What could be better than fried fish? Well, beer batter fried fish. I have loved fish and chips for a long time now. But my most special memory of this Brit favourite would remain to have them at Cha Bar. The cafe located next to the Oxford Bookstore in Connaught Place would always, always be buzzing. Known for a variety of chai served, I savoured their 120 bucks Fish and chips a lot. Not much has changed, except the price increasing to 200 INR for a portion over 5 years. Still pretty reasonable though. Another fish and chips favourite spot has to be Wenger’s Deli.
Being a close follower of Master Chef AU, there were a few episodes featuring beer batter fried fish and chips, and the classic tartar sauce. So, of course, I had to try a batch at home as well.
I don’t often fry a lot of things, but here are some sweet corn fritters and zucchini and carrot fritter tacos for you to try.
Ingredients
For beer batter fried fish
- Boneless fish filet – 400g (I used Basa from Meatigo)
- All purpose flour/ Maida – 1 cup + 3 tbsp
- Cornflour – 1/2 cup
- Baking powder – 1 tsp
- Light beer – 1 cup
- Salt and pepper – to taste
For the potato chips
- Potatoes – 6, medium
- All-purpose flour/ Maida – 2 tbsp
- Cornflour – 2 tbsp
- Dried herbs – 1 tbsp
- Olive oil – 2 tbsp (if baking) OR Oil to fry
Method
For the beer batter fried fish
- Pat dry the fish fillets to make sure there is no residual moisture or water.
- Cut the fish fillets to about 2.5-3 inches wide pieces.
- In a shallow plate combine 3 tbsp maida and a pinch of salt.
- Coat the fillets with this mixture and set aside for 10 minutes. This ensures better coating of the beer batter.
- Keep a large bowl in an ice bath. Pass 1 cup maida and 1/2 cup cornflour through a sieve into the bowl. Add the baking powder, and salt and pepper. Mix mix mix. The ice bath makes sure the beer fizz doesn’t die out soon and is still frothy.
- Add the freshly popped cup of beer and whisk well.
- Coat each fillet generously with the batter.
- Heat oil in a kadhai, and fry the fish until golden brown, takes about 3 minutes on medium-high flame. The oil should be really hot, you don’t want it seeping into the fillets.
- Remove on blotting paper.
For the chips
- Wash the potatoes and cut equal pieces of about 3/4 inches, with the skin on.
- Mix the flour, cornflour, salt and herbs.
- Toss the potatoes well in it.
- If frying, heat oil in a kadhai and deep fry. OR If baking, pre-heat the oven at 200 degrees for 10 minutes.
- Grease the baking tray, add the coated potatoes and bake at 200 degrees for 50 minutes.
Serve the fish and chips with sauteed peas and tartar sauce and your favourite beer of course. I had some extra batter so even deep-fried some onion rings in the beer batter.
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