Fish and Chips

 Fish and Chips for another Sunday Family dinner. This Sunday it is Fish and Chips. I was going to go and purchase a little deep fryer but I thought about it and I have a ton of iron skillets. One is actually a dutch oven. I have a small one and a large one. This will work great because they hold the heat so well.






So I grabbed some fish at the fish monger. Some delicious cod. The perfect fish for fish and chips. It is thick and does not loose its texture also it does not have that fishy smell. Well no fresh fish should have the fishy smell if so throw it out. I took the fillets and cut them into about 4 by 1 to 2 inch strips. I cleaned them and washed them. After I put them onto paper towels to get the water out. It took about three rounds of paper towels soaking to get them dry.

 Then I made the batter

Batter
 
1 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of corn starch
5 teaspoons of pepper
1 teaspoon of paprika
1/ teaspoon of cayenne pepper
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 3/4 cups of cold water
and
To fry 3 quarts of peanut oil
 Dutch Kettle

 Mix your batter together and put it into the refrigerator for one hour


 You want to keep your oil at 139 degrees when you start to fry it will drop but it will re gain momentum. When you fry anything that need to be a specific temperature once you put the ingredients in the oil the temperature goes down by a few notches. Have your dutch oven with the oil ready at the right temperature. Put your batter and fish right by it so you can make less mess an get it right into the oil.



 I did my fries first. I cut standard Baking Potato's into sticks and fried them.













 Now take your fish battered pieces and add to the same oil. Make use your temperature is back up to 139. After the fish has been in the oil for about 3 minutes flip it over and fry the fish an additional 3 minutes. I keep a cookie sheet with a cooling rack on it to put the fish on when they have done being in the oil. They drain on the rack. The minute I put the fish on the rack they are at it like they have not eaten in a month. You think they may want to wait for a plate? Must be good!