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!

Pork, Asparagus and Quinoa

For this fun little quick thing we tossed 1 cup of quinoa and 2 cups of water into  a pot, brought it to a boil and let it cook for about 10 minutes till all the water was absorbed (we might try a dash of olive oil and salt the next time).

Then we prepared all our ingredients for a fast stir-fry kind of action. We cut up 1 lb of pork tenderloin, 1 bunch of green asparagus, 1 small handful of kalamata olives,  1 small handful of sun dried tomatoes, 2 tablespoons of capers (rinsed), sliced 2 cloves of garlic, and chopped 1 small handful of parsley.

These sun dried tomatoes, by the by, are phenomenal.  The only problem is that you end up eating half the jar before you even start cooking.

10 minutes before dinner time we started with the madness. First we fried up the happy pig meat in some olive oil and with some salt and pepper. When the meat was done, we saved it on the side and heated more oil to fry the asparagus for about three minutes. We nibbled on a piece or two to check if they were soft enough to eat.

Then we chucked into the pan the olives, tomatoes, capers, and garlic with a bit more salt and pepper for just a minute or so.

We added the pork and then a couple gluggs of balsamic vinegar. Then we took the pan off the stove and made the dish all good looking with the parsley.

Bam! A total winner.

(Papa was all ready for a speech that he doesn't care if nobody likes it, because he had been all mad at Lily being stubborn and all when he made the grocery list, and he was going to just decide on meals that he cared for, whatever and grumble - when lo and behold all three girls piped up and declared at the least the quinoa and pork a winner, and a little the asparagus. The original version of this we stole from The Runner's World Cookbook.)