Beer-Battered Fish Sandwich (Fish 'N Chips)

So, here’s the star of the dish I had researched and tweaked for almost a week… The fish! One of my favorite bloggers had posted his recipe for Fish (Sandwich) ‘N Chips a few weeks ago, and it just kept coming back to me. While I did like his recipes and ideas, of course I had some of my own. Therefore, the past week has been a quest in researching and then remaking recipes to suit my own ideas and wishes.
While Kevin at Closet Cooking uses eggs in his beer batter, I had never heard of such a thing and was confused as to why one would do this (not to question Kevin’s knowledge). So, I went to the man who knows everything… Alton Brown. After looking over his recipe, I actually decided that I liked the sound of it much better! So, I changed only a couple of things, the size of the fish pieces mainly, and that’s what I used for my fish sandwiches. Since it was St. Patrick’s day last week and I had Guinness in my refrigerator, that’s what I used in my batter, which is surprisingly more authentic to Fish ‘N Chips than I had originally thought. Apparently, the dish is just as much an Irish dish as an English one, so that means I still get to remain authentic in my recipe! Although, I’m fairly certain that the English and the Irish don’t put cayenne or Old Bay in their batter, but I’ll let that slide… ;-)
Funny story, on the day I was making this meal we had blizzard conditions here in De Pere, so I had the fireplace on and went about making my bread, mixing my mayonnaise, and preparing the broccoli slaw. Being that the measurements for the broccoli slaw ingredients are from an English recipe, everything is done using the metric system, so I got my digital scale ready and started going about my work. Then, halfway through measuring my ingredients, my scale died! And, wouldn’t you know, the darn battery is one of those crazy 9-volts that nobody has unless you have children, especially boys with remote control cars. Son of a biscuit!! Frantic, I asked every neighbor I know if they happened to have one, but no such luck… I scoured my apartment looking for ANYTHING that might have one of these batteries, including taking my smoke detector apart (which is wired), but couldn’t find anything! Finally, frustrated, I stuck the battery back in the scale in hopes that I could get it to work for the few remaining ingredients I needed to weigh. I got all of the ingredients out and ready, and turned on the scale. VOILA!! It worked! After I finished measuring all of my ingredients, it came to me… My bathroom scale has a 9-volt battery!! Even though I didn’t need it for my kitchen scale anymore, I took the battery out of the bathroom one and put it in there. Who needs to weigh themselves anyways?! It’s not like the thing ever tells me what I want it to! :-D

Printable Recipe

2 c. flour
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1 tsp. kosher salt
½ tsp. cayenne pepper
Couple dashes Old Bay Seasoning
8 oz. Guinness, cold
4 oz. water, cold
2 lb. cod fillets, cut into sandwich-sized pieces
Cornstarch, for dredging

Scali Sandwich Rolls
Fresh Herb Mayonnaise
Creamy Broccoli Slaw
Oven Fries

Heat the oven to 200°F and heat the oil in a deep fryer to 350°F.
In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, cayenne pepper, and Old Bay seasoning. Whisk in the beer and water until the batter is completely smooth and free of any lumps. Refrigerate for 15 minutes. Note: The batter can be made up to 1 hour ahead of time.
Lightly dredge fish pieces in cornstarch. Working in small batches, dip the fish into batter and immerse into hot oil. When the batter is set, turn the pieces of fish over and cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes. Drain the fish on a roasting rack. Serve the fish on scali sandwich rolls with fresh herb mayonnaise, and serve with creamy broccoli slaw and oven fries.

Creamy Broccoli Slaw

Since I’m making Fish ‘N Chips, I think it’s only proper that I also make a coleslaw to go with it. While I was at the grocery store, I happened across a mix for Broccoli Coleslaw and I couldn’t pass it up as an alternative to the cabbage variety. While I actually like cabbage coleslaw, I thought the broccoli might be a nice change, in addition to being milder than cabbage. I’ve heard people say over and over again how they like to serve the coleslaw on top of the fish inside the sandwich and I thought I might like to try it, but I also didn’t want it to overpower the flavors in the battered fish - in this respect, I thought the broccoli would be a nice change from the norm.
Being that I’m trying to stay fairly authentic to the fish ‘n chips tradition, I thought it only logical that I try to replicate the coleslaw as closely as possible. I came across a recipe for coleslaw dressing on the Food Network UK website, and figured it couldn’t get much more authentic than that! Although I did change a few things, I liked the base of the recipe very much and so kept it mostly the same. One of the changes I did make was to the pineapple juice part of the recipe, because I had another idea in mind. A popular tradition is to eat this dish with malt vinegar sprinkled over the top, and I couldn’t help but think to incorporate it into the coleslaw, as I’ve seen several other coleslaw recipes call for some type of vinegar. I didn’t want anything too overpowering, though, so didn’t want to add all that much of it to the mix when I thought about how much I like lemon juice sprinkled over my fish and other seafood. How could one go wrong with a little bit of that thrown in too?! So, instead of the pineapple juice, I opted for a mixture of both the malt vinegar and the lemon juice. I also omitted the celery seed, because I’m not entirely fond of it – to me, it has a very overpowering, and not altogether pleasant, flavor. I did, however, sprinkle some sesame seeds over the top of my coleslaw before eating it, which I enjoyed very much. I will definitely be making this coleslaw again!

Printable Recipe

12 oz. packaged broccoli slaw mix (or make your own)
¼ oz. (5g) minced flat leaf parsley leaves
4¼ oz. (120g) prepared mayonnaise
3¼ oz. (95g) sour cream
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
1 Tbsp. malt vinegar
½ oz. (15g) sugar
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbsp. sesame seeds, optional

In a large bowl, toss together the broccoli slaw mix and parsley. In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice, malt vinegar, and sugar. Toss the vegetables with the dressing and season with salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving. If desired, sprinkle with sesame seeds before serving.