#beer battered cod

This weekend I was able to try my hand at a dish I've been wanting to make for a long time: beer battered cod. Fish and chips is one of my favorite meals. Until very recently Nashville hasn't had much in the way of British chip shop style fish (Southerners are partial to cornmeal breading and catfish).

I had space and time this past weekend so I went to the market and picked up some fresh cod. The fishmongers were pretty excited when I told them what I had planned. I decided to keep things simple using a batter of cornstarch, flour egg and Yazoo's fantastic pale ale, with peanut oil for frying.  

The recipe I had (like most recipes) called for oil to be between 350 and 375 degrees. As I wrote recently I now own a Thermapen. I was very glad to have that little tool on hand to take the temperature of the oil. If I was just going to wing, I would have added the fish a good five minutes and 150 degrees too soon. As it stood, with the oil at the correct temperature this is what came out of the pot:

They were delicious. They came out light, airy and oh so flakey. I really look forward to trying it out again. Turns out, if you have the right tools, anything as seemingly complicated as deep frying really isn't that hard.  

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup cornstarch

12 ounces of ale or lager

1 teaspoon of kosher salt

1 large egg

mild white fish, about 1/2 a filet per person

6 cups peanut oil

Method:

In a mixing bowl whisk together flour, cornstarch, beer, salt and egg. Allow to sit in the fridge for at least 20 minutes and up to 3 hours.

In a dutch oven, heat the peanut oil to 375 degree.

Dip the fish in the batter, allow excess batter to drip off and gently place in hot oil.