Fish and Chips

Ingredients

• For the fish
• 4 × 180 g cod or haddock fillets, thick, skinless, pin-boned
• 100 g plain flour, for flouring the fish
• For the batter
• 200 g plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 330 ml cold beer or sparkling water, kept cold until the moment of mixing
• 1 tbsp vodka
• For the chips
• 1 kg floury potatoes, peeled, cut into thick chips
• For frying
• 2 l rendered beef dripping or vegetable oil, sufficient depth for full submersion
• To serve
• 1 tsp fine salt
• 50 ml malt vinegar

Method

1. 1
   Cut the potatoes into chips no thinner than 1.5 cm. Rinse under cold water and dry thoroughly. Heat the frying medium to 140 °C. Blanch the chips in batches until cooked through but without colour, approximately 6–8 minutes. Lift out and drain on a rack. The chips are done at this stage when a skewer meets no resistance but the surface is still pale.
2. 2
   Whisk together the 200 g flour and baking powder in a bowl. Add the cold beer (or sparkling water) and vodka. Mix until just combined — some lumps are acceptable. The batter should be the consistency of double cream; a batter thicker than this will produce a stodgy, doughy coating. Refrigerate for a minimum of 30 minutes.
3. 3
   Pat the fish fillets completely dry. Dredge each fillet thoroughly in the plain flour, pressing so the surface is evenly coated with no bare patches. Shake off any excess. This is the step that decides the dish: without a sound flour foundation the batter has no surface to grip, and will detach in the oil, leaving the fish bare and the crust sunken.
4. 4
   Raise the frying medium to 180 °C. Dip a floured fillet into the cold batter, allow 30 seconds for the batter to slightly set on the surface, then lower it away from you into the oil. Fry in batches, without crowding, until the crust is a deep, even amber and sounds hollow when tapped. Drain on a rack, not paper, to preserve the crust's shatter.
5. 5
   While the fish rests briefly on the rack, return the blanched chips to the oil at 180 °C and fry until the exterior is golden and crisped. The interior, already cooked through in the blanching stage, will be creamy; the outside will offer clear resistance to the finger before yielding. Drain, season immediately with fine salt.
6. 6
   Serve at once — fish and chips deteriorates rapidly. Malt vinegar is structural, not optional; apply at the table.