Beer Battered Fish and Chips

Fish and chips is one of my favorites. It's also one of the only things that I'll eat (other than Indian food) when I'm in England. Well, that and strawberries with clotted cream and sugar. Nothing says health better than a cream that advertises that your arteries are clogging right as you eat it. So why not go all out and enjoy the fish and chips instead?

For this dinner of fish and chips, however, I actually tried to go the healthy route. You'll find the same beer-battered fish, but sauteed rather than fried. And the chips? Well, they're baked and broiled with just a smattering of oil. While this might not 100% replace the true fish and chips you buy in newspaper on the streets of London it's a fair substitute that won't send you to the hospital anytime soon.

Beer-Battered Fish...
Both pieces of this recipe come straight from a single page of Cooking Light. You'll marinate your fish to get it nice and soaked in beer and then slather on a mix of beer and flour. I don't have a scale so I went with the 3/4 cup measurement that the recipe offers, but my batter came out very thick. I found it wasn't sticking to the fish at all but rather falling off in globs. I would use just 1/2 a cup of flour to start and see how it goes. It's always easier to add than to subtract!

...and Chips
In the meantime you'll also want to get your chips going since they take a little longer to prepare. Cut your potatoes into fry-sized pieces and toss them in some oil, salt, and pepper. Make sure that they are in a single layer on a cookie sheet or baking dish of some sort or else they will not be very crispy. I actually baked my fries for longer - about 30 minutes - and then broiled them for two minutes. You do not want to broil them for long for risk of burning, but I found just a couple minutes makes them crispier. And who wants soggy fries?

I served the fish and chips with a Pesto Caesar salad. I've featured that before on this blog and absolutely love it. I figured the (healthier) Caesar salad would pair well with such a pub-based food. Just a suggestion though, feel free to accentuate with any vegetable you please.