It's great to be able to do your own fish and chips. As home made chips are best cooked at a high temperature, I've opted to oven cook the chips and pan fry the fish, in case, like me you only have one oven. If you do want to oven cook the fish, place on a lightly greased baking tray and cook at 190°C/375°F/gas mark 5 for 20 - 25 minutes.
600gwhite fish fillets125g - 150g each, skinned and boned
1eggsorganic, beaten
25gplain flourorganic
100gbreadcrumbsorganic
4tablespoonsunflower oilorganic, plus extra for frying
300gfrozen peasorganic
1lemonsorganic, fairtrade, cut into wedges
Instructions
Pre-heat the oven to 220°C/430°F/gas mark/gas mark 7
Bring a large pan of water to the boil and par-boil the chips for 3 - 4 minutes, then drain.
Pour the sunflower oil onto a baking tray and brush it around so it covers the bottom. Spread the chips in a single layer, drizzle a little more oil over the top and leave to cool while you prepare the fish. The secret to good chips is to cook them twice at two different temperatures.
Place the flour, egg and breadcrumbs on large separate plates and line them up.
Pat the fish fillets dry with kitchen towel then coat each fillet first in the flour then the egg and finally the breadcrumbs, making sure you have an even layer. You can flavour the breadcrumbs if you like with lemon zest or thyme or a pinch of paprika.
Place the chips in the oven and bake for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, turn them over and bake for another 7 - 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, place a large frying pan over a high heat and pour in a shallow layer of sunflower oil about 1½ - 2cm deep. Test the oil to see if it is hot enough by adding a few breadcrumbs. When it sizzles, it's ready. Fry the fish on each side for 2 -3 minutes then transfer to a plate lined with kitchen towel to drain.
Place the peas in boiling water for 3 - 4 minutes until they rise to the surface then drain.
Serve the fish with the oven chips, peas and lemon wedges.
Notes
In a hurry or not all eating together?You can prepare everything in advance and parboil the chips so you only need 20 minutes to cook everything. The fish and chips will loose their crispiness if re-heated.[nutrition-label]