Beer-battered fish and chips, with homemade chip shop curry sauce recipe
If you can’t get to the chippy on National Fish and Chip Day, bring the chippy to you
Turns out June 5 is quite a day. Not only is it National Ketchup Day in the US, National Sausage Roll Day in the UK, it’s also National Fish and Chip Day. This glorious British dish has an incredibly interesting and long history which you can read all about, and while you’re at it, check out why James Lewis thinks it doesn’t get much better than the humble fish and chips.
Lockdown has meant my local chippy wasn’t open, and I had a serious craving. So there was only one thing to do: make my own. And of course, it had to be beer battered, so I got creative with some of my Lucky Saint non-alcoholic lager (just FYI, as a treat, FoodTribers can save 20% on a case using the code 'FOODTRIBE20').
A certain James May was pondering the delights of chip shop curry sauce recently, and wondering what on earth could be in it. Well, after a bit of refining, I think I've got it...
To the horror of many, and as a self-styled condiment queen, I really go for it when it comes to my fish and chips order. Salt and vinegar on everything, mushy peas (with more vinegar) and curry sauce. Plus, an unholy amount of ketchup. Never shall the ketchup and curry mix, but they both have to be there on the plate, like weird relatives who hate each other, but are both lovely in their own right.
Homemade beer-battered fish and chips
Homemade chippy tea
Ingredients
- 2 fillets of sustainable white fish, skin off. I used basa.
- 75g plain flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 100ml Lucky Saint beer (the rest you can drink while cooking)
- Salt and pepper
- Around 300ml vegetable oil, for shallow frying
Instructions
- Add the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper into a mixing bowl.
- Gradually add the beer, whisking until your batter is smooth.
- Add your oil to the pan, and heat on a high heat.
- Take the skin off your fish (if needed), pat the fish dry with kitchen paper, and check for any leftover bones.
- Dunk your fish into the batter, ensuring it’s covered on all sides.
- To check the oil’s at the right temperature, drop half a teaspoon of batter into the oil. If it rises to the surface immediately and you get some nice oily bubbles around it, you’re good to go.
- Carefully place your batter-covered fish fillets into the oil, one at a time. Turn down the heat slightly.
- Leave the fish to cook for three minutes.
- Turn the fish fillets over, carefully, ensuring the oil doesn’t splash anywhere, and fry on the other side for another three or four minutes.
- Carefully remove the fish and place it on some kitchen towel, before serving.
Recipe by
Rachael Hogg
Chip shop curry sauce recipe
Turns out you can make it from scratch James...
Ingredients
- 3tsp cornflour/cornstarch
- 1tbsp butter
- 1tsp Kikkoman soy sauce
- 250ml vegetable stock
- 1.5tsp mild curry powder
- 1/2 tsp Chinese five spice
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp garlic powder
Instructions
- Mix the dry spices (curry powder, Chinese five spice, ground ginger, garlic powder) and cornflour together in a small bowl.
- If using a stock cube, make up your vegetable stock with boiling water.
- Melt the butter in a small saucepan over a medium heat. Add the spices and cornflour mixture to the pan and fry for a minute. Then turn down the heat.
- Add the stock a couple of ladles at a time. Make sure it’s well mixed before adding more. Do this until all the stock is added.
- Add the soy sauce.
- Keep stirring and cook for a few minutes. You should find it thickens up quickly. If it goes too gloopy (we’ve all been there in a chip shop!), add a bit of water.
- You might need to sieve your sauce before serving if you’ve struggled with lumps. If not, serve with your fish and chips and enjoy.
Recipe by
Rachael Hogg
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Comments (21)
Thanks to you I will be off to the grocery store soon with the intention of making fish and chips for dinner. Perfect, as we go meatless on Fridays anyway. At least we already have beer. lol Well done on the curry sauce, too. Novice Yank question: about how thick should the fillets be for this? Also, what typically goes into mushy peas? I see they are so much a traditional part of British cuisine that I'm now curious. Thanks. :)
You're practically 95% of the way there if you've got beer! haha. For the fish, you can really work with whatever you've got. You don't want anything super thin, but you can use all types of white fish, so cod, haddock, pollock, hake, coley,...
Read moreOh my god, this is my absolute food heaven 😳
You need that curry sauce in your LIFE!
Without the sauce. We are not able to move now.
Yay! It looks great Simona! I apologise for filling you up so much 😂
I NEED this!
With your surname John, you most definitely do!
That looks delicious. Looks like I'm making fish and chips for dinner tonight. Thanks! 😁
Yehhhh! Fish and chips for everyone!