"Fish & Chips"

• 700 grams fresh fish - such as blue cod, gurnard, snapper, sea perch or groper.

  • Ensure fish is cut and portioned the same size for equal cooking.  (in the South island, we feed snapper to our cats)

• 4 large potatoes, washed and cut into shoestring style chips.  

  • Thinner slices will come out more crispy.

• 1 egg white

• 3/4 cup flour

• 1 cup beer - local larger or pilsner beer. If you don't have beer or prefer a gluten-free option use rice flour and soda water. 

Tomato Salsa

• 2 vine ripened tomatoes - diced

• 8 mixed colour cherry tomatoes - cut in half

• 1/2 red onion - diced

• 1 red chilli - seeds removed and finely diced

• Fresh coriander - chopped

• Spring onion, finely sliced

• 1/4 cup extra olive oil

• Juice and rind of 1/2 lemon

• 50 ml chardonnay vinegar

Tartare Sauce

• 1/4 fresh fennel bulb - diced and core removed

• 2 pickled gherkins, diced

• 3-4 tbsp mayonnaise - such as Best Food.

• 2 shallots - diced

• Fresh dill and tarragon, chopped 

• Juice and rind of 1 lemon.

Step 1: In a bowl whisk egg white to loosen, add flour and beer (or soda water). Whisk to combine ensuring there are no lumps. You may need to add more beer to achieve correct consistency (not too thick, and not too thin. If you can draw a number “8” in the batter the consistency is correct). Set aside.

Step 2: Tartare Sauce. Combine all ingredients, season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

Step 3: Tomato Salsa.Combine all ingredients together, but do not mix until serving.

Step 4: Heat deep fryer to 150 degrees, add chips and blanch for five minutes - or until slightly cooked. Remove, spread chips out evenly on paper towels to drain.

Step 5: Increase fryer temp 180-190, place chips back in and cook until golden brown and crunchy - about 5-10 mins. Drain and remove, place chips in warm oven ( around 130 degrees) to keep crispy.

Step 5: Place fish fillets in batter one by one to coat and fry at 180 until golden. When placing fish in fryer, keep moving around, to ensure fish will not stick on basket. Depending on your fish and thickness size, blue cod takes about 5 mins to cook. Look for crispy / golden appearance. Coat fish and chips with a layer of salt. Turn off deep fryer - very important.