On my culinary wish list I wanted to learn how to make homemade fish and chips. My man-friend got  me this for Valentine’s day and I waited about a month unti I got up the nerves to try it out. A friend at work gave me a simple beer batter recipe and I decided to tackle it last week. Being Irish this definitely sounded yummy- I shopped for the necessities and began the challenge.

The necessities

potatoes aka chips

I read somewhere that if you put the sliced potatoes in ice water it helps get the starch off!

After soaking for a few minutes, pat dry the potatoes before placing in the oil

 

Heating the oil

Safety First!

Before I wanted to start using the deep fryer I needed to be prepared for a grease fire- I bought baking soda since I knew an extinguisher would be messy! This link helps too!

Into the fryer

Into the oil ( I used peanut oil)

Of course, right when I got this I had decided I was going to try to eat more clean.. fried food is definitely not in the eating clean realm! Everything within moderation!

checking on them- not quite ready

done! looks nice and golden and they were floating

Another friend told me that you’ll know when the food is ready when it floats- good tip to know for a first timer!

After frying the WHOLE sack of potatoes..

*note to self: only use one or two potatoes next time.. especially when cooking for two!

After I was finished with ALL of the potatoes I made the batter for the fish and sliced the fish.

Beer Batter made with Guinness

sliced cod

dressed in batter then in some flour

*another note to self: do NOT dunk fish into batter.. or your fish will end up like this below…

Yep.. too much batter= fish stuck on bottom of fryer basket

I laughed so hard when this happened- because I had to use a knife to cut through the batter and stab the fish so it fell down.. I had no idea though so that was an awesome learning experience.

Much better second time

All in all 2 hours later we have fish and chips! Success!

So next time I will buy some ketchup (I didn’t have any in the fridge.. shouldn’t staples just resupply themselves?!) and I won’t eat so many french fries before making the fish.

I’ll also work on putting the right amount of batter on the fish as well.

I also need to find a way to get rid of the oil after cooking.. too bad my bio-diesel-driving-friend doesn’t live nearby!

I’m not much of a fried foods lover but I have to admit I was looking all over my kitchen and thinking, “hmmm.. fried tomatoes, fried onion, fried bananas, fried etc.” This openssome cooking adventures!