Fish and Chip Supper

Hubby sent me an email the other day.  No text, just this link - it didn't take a genius to figure out what he wanted me to do.  So this Thursday will be fish and chips.


We love fish and chips.  We have many fond memories of fish and chip suppers together.  The first meal we ate in this house was fish and chips (although I may have had scampi), eaten straight from the papers, with our fingers, sat on the living room floor as we had no furniture, and washed down with wine drunk, oh so classily, from the bottle because, in my excitement about collecting the keys, I remembered the wine but not the glasses.    We've used fish and chips to cater for large groups - our local chip shop was amused by but accommodating of our large advance order.  We've used it to cheer ourselves up at the end of a long week when neither of us can be bothered to cook.  It is a meal that instantly conjures images of childhood, of beaches, of fun.  But it is also, quite unashamedly a take-away meal.  Even though I probably cook fish three times a week, I have never attempted to re-create this supper at home.  Would it be the same without being wrapped in layers of greaseproof paper and raced home as fast as possible?


I wasn't sure but I was game to try.  Then I hit a snag.  My husband is great with the ideas, but, not cooking much himself (through lack of interest rather than lack of ability it seems), he doesn't always consider the execution.  Step 1: "preheat a deep-fat fryer to 190C/375F".  Ah.  Therein lies a problem.  We don't own one.  Hubby's family had one when he was little - they had to get rid of it because they found they were too tempted by it and were deep-frying every meal.  Admittedly this was the unreconstructed Eighties, when people were a little less health-aware than now, but even so, knowing our fondness of food generally and fried food in particular, we had long-since agreed we should never, ever own such a contraption, for fear of opening Pandora's Box and not being able to close it again.  


So, I was going to have to be a little bit creative.  I reached for the cookery shelf, certain someone would have some alternative cooking suggestions to give us a taste of the chip shop but in a healthier way.  Sure enough, the guru of a little bit of what you fancy but done in a healthier way, Bill Granger came up trumps.  So, tonight it is home-made fish fingers, with oven-baked fries.  I'm keeping the tartare sauce from James Martin's original recipe and adding some upmarket mushy peas, from Nigella Lawson's How to Eat.  Hmm, I can't wait.