Fish and chips #2

I've finally perfected the art of making a really small quantity of fish and chips for a pretty quick meal. One of the problems is that it's really hard to reheat batter dipped fish successfully, so it's one of those meals that I make exactly one serving of, with no leftovers. I usually make my fish and chips from haddock, though most white fish works. Traditionally it's made from cod. I usually get frozen haddock which conveniently comes in a bag with two separate vacuum sealed packages, and one package is exactly one serving. I defrost the fish, still sealed in its vacuum bag, in cold water, for an hour or two.

When it's time to cook the first step is to make a batch of fresh homemade tartar sauce. It's easier than it sounds:

minced shallot (can substitute onion)

1 tbsp. pickle relish

2-3 tbsp. mayonnaise 

salt

pepper

It should probably have a little lemon juice in it, but I hate to juice a lemon for 1 tsp. of lemon juice, and I find that it makes it kind of watery. So I usually just leave it out.

Heat up your oil to 360°F. I use non-specific "vegetable oil." I have a serious deep fryer, but lately I've just been using 1 quart of oil in a pot on my induction hot plate. It works perfectly every time, and cleanup is much easier.

You can just take the fish as-is for regular fish and chips. If it's particularly large, cutting it in half is probably not a bad idea. But lately I've been cutting them into finger/fish stick form. They're easier to eat, cook and dip in the tartar sauce that way. And you get a more batter per serving. Season with salt, pepper, granulated garlic and a cayenne pepper.

Prepare a batch of beer batter. Beat one egg in a bowl. Then discard half of the egg. This is kind of weird, but you really only need half an egg. Add 3 oz. of beer and beat lightly to combine. Then beat in 1/4 cup all-purpose flour. That's it!

Dredge the fish in flour, then dip in the beer batter, and deep fry for 3 minutes. The stick format cooks a little faster. If you're using a thick, full-sized piece of cod it could take 4 minutes or more.

Remove the fish from the oil and salt.

Lately I've been lazy and using frozen French fries instead of making my homemade steak fries . Aside from the general pain of cutting fries and par-cooking them at 270°F first, it's just so convenient to take 3.5 to 4.0 oz. of frozen French fries and just toss them into the fryer for 2 minutes for perfect French fries. Remove the fries from the oil, salt, and season with fresh-ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and granulated garlic.

This is what it looks like as regular fish and chips instead of fish sticks and chips: