Beer battered fish - can anyone tell?

[Maldenman]

Sincere apologies arwkrite my friend.

As for no hope, well I gave in to the inevitable course of things a while ago!

[arwkrite]

Don't worry Maldenman. My flesh is weak ( as well as flabby) and as far as spirit goes...well make mine a Grouse.

Ales only hammered home the nails . I can hear a lonely pie calling to me through the open window, a sad and plaintive sound. I must go and find it and befriend it, then sink a couple or so of pints. Yeeeehhhhh.

[Eddie86]

Bloody hell, I'd hate to go to the pubs you lot visit! Fish cooked and held in the oven?!? Oven Chips!?! Simply make the beer batter each morning using good ale, plain flour, touch of salt and tumeric for colouring, and your away. Cod cooked in 3 minutes, Haddock (with skin on) 4 minutes, Plaice 2 minutes and Hake 3 minutes usually, although the fillets have been larger recently.

I enjoy fish and chips, whether eating or cooking!

As for which beer you use, I'm of the opinion the cleanliness of the oil makes more difference to the flavour.

[arwkrite]

Not all are as skilled or conscientious as you Eddie. To many pubs it boil in the bag, ping in the microwave or warm up in the oven.What you call the people whose job it is to prepare food in this way I haven't a clue. Its cheap and its filling but rarely satisfying.I prefer food prepared by a cook, a good honourable term . Far to many Chefs about these days putting filled baguettes and rocket salads on plates.
Of course meals freshly prepared from food that has not seen the inside of a jetliners cargo hold but comes from down the road will cost you more. Each plate is done individually and after all someones time has to be paid for. While the cook in a pub may not be on speaking terms with the potatoes or the onions they will have more of an idea of where they were sourced.
Surprisingly I never see "Brakes "or others of that type at my local pubs.Grantedly the menus are limited and the serving times a bit vague. If I see a menu with far to many dishes on it I get suspicious.
We have a local called Freddie the Fish who calls at the pubs in the area with his refrigerated van. He sells not only to the pub but also any customer who fancies a fresh fish or a fillet.If you can catch him on a Friday afternoon when the call of a pint is on him you can get yourself a fishy bargain as he greatly reduces the price. I personally never batter fish. I like it steamed , simply fried with a light dusting of seasoned flower or done on the barbi.

Ps not wishing to go off thread ( not that it has ever stopped me ) but at 10 am each day the exact same smell emanates from the kitchen of one of our Indian restaurants. I am wondering if they have a huge curry stock pot that has never ,ever run out. I wander how old and how thick the crust is on its rim. I just cannot eat there though I like Indian food.

[Eddie86]

Not all are as skilled or conscientious as you Eddie. To many pubs it boil in the bag, ping in the microwave or warm up in the oven.What you call the people whose job it is to prepare food in this way I haven't a clue. Its cheap and its filling but rarely satisfying.I prefer food prepared by a cook, a good honourable term . Far to many Chefs about these days putting filled baguettes and rocket salads on plates.
Of course meals freshly prepared from food that has not seen the inside of a jetliners cargo hold but comes from down the road will cost you more. Each plate is done individually and after all someones time has to be paid for. While the cook in a pub may not be on speaking terms with the potatoes or the onions they will have more of an idea of where they were sourced.
Surprisingly I never see "Brakes "or others of that type at my local pubs.Grantedly the menus are limited and the serving times a bit vague. If I see a menu with far to many dishes on it I get suspicious.
We have a local called Freddie the Fish who calls at the pubs in the area with his refrigerated van. He sells not only to the pub but also any customer who fancies a fresh fish or a fillet.If you can catch him on a Friday afternoon when the call of a pint is on him you can get yourself a fishy bargain as he greatly reduces the price. I personally never batter fish. I like it steamed , simply fried with a light dusting of seasoned flower or done on the barbi.

Next time you can grab a couple of whole (but gutted!) trout. Slice up some lime, ginger and spring onion and stuff. Steam for about 10 minutes, serve with creamed leeks and a tomato and fennel salad

My personal favourite is a very simple one. Chop parsley, add to melted butter, roll into a log in clingfilm and stick in the freezer for half an hour to firm up again. Grill a fillet of cod, put on the plate, slice a half inch knob of butter off the log and put on the fish to melt. Cod in Parsley butter, I'd probably serve with some lemon and mint cous cous

[arwkrite]

Thanks Eddie for that .....I'm hungry again. Methinks I had better replace my avatar with a picture of Garfield the cat.

[aleandhearty]

Only just starting to notice the occasional (southern) presence of mushy peas.

On the beer batter thing, isn't a gassy beer supposed to lighten the batter in the same way that carbonated water is recommended for tempura batter?

Agree that very good chippies are few & far between

I'm passionate about good fish and chips, but I agree with the sentiment that a lot of them are very poor these days. I suspect using poor quality potatoes and letting the teperature of the fat drop too much has a lot to do with it. Your comment about lightening the batter has always been my take on the use of beer. I couldn't imagine eating f&c without mushy peas, or 'Yorkshire caviar' as many local wags call them

Haddock (with skin on) 4 minutes...
As for which beer you use, I'm of the opinion the cleanliness of the oil makes more difference to the flavour.

Haddock has always been the default fish in most Yorkshire chippies, but always skinless. However, when I've ordered it elsewhere in the UK they always serve it with the skin on, but not with cod for some bizarre reason. I wonder why? Agree about oil cleanliness, but beef dripping is the stuff.Its very high smoke point means it can seal the fish really quickly, plus it has a much higher resistance to oxidation than oils.

Ps not wishing to go off thread ( not that it has ever stopped me ) but at 10 am each day the exact same smell emanates from the kitchen of one of our Indian restaurants. I am wondering if they have a huge curry stock pot that has never ,ever run out. I wander how old and how thick the crust is on its rim. I just cannot eat there though I like Indian food.

Nothing too sinister Arky. The reason the smell is always the same is beacuse most restaurants have their own base sauce that's only slightly tweaked for individual curry styles. In poorer restaurants that's why many of the dishes look and taste the same.

[Farway]

I'm pretty fortunate in having a very good chippy nearby that does an excellent piece of fish. The beer batter thing in pubs I regard as a bit of a gimmick, and I agree not many pubs can oust the chippy when it comes to proper fish and chips. The only problem for me down south is that you can't get a decent pie anywhere, certainly not a proper Northern meat and potato.

I found oop north I had trouble getting a filled baguette & rocket salad with a fresh Italian dressing , only seemed to serve lard pie & greasy chips

[Crossste]

Biggest disappointment of our recent Scarborough trip was coming out of the excellent North Riding pub after 4 Sunday dinner time pints of Rudgate Dark Ruby and going into the cafe over the road to order fish, chips & peas for the 4 of us only to be served with one of Iceland (the shop not the country) finest fish, frozen chips and canned mushy peas.

We could have had better/fresher fish had we stayed back in Littleborough, perhaps 80 miles from the North Sea not 500yds.

[Alesonly]

Don't Know if anyone has read the latest Wetherspoons News but in a Customer has sent a Letter of complaint about the cardboard Oven chips they serve. Tim Martins reply made me Laugh out loud when I read it last night after reading this thread We will look into whether we can get a supply of McCain crispy oven Chips instead.