Haddock is one of the most popular fish, well known for its nutritional and health benefits. It’s very low in saturated fats, while high in vitamin B6, magnesium, niacin, selenium and phosphorous. Also, haddock contains no sugar. There is, however, one negative nutrition fact: haddock is very high in cholesterol approx. 111 mg/fillet (1 fillet: 150 g). It is available fresh, frozen, smoked, dried and canned. One of the well known British meals is “fish and chips” and haddock is the most common fish used to make it. That’s why we would like to share a traditional fish and chips recipe with you. However, we added a little twist and improvement to the original recipe.
What do we need for 4 persons?
- patted dry, firm boneless haddock fillets (2 pounds or 1 kg)
- vegetable oil – 5 cups
- peanut oil – 1 cup
- flour – 1 cup
- cornstarch or rice flour – 1/4 cup
- beer – 11/4 cups
- one egg
- salt
- white pepper
Instructions:
Mix the peanut and vegetable oil and heat the mixture in a well-built, large saucepan (at least 12 cups large: twice as the oil measure). Rice flour/starch and flour should be whisked together in a bowl. Use clean and dry bowl and put egg, beer, amber, salt (1 teaspoon) and pepper (1/2 teaspoon) together. Beat the mixture until smooth. Haddock fillets should be dipped into the batter, one at a time and afterwards deep-fried into hot oil, depending on thickness and size, for about 6 minutes. To avoid fish to be soggy, fry the fillets in small batches, just a coupe of them at the time. Use long-handle tongs or spoon to turn fillets over whenever it’s needed for the even frying. Once the fillets become golden brown, the cooking is finished. Before serving the fillets, excess oil should be drained onto the paper toweling. Serve the fillets with potato chips or French fries. Enjoy British haddock fish and chips!
Note: We used beer to get the best tasting and the crispiest fish and chips ever! The carbonation in beer is what helps in achieving the crispy, light crust and a distinctive taste. Peanut oil helps preventing the oil from smoking.
