold it for a second before letting go, so the batter sets and the fish does not weld itself to the basket.

5. 5

   Fry the chips a second time for 3 minutes until crisp, salt everything at once, and serve with malt vinegar, lemon and parsley.

   6 min

   Tip: Salt straight out of the oil, while the surface is still hot enough to hold it. A minute later it just falls off onto the plate.