Fish & Chips

We have been living in the American South for over 15 years. The Deep-fry Belt of everything; and only now managed to try deep-frying something. And of course we chose British Fish and Chips. Go figure.

We leafed through the pages of Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food to figure this out. It took us about an hour. Fish and Chips and Tartar Sauce. All from scratch. And we mean scratch. We even made a basic mayonnaise. We kid you not.

We should say at this point that we ignored the first and probably most important rule about deep-frying: do this outside. Our house intensely smelled like a fast food joint for a good day or so. Also, what is one to do with all that frying oil afterwards? We'll take any good suggestions.

But fun it was. Here we go. First we cut 1.5 pounds of white fluffy cod fish into small pieces. We salted them well, covered them up, and stuck them into the fridge for an hour to have some moisture drawn out.

Next we made mayonnaise. We whisked up 2 egg yokes and 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard and then slowly added 1 and 1/4 cup of olive oil. Drip by drip, continuously whisking. It took a good 15 minutes or so. At the end we added 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar to loosen it up and adjust the taste. Lastly we added a little salt. We think that the taste of the olive oil was most prominent and that using a especially smooth and tasty one would be worthwhile.

We took half of the mayonnaise and turned it into a tartar sauce. We finely chopped up 1 tablespoon of capers, 5 baby cornichons, 2 anchovies, leaves of 6 parsley sprigs, and the zest of 1 lemon. It all got mixed into the mayonnaise. We stuck our fingers into it and added lemon juice and salt till we liked the taste.

Next we cut 2 pounds of potatoes into sticks, keeping the skin on for the "Chips".

We put a pot onto the stove and emptied a bottle of sunflower oil into it. I am sure we'll try out different kinds of oil in the future. We got it to a medium heat to parboil the potatoes for about eight minutes or so. 

We retrieved them from the oil with a slotted spoon and then really cranked up the heat.

Now we prepared the batter for the final act. We mixed a 3/4 cup of flour with 1/2 a teaspoon of baking powder and a good portion of an Indian Pale Ale until we had a smooth but gooey batter. In a separate bowl we put more flour. Now we dragged the fish cuts through the flour, shaking off any lose dust, and into the batter, slathering them well, without any dripping.

Now we dunked 3 to 4 pieces and a handful chips into the raging oil, one portion at a time, serving them piecemeal. Each time we fished the potatoes out first and tapped them dry with a towel. We simply watched them turn the right color to time the right extraction point. Next came the fish.

We served them as you should. In newspaper. We made sure to use the day's print for extra freshness. That way you get food and something new to read while you wait for more. Oooooooh yummy. A good and greasy scrumptiousness!

Cauliflower Risotto

This makes you smile through and through and fall to bed in a food choma. We learned how to cobble this together from Jamie Oliver's Jamie's Italy.

 

We began this affair by cutting up the stalk from a head of cauliflower, a big onion, half a head of celery, and a couple of garlic cloves.

The cauliflower florets we heated in a quart of vegetable broth.

 

In a big pot we heated a bit of olive oil and some butter.

Them we added the chopped veggies and slowly heated them for 15 minutes.

While that was going we whized up a few slices of old bread, a couple of dried red chilies, and a can of anchovies.

Those we fried up in a skillet till crunchy and put them on the table for later.

When the veggies were soft we added 500g of arborio rice and turned up the heat while stirring.

 After about a minute the rice got all glassy and we added about a glass of vermouth.

 

When the vermouth was absorbed we started adding a ladle of broth, a pinch of salt, and a few of the cauliflower florets. After that was absorbed we added more. We continued with this process till the broth was gone and the rice was done, working the starch out of it, by continuously stirring and smashing it. About 20 minutes or so.

 

And then, for the coup-de-grace we added a good chunk of butter, chopped parsley, and a few handful of parmesan, turned off the heat, put the lid on and waited for a few minutes. Enough time to calm down the kitchen.

We served the risotto with some extra cheese and the spicy breadcrumbs for the parents. Pure Goodness on a plate.