Beer Battered Fish and Chips - Just love that crispy shatter!
No one can resist that crispy shatter!!!
Since we've not been able to travel for some time now, I'm really missing the fantastic fish and chips I used to eat whenever I dropped by Sydney to visit my friends. There's something about fresh Australian fish dipped in beer batter, deep-fried to a golden crispness with a wonderful airy shatter when you bite into one of them.
To date, I've not been able to find really good fish and chips in SIngapore that has the same shatter. For me, great fish and chips has the following elements:
- an airy and crispy golden exterior that stays on even after a few minutes
- fresh, flaky fish
Unfortunately, we're not blessed with the same quality of fish that we have here in Singapore compared to Sydney so for this recipe, I am using frozen dory. Other alternatives are halibut, cod and tilapia and if you do manage to get your hands on some good quality ones, give it a go!
This recipe was adapted from Recipe Tin who incidentally has a fantastic catalogue of dishes I want to try. I've tweaked some of the batter proportions and also made a garlic aioli in place of the usual tartar sauce. Eating it literally transported me back to my student days in Australia!
Ingredients:
2 fish fillets (any cuts for dory, cod, halibut, tilapia or one that is boneless)
4 tbsp plain flour
2 tbsp rice flour
1 tsp baking powder
Dash of salt
3/4 can of ice-cold beer or enough to make a thick batter
Garlic Aioli Sauce
3 tbsp mayonnaise
Dash of garlic powder, black pepper
1 slice of lemon
Directions:
Mix the dry batter ingredients well.
Heat up a wok of oil. You'll need quite a fair bit of oil to ensure that the whole fillet is sitting inside when you deep fry it.
Add the beer to the dry batter ingredients and mix well. It's important that it's very cold before you fry the fish.
To test if the oil is ready, add a few drops of batter to the oil. It should float up immediately.
Coat the fish in the batter well, then gently slide it into the wok.
Allow the fish to deep fry on its own, do not touch the fish in the first 3 minutes! This is important as the batter is crisping up and you do not want to disturb the batter.
After 3-4 minutes, when the underside is golden, turn the fish to fry the other side for another 1-2 minutes.
Remove and drain on paper towels.
To make the garlic aioli, mix the above ingredients and squeeze the lemon into the mayo.
Serve with chips.
