Name: Saint Peter’s fish and chips
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 10 min
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4 - 6

Saint Peter’s fish and chips

"It's so important at Saint Peter that the fish and chips gets put on a pedestal as a dish of importance and luxury," says Josh Niland.

Serves 4 - 6

Prep

30M

Cook

10M

Total

40M

“There are few other dishes that come with so much expectation and nostalgia. It’s so important at Saint Peter that the fish and chips gets put on a pedestal as a dish of importance and luxury,” says Josh Niland. “Gone are the days of having wishy-washy defrosted white fish in limp pale batter and frozen chips. The key to fantastic fish and chips is obviously a great fish that’s suited to coating in a batter and deep-frying. Fresh pink ling is a perfect fish for battering – it’s robust, has a dense compact flesh with little sinew, good amount of fat, sweet-tasting flesh, few pin bones and can be readily found. The batter is also hugely important. Having worked with Heston Blumenthal as a stagiaire, I got to see his fish and chips and was blown away by the logic of using vodka in a batter. It makes sense – more alcohol content means it burns away faster, resulting in a very crisp and delicious batter. Fish and chips would be incomplete without a good tartare sauce; our tartare, made with yoghurt instead of mayonnaise, is a much cleaner, lighter sauce.” Start this recipe a day ahead to soak the chips.

Ingredients

600gm pink ling fillet, cut into 7cm x 3cm pieces, drained on paper towels

Rice flour, for dusting

Dill pickles and lemon cheeks, to serve

Potato chips

1.5kg sebago potatoes, scrubbed, skin on, cut into 1cm-thick chips, soaked overnight in cold water, drained

Cottonseed oil, for deep-frying

Yoghurt tartare sauce

300gm natural yoghurt

2 large golden shallots, finely chopped

80 gm cornichons, finely chopped

80 gm drained tiny capers in brine, finely chopped

Batter

200gm rice flour

105gm self-raising flour

5gm baking powder (1 tsp)

170ml vodka (preferably with 37% alcohol)

20gm honey

275 ml beer (Josh Niland uses VB)

Method

Main

1.For potato chips, heat oil in a deep-fryer or large saucepan to 140C. Pat the chips dry in a tea towel and deep-fry in batches without colouring until they blister and small bubbles appear on the surface (9-10 minutes). Drain, place on a wire rack over a tray and refrigerate to dry (1-2 hours).

2.For yoghurt tartare sauce, combine ingredients and mix well. Refrigerate covered until serving.

3.For batter, combine flours and baking powder in a large bowl. In a jug, whisk vodka and honey together, then add to flours along with beer and whisk until the batter has the consistency of heavy cream. If it becomes too thick add a little more beer.

4.Preheat oven to 120C and heat oil to 180C. Deep-fry chips in batches until very crisp and golden (5-6 minutes; be careful, hot oil may spit). Drain on paper towels and season with fine table salt. Place in oven on an oven tray lined with baking paper while you fry the fish.

5.Dust fish lightly in rice flour, shake off excess and coat in batter. Fry fish in the oil in batches until golden brown (2-3 minutes; you may need to turn fish over midway so it colours evenly). Drain on paper towels and season. Serve fish and chips with yoghurt tartare, pickles and lemons.