Fish and chips

Taste Festivals recipes Fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce recipe

Taste Festivals
Email this page
Date Published:
17/05/2009

Richard Corrigan from Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill serves up a British classic - fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce - for Taste of London

Serves 4

Ingredients

  • 4 pieces of haddock
  • Vegetable oil for deep frying

For the batter

  • 10g fresh yeast
  • 1 x 300ml bottle of beer (ale)
  • 100g plain flour
  • 80g rice flour
  • 20g cornflour
  • 10g salt

For the tartare sauce

  • 75g cornichons, drained and coarsely chopped
  • 75g small capers, drained
  • 2 shallots, finely diced
  • 1tbsp finely chopped parsley
  • 1tbsp finely chopped tarragon
  • 1tbsp finely chopped chervil
  • 1tbsp finely chopped chives
  • 200ml mayonnaise
  • 2 hard boiled eggs

For the chips

  • 1kg starchy (chipping) potatoes
  • Vegetable oil for deep frying

For the mushy peas

  • A little butter
  • 1 onion finely chopped
  • 2 cloves garlic, crushed
  • 1 stick of celery, finely chopped
  • 250g dried marrowfat peas, soaked overnight
  • 1tbsp bicarbonate of soda
  • 100ml malt vinegar
  • Salt

Method: How to make fish and chips with mushy peas and tartare sauce

1. For the batter, whisk the yeast into the beer, then whisk in the flours and salt. Allow to stand in a warm place for about 30 minutes, during which time it will puff up and bubble.

2. To make the tartare sauce, fold all the ingredients, except for the eggs, into the mayonnaise and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

3. Peel the potatoes and rinse and dry them. Peel and cut them as you like – we keep our chips quite chunky. Don’t put the potatoes in water at this point or you will wash away the valuable starch that you need to prevent them cooking too quickly without softening properly. Heat the oil in a deep fat fryer (or large pan filled no more than a third full) to 140°C. Put in the cut potatoes and cook for about 5 minutes, until they are soft but not coloured. Remove and drain on kitchen paper.

4. For the mushy peas, heat the butter in a pan, add the onions, garlic and celery and cook gently until soft but not coloured. Drain the peas and add them to the pan, along with bicarbonate of soda. Add enough water to cover by 2.5cm. Bring to the boil, then turn down the heat and simmer for 1-1½ hours, topping up with more water if necessary. The crucial thing is not to stir the peas at all during cooking. That is the key to lovely soft peas. Once you stir them, the outside will start to break down, turning the water thick and sludgy and unable to carry on cooking the peas properly. Stir them and you will end up with mushy outsides and hard insides. Once the peas are soft (test one between your fingers), take off the heat and leave to cool. Now you can stir in the vinegar and a good pinch of salt.

5. Increase the temperature of the oil to 170°C. Pass the fish through batter and lower it into the oil. Because the fish is quite heavy in its batter it will want to sink at first, and oil won’t envelop it properly, so support it lightly with a fish slice until the yeast in the batter puffs it up and it floats by itself. Fry for about 4 minutes, until golden and crispy, then lift out and drain on kitchen paper.

6. Increase the temperature of the oil to 180°C, put in the blanched chips, and cook until golden. Serve with the fish, mushy peas and tartare sauce.

Taste London


Recipe © courtesy of Richard Corrigan at Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill, London

Buy tickets and find out more at the Taste Festivals website.

Back to top

Your Comments

Post your comment

Please note: In order to post a comment you need to be registered and logged in to Channel 4:

Sign In Here or Register Here

Comments closed

Comments are closed at the present time

Your comments

Post your comment
By posting on this website you are agreeing to abide by our Comments Policy.
Mandatory Fields are marked with *
Your Comment (Maximum characters: 4000) *
You have

Comments

Thank you for your comment!

Your message will be reviewed and the best ones will be published below.

If you intended to make an official comment to Channel 4 please contact us.


Recipe Finder

Show only:

Advertisement

More British Recipes

More Haddock Recipes

More Comfort Food Recipes

Ramsay's best recipes

Weight Loss Club

great_taste_awards_tile Win a hamper ...of the UKs best food

Advertisement


Food

Skip Channel4 main Navigation
Explore Channel4
Food
Homes
Film
4Car
News
See All

Channel 4 © 2009. Channel 4 is not responsible for the content of external websites.