Fish & Chips
A British classic, and sometimes we just crave it (just me?). But it’s too easy to make a delicious, much healthier version at home to at least not try it from scratch a time or two! Do you trust me?
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Fish & chips is easy to get your hands on if you live in the UK – maybe less so in other countries. But I find that if I give in to the cravings of a takeaway fish & chips order, I feel pretty horrendous after. This is definitely fast food at its worst, where the whole meal is deep fried in probably the cheapest vegetable oil you can find.
You can do a super tasty, much healthier version at home. All the ingredients are pretty cheap too, so a home made version probably comes to a fifth of the price. I get that part of what we pay for is to have someone make it for us when we’re tired and hungry, but the good news is that fish & chips is one of those meals that pretty much make themselves! There’s very little prep involved and it’s so quick and fun. If you have kids who want to get involved in the food prep, it can be a fun little job to dunk the fish in the flour, egg and crumbs – you can’t really avoid it getting a little bit messy, so just embrace it! I make these on my own and my fingers get pretty sticky with the egg and the crumbs. You can use gloves or kitchen utensils if you don’t want to get your hands all in the food like that, though. To each her own!
There’s quite a lot of oil involved here and let’s be real; tons of oil is not the healthiest. I recommend olive oil as we’re not frying something at super high temperature here, most of the work (all, if you want!) gets done in the oven, so the olive oil can take it. For both fish and chips, the amount of oil you use will decide how crispy the outside gets, but if you want to keep it more low fat you can cut back. Either way, you are guaranteed to be making a much healthier version than what you would get from your local chippie! No deep frying involved at all.
Ingredients
White boneless, skinless fish fillets (haddock or cod are my favourites!)
Lemon juice (optional)
Breadcrumbs (ideally home made!)
1 egg (for an egg free version, try aquafaba)
Salt, pepper, spices you like
Oil (olive oil, or alternatively vegetable oil)
Chips or potatoes
Peas (or make mushy peas!)
Mayonnaise or ketchup
Vinegar
Cook frozen chips or even better, home made potato chips (will take longer than the fish, so start them first!) - the more oil you soak the chips in, the more crunchy and naughty they will be! For potatoes, cut them in chip size (you can keep the peel on or if you peel them, save it for home made potato peel crisps!). Put them in the oven on about 220 degrees Celsius (200 fan heated) for 25 minutes or until they are golden, crispy on the outside and cooked through.
Let the fish fillets thaw (if frozen) on a plate until they are at room temperature and soft. Get rid of any excess water. Splash a few drops of lemon juice on the fish and let it seep in. Put a bit of salt and pepper directly on the fish. If you prefer fish fingers to a big piece of fish, cut them in to finger size now before the next step.
In a smallish bowl put flour. In a second bowl, put one egg and mix it up (or the egg free version, aquafaba, which is not as fancy as it sounds!). Fill a third bowl with breadcrumbs - I recommend home made (hot tip: mix in some chopped up nuts, and toast it all - including bread crumbs! - in a pan for a minute before you put it in the bowl). Add some salt, pepper and other spices to the crumbs and mix it all up (I like chilli powder to give it a bit of a kick, onion powder or garlic powder is also nice).
Take each piece of fish and dunk it in the flour, then the egg, then in the breadcrumbs/spice mix so it is totally covered. Put the fish on a baking paper and splash (or spray, if you have a spray bottle!) a bit of oil over it – the more oil, the more crispy the fish will be, so decide for yourself!
Bake in the oven on about 200 degrees for about 20 minutes, less if you’re doing finger size (time really varies so keep an eye on them and check if they’re done!). If you want the outside really nice and crunchy you can finish the fillets off in a frying pan with some oil, that gives it that really crunchy takeaway fish & chips feel - but just in the oven is fine too!
Steam frozen peas for a couple of minutes or cook mushy peas to go with it, add some mayo and vinegar and go nuts!
I’d love to hear and see how you got on with your homemade fish & chips, did it ease your fast food cravings? What sides did you have with it? Share your recipe with me on Instagram and tag @TheFromScratchBody and hashtag #TheFromScratchBody so I don’t miss it!
