If you've found yourself in a bit of a rut when it comes to cooking dinner, or you're getting tired of the same few meals over and over, look no further!
Mairead's cooking pal Mark from Dingle Cookery School has a very simple recipe for fish and chips that will save you ordering a takeaway, and you don't even need a deep fat fryer for it.
And if fish fingers are more your thing, all you need to do is cut the fish in to smaller pieces.
Homemade Fish, Oven Chips with Tartar Sauce and Mushy Peas (serves 4)
Ingredients
For the fish:
- 700-800g white fish such as haddock, cod, pollack with skin removed
- 100g flour
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 300g breadcrumbs (for a crisper breadcrumb use panko)
- salt and pepper
For the oven fries:
- 4 large potatoes cut in wedges (skin on)
- salt and pepper
- dash of oil
- tartar sauce
- 4 tbsp. mayonnaise
- 1 gherkin, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp. capers, rinsed and chopped
- 1 tsp. lemon juice
- 1 tbsp. chopped parsley
For the peas:
- knob of butter
- 400g peas
- dash of cream
- handful of tarragon, finely chopped (optional)
- ½ lemon, zested and juiced
- few mint leaves, finely chopped
- salt and pepper
Method
To bread the fish:
- Cut the fish into 4 pieces (about 150g -200g each) (If you want fish fingers cut the fish into strips of about 1-inch thickness).
- Prepare 3 large bowls, one with flour one with egg and one with crumbs. Keep them in this order and place a tray after the bowl with the crumbs.
- Add a pinch of salt and pepper to the flour.
- To bread the fish, use one hand to add a piece of fish to the bowl with the flour, remove it from the flour and shake off excess flour, add this piece of fish to the egg. Use the other hand to remove form the egg and add to the bread crumb (try keep one dry hand and one for the wet mixture). Remove the piece of fish from the bread crumb and place on a tray. Repeat until the all the fish pieces are coated.
For the peas:
- Add the butter to a pot over medium to high heat, add in the peas and cream and tarragon. Cook these for about 5-7 minutes. Mash the peas, add the lemon zest, juice and mint leaves, season with salt and pepper. Keep warm.
For the tartar sauce:
- Mix all the ingredients together.
For the oven fries:
- Preheat the oven to 190ºC
- In a bowl, add the potatoes wedges, add the spices, oil and salt. Mix these well.
- On a lined tray, spread the wedges out so that they are in a single layer. Place this in the oven and bake for about 25 minutes, take out and turn the wedges. Bake for another 10 minutes or so. Remove from the oven and season with salt and pepper.
To cook the fish
- Heat a pan over a medium heat, once hot add some oil and carefully add the fish. Keep the temperature at a medium heat, you don’t want the breadcrumbs to burn.
- After about 3-4 minutes carefully turn the fish over. Allow them to cook for another 3-4 minutes. Use a small knife to check the fish, pierce one of the pieces of fish, if it slides through easily it is cooked (if you are still not sure make a slight incision to look inside the fish). Turn off the pan and leave for a minute. Place on a piece of kitchen paper to remove excess oil.
A little guide to help with timings:
Fries will take about 35-40 minutes to cook, this will give you plenty of time to bread the fish and make the mushy peas and tartar sauce.
Once you feel the potatoes are almost there you can cook the fish allow 10 minutes in total for the fish.
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