pub style dining room ideas
- right, the most which is my go-tocomfort food-- served with incredible fries and themost delicious mushy peas. for me, fish andchips screams cod-- highly sustainable,delicious, but the secret is in the batter. this is a beer batter, doublezero flour, eggs, and beer. it sort of makes itlighter, crispier, and it's an amazing flavor.
the secret is to make thatbatter the night before. the more you let it rest,it becomes so crispy. take your cod, run it throughinto seasoned flour, salt, pepper. you could jazz this up a littlebit with a touch of paprika. lightly season your fish. to wet a fish candestroy the batter, so i like to season myfish first with salt. that extracts the moisturefrom the fish, which keeps
the batter even more crispy. then from there, justbrush off that seasoning and just pat down the fish. that way it stays nice and firm. into the flour, andthen nicely rolled-- make sure you get the ends done. dredge the fish inthe flour in order to make sure the battersticks, really important. and then next, into the batter.
make sure you dust off anyexcess flour, otherwise, you get these white clumps offlour underneath the batter. into the batter, let it sink. i like topping tailing my fish. i trim the top, trimthe base-- you've got the even piece of fish. if it's cut evenly, it'sgoing to cook evenly. shake off the excessflour and into the batter. roll that fish aroundand let it sink in there.
now oil comes up to 300. it takes about six to sevenminutes to cook beautifully, but here's the secret. keep that fish coated. this is where it getsmessy, but exciting. lift up your fish. go left to right, dredgingit, and then very quickly get a point of the fish. let the battery run down,shake off any excess flour,
and then into the fryer. and just sort of tauntit first, and just let it lay away from you. shake the pan gently. that starts to coverthe top of the fish. take a spatula and just gentlybaste the top of the fish. once you've had the fishin there for two minutes, flip over the fish. that way you seeit evenly coated.
god, it's beautiful,golden brown. now take that out. shake it well. let that sit. they're like theseperfect parcels, and literally letthat sit there. now as it's pipinghot, use salt, and just lightly season the top. and what happensto the fish now,
it just gets evencrispier, but the batter's seasoned underneath and on top. and that's really important. right, fries-- theseare yukon gold potatoes and basically just peeled. don't wash, becausei want the starch to get really nice and crispy. i start them off at a verylow temperature, in a way that i blanch them.
and i have literally in the oilfirst for two minutes at 330-- in. [sizzling] blanching basically meanscooking with no color. and the secret herenow is to blanch them for two minutes at 330. take them out, let them rest. crank up the heat. go from 320 to 385, great.
now temperature'srisen, fries back in. second time cooking,and this time, it's going to be nice and crispy. a great indicatorcooking in fryers is that when itstarts to float, it's confirmation that it'scooked whether it's fish, chicken, or fries. cooking fries twice, blanchingthem first, and then putting them back in hot oil at theend is so much more healthier,
because they don't sitin the oil for anywhere near as long as frozen fries. so it's really good to cookthem twice, super healthy. fries are done. shake-- you can hearhow crispy they are. out onto a tray, drainthem really well. lightly, rub off the excess fat. let them sit there. i love placingthem into a bowl--
fresh parsley on top, a touchof paprika, and then a touch of salt and pepper. and then from there,just roll them around. you can hear how crispythey are, beautiful. fish and chips would not becomplete unless we've got peas. i use frozen peas all thetime, so don't be scared. a splash of oil, just a splash-- peas go in, beautiful. touch of salt, touch of pepper,a little hint of shallots
minced in, and garlic--it's a great way of elevating mushy peas. from there, a little knobof butter, in, and then you just toss those peas. once that bus isevaporated, we turn off the gas, and then just crush-- beautiful. and that's where you take thisfrozen pea into a mushy pea. and we sort of trying to breakit up almost like it's sort
of a puree, but idon't want to refine them too much, because theflavor's when you burst them. touch more butterin there-- butter gives it that reallynice glossy finish. one more little finishingtouch with fresh mint. just bring the leaves down,lay them on top of one another. get your largest leaf on thebottom, roll it really tight, and then just shred. let the knife do the work.
look, beautiful, fresh mint. now sprinkle thatover your peas, and that just liftsthe peas beautifully. when i serve lemon on aplate, i take these bits off. these are like the posh parts. it's just like the perfectwedge or slice of lemon. and now we're ready to plate. fish comes over-- hearhow crunchy that is. fries, place on there--
look how crispy theyare-- beautifully done. and then, from there, thisbeautiful mound of mushy peas. place to the side. finally, this sort of rollsroyce of sources with fish and chips, tartar sauce. it's a mayonnaise withgherkins, onions, and the most amazing capers in there. that goes on the side. and that just cascades off.
and how can you serve fishand chips without lemon? i get my lemon here,and i just squeeze it over the fish onto the salt.and then put a fresh one there, literally for seconds. and there we have fishand chips a la gordon.