A Taste of London 2012

I don’t know about you, but I love watching the Olympics. From the opening ceremonies to the closing Kev and I are usually plastered to our TV, yelling at gymnastics judges for an unfair score or screaming (literally) for the swimmers in a close heat. To be honest, we’ve been up until midnight watching every night since the games started. Swimming, beach volleyball, gymnastics, badminton, rowing, headboard making– oh wait.

Anyway, we’d love to be in London for the Olympics this year, but considering we were just there a few months ago, we can’t just hop on a plane and go. Instead, we decided to have a taste of the games as we watched Friday’s Olympic opening ceremonies: fish and chips with an ice cold Guinness to wash it down. This fish has just the right amount of golden-delicious breading and the fries are baked, instead of fried, for a delicious (and slightly less guilty) crunch. All that was missing was the mushy peas and, well, to be honest, we’re not big ones for the mushy peas.

Olympic Fish and Chips
Fish recipe adapted from Alton Brown (here)

Prep: 20 minutes
Cook: 30 minutes

Ingredients:

For the Fish
2 c. flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
1 bottle brown beer, cold
1 pound fish, cut into strips (we usually use Tilapia because it’s sustainable, but this time we used Cod)
Cornstarch, for dredging

For the Chips

4-5 large potatoes
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Kosher Salt

Prep:

1. Preheat your oven to 500 degrees F. Thoroughly wash your potatoes and cut them into about 1″ matchsticks. We leave the skin on, but if you prefer naked taters go ahead and peel them first.

2. Toss the potatoes with olive oil and salt, then spread them out on a baking sheet.  Set your timer for 12 minutes. When it goes off, turn the fries. A word of caution here: if the fries don’t come up easily when you turn them (or if they leave their crispy shells stuck to the pan) let them be for another five minutes or so and they should turn just fine.

2. Combine the dry batter ingredients, then add the beer (you could use club soda if you don’t have a brewski on hand). Mix until there are no lumps, then stick the batter in the fridge for about 15 minutes.

3. Heat oil to 375 F (using a fry thermometer to measure the temperature!). While it’s heating, coat fish in cornstarch. This essentially acts as the primer for your batter, helping it to stick to the fish.

4. Coat your fish in batter. Using tongs, hold the bottom of the fish in the oil for a few seconds. This will  prevent the fish from sticking to the bottom of the pan when you drop it in. Drop the fish the rest of the way in, being sure to drop away from yourself to keep from getting popped by any hot oil as the fish goes in. Cook until golden brown, turning after a few minutes. It usually takes ours about four minutes to get done (you’ll need to maintain your oil temp at 350 F- it will drop from the original 375 F when you put in the first few pieces of fish). Drain the fish on paper towel and sprinkle with salt as it comes out of the oil.

6. Don’t forget to take fries out!

7. Serve with malted vinegar and a side of London 2012 (we prefer swimming, beach volleyball, and gymnastics).

 

Have you been watching the Olympics? What’s your favorite event? Have you been staying up ridiculously late, too?