Beer Battered Fish with Chips and Roasted Vegetables

Fish and Chips in mainly hot fired food of England. The British are so crazy about fish and chips that it remained one of few foods not to be regulated at the time of WW2!!Every British road  must contain at least one fish and chip shop...it is like our own 'sweet shops'. But fired fish was introduced to Britain by the Jewish refugee from Spain and Portugal.It is a commoner food, working class food.

O.K. enough of history lesson!! oh! the aroma of fried fish..It can't be written in one word or it's easy to say it cannot be written on the wall!! A big chunk of fish fried in oil and fat chips..not those fiddly one as we know as french fries,which we became overly familiarised by the mighty MacDonald's.When we were in England we ate fish n chips,not regularly,but often.A big...or rather huge fillet of  fish,trust me it was biiiiiiig!,we were never able to finish it one sitting,dipped in the batter  packed in a Styrofoam box with an equally big portion of chips sprinkled with salt and cheap vinegar,it was heavenly....just heavenly. When I first saw a fish and chips shop I had know idea that,how could only a fish fry, yes I was thinking on the line of our own one of the classics,though our's will be always the best!!, and some fired potato can be a good night's meal!! But after opening the paper package...I knew how wrong was...!!

But as I stated before,Friday kitchen is always a special kitchen in our house.We don't go out to eat very often, as here in Belgium good Indian food is very hard to come by and the rest are equally tasteless,so we celebrate my man's working hard by partying hard-, by cooking simple working man's food but only with a twist for the celebrations.So when my fridge was stuffed with some fillets,though not with more authentic cod or haddock, of fish,what is better than making fish and chips and being nostalgic..as we had some good memories of that period. But as  said it was Friday,a celebratory one,so why not  Beer Battered  fish and roasted veggies and some store bought chips on the side, for the nostalgia.

The fish came out surprisingly well...moist and juicy on the inside and crispy on the outside. The only thing  didn't like about English fish and chips that the fish itself is tasteless,no salt or pepper,nothing ..that is the only extra thing I did for my fish I mixed some pepper and salt with the flour for the first coating and as I didn't have sparkling water with me , I used only beer, which was a mistake, as it tasted a bit bitter for the beer.other than I followed the recipe as given in Good-Food.So here comes the recipe...


Ingredients: 

Fish Fillets : 2, making about 350gm in total

Flour : 50gm + 3 tbsp

Cornflour: 50gm

Baking Powder : 1 tsp

Beer : 75 ml

Sparkling Water : 75ml

Salt : to taste

Black Pepper : 1 tsp,freshly ground

Oil , for frying


Method:
Clean the fillet and pat dry and rub some salt,let it sit for 10 min. In a bowl mix 3 tbsp flour with ground pepper,set aside. Now the batter, in a separate mixing bowl, mix flour and cornflour and baking powder,salt and pepper, to your taste. In a cup mix both the liquid and them slowly in the dry mixture while stirring at the same time. Use up all the liquid to make lump free, smooth batter. Let the batter rest for 30 min. Now coat the fillet in the other dry mixture, the 3tbsp one. Shake off the excess and dip them in the batter and fry them in the pre-heated oil until golden brown and the fish is cooked inside. I think for about 6-8 min. Drain on kitchen paper and serve it with chips as per tradition or you can have some roasted veg on the side, like us. British usually have it with peas.