Fri, 3 January 2020
Ingredients
400ml sunflower oil, for shallow-frying
½ teaspoon sea salt + extra for seasoning
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
225g white fish fillets, pin-boned (I like hake)
225g flour + extra for dusting
285ml ginger beer, cold
3 heaped teaspoons baking powder
1 lemon
For the potatoes
8-10 baby potatoes
20 grams of butter
Fresh thyme
4 cloves Smoked garlic chopped
Method
Preheat the oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas mark 5.
Pour the sunflower oil into a large frying pan and place over a medium to high heat. Mix the salt and pepper together and season the fish fillets on both sides. This will help to remove any excess water, making the fish really meaty.
Whisk the flour, ginger beer and baking powder together until nice and shiny. The texture should be like semi-whipped double cream (i.e. it should stick to whatever you’re coating). Dust each fish fillet in a little extra flour, then dip into the batter and allow any excess to drip off.
Holding one end, carefully lower each piece of fish into the oil one by one so you don’t get splashed – it will depend on the size of your fryer how much you can do at once. Cook for 4 minutes or so, until the batter is golden and crisp.
Place the fish fillets on a baking tray and put them in the oven for a few minutes at to finish cooking.
When the fish is done, drain the pieces on kitchen paper, season with some salt and squeeze over a little lemon juice.
For the potatoes par boil them in salted water for 10 mins. Drain off the water and cut them in half allow them to steam.
In a pan fry the potatoes in the thyme, garlic, sea salt and butter.
