Perfect fish and chips

First the chips: allow one large potato per person. To achieve a light, fluffy chip, crisp and golden on the outside, choose a firm but floury-textured potato rather than a waxy one. When peeled, and sliced about 1 cm thick and into strips of similar width, it will give good results, a thicker chip like this absorbing less fat than thin-cut chips.

Dry the chips thoroughly in a clean tea-towel to avoid the fat spitting as moisture hits it.

Duck and goose fat, chicken fat, and beef dripping, all have their afficionados. They are efficient for frying, as they have a high smoke point. Others will prefer olive oil, sunflower, groundnut, or rapeseed oil.

Products labelled simply vegetable oil are perhaps the least appealing, since they may include palm and coconut oils, both high in saturated fats. On the other hand, the equally highly saturated lard is excellent for frying fish and chips.

Do not use any fat more than once, as the effects of reheating fat to a high temperature may be harmful, since the chemical structure of the oil is altered.

Cooking the chips in two stages gives more control over the end result. Stage one cooks the potato gently, until barely done. Stage two, at a higher temperature, gives the chips their characteristic golden crispness. Unless you are cooking no more than a couple of handfuls of chips, do them in batches, to prevent the temperature of the oil falling too much.

Heat the oil in a deep-fryer, or heavy saucepan, to a temperature of 190˚C/375˚F. If you do not have a cooking thermometer, a cube of bread dropped into the oil will immediately sizzle and turn brown by the time you have counted to 10, when the oil is hot enough.

Lower the chips into the oil, and fry for about five minutes, moving the chips around with a heat-proof spatula, or slotted spoon, to ensure even cooking. Remove and drain on crumpled kitchen paper. Finish cooking the rest of the chips in stage one.

For stage two, heat the oil to 200˚C, put the chips back in the oil in batches, and fry for two to three minutes until the chips are golden brown.

Remove from the fat, drain on kitchen paper, and then serve them, or keep them warm in the oven, while you finish cooking the rest of the chips. I like to sprinkle them with Gozo sea salt before serving them.

For the fish, you need approximately 200 g of dentici fillet for each person, flour, batter or breadcrumbs for coating and fat for frying. Dry the fish thoroughly, season it and dip into batter if using it, or simply in flour or breadcrumbs if not, and with the oil slowly heated to 175˚C, fry the fish for five to eight minutes. Thick, small fillets will take longer than thin, large fillets. Remove and keep in a warm place, on paper towels while you fry all the fish.

To serve, wedges of lemon, tartare sauce, ketchup, and, of course, perfect chips, as well as a glass of chilled Astarte.

In Thailand, when I was guest cook at the Dusit Thani, I tasted some of the best fish and chips ever. One of the cooks, who spoke no English, was in charge of ‘fish and chips’ during my English food promotion. ‘Number One Wok’, to give him his correct title, (they called me Chef English) cooked them beautifully, crisp and paper-dry, accompanied by a somewhat innovative and non-traditional sprig of watercress tempura, wrapped in greaseproof paper and in that day’s edition of the Bangkok Post.

He would also cook my supper. Every evening, after dinner service, he would get out his ‘mise en place’, noodles, prawns, chicken, spring onions, a little pork, garlic, chilli, sugar and make me a wonderful plate of noodles.