Recipe: Beer-battered fish and chips

Serve with bubbly.

Featuring a deliciously light and crispy batter.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
4 x 180g hake
salt and freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup (60ml) flour, for dusting
lemon wedges, for serving

For the batter:
1 cup (250ml) flour
¼ cup (60ml) corn flour
½ tsp (2.5ml) bicarbonate of soda
salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup (250ml) ice cold beer

For the chips
6 potatoes, peeled and cut into finger length chips
vegetable oil for frying
salt and vinegar

Method:
Sift together the flour, corn flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and pepper. Add beer and mix together until just combined. Do not over mix. Chill batter in fridge while frying the chips.

Heat 5cm of oil in a saucepan and fry chips for 5 minutes. Remove from oil and drain on kitchen towel. Refry chips again, until crispy. Set aside and keep warm.

Season fish with salt and pepper and dust with flour. Dip fish into batter and fry in the hot oil for about 5 minutes, or until golden, crisp and cooked through.

Drain on kitchen towel and serve with salt and vinegar chips and lemon wedges.

Wine pairing:
Sparkling wine is always great with deep fried food while a crisp Sauvginon Blanc will also offset any sense of greasiness. If you’re serving your fish with mushy peas, you may want to try something with a bit more body like unoaked Chardonnay or Chenin Blanc.

• Recipe supplied by Source Food – a Cape Town-based food agency that specializes in experiential marketing. They will create a recipe or meal to communicate your brand’s message.