- [Presenter] Hey folks, I am
very excited to have received the first physical copy of the "Basics with Babish" cookbook, available to pre-order. Now, not only is it a full
inch taller than my last book, it's significantly thicker. That's because it's positively chock full of words like my cooking do's and don'ts, a kitchen glossary, an
exhaustive exploration of your spice rack, and detailed
step-by-step photography. Today we're looking at the recipe for fried haddock with chips, which, like every recipe in the book,
comes with a pithy headnote, a description of how I've
personally screwed it up, and a troubleshooting Q&A. You can pre-order the "Basics
with Babish" cookbook now. The link is in the video description. (energetic joyful music) (upbeat music)
Since fish and chips is comprised of two items both deep fried at the time of serving,
it behooves us to get all of our prep out of the way first. If you're choosing to
participate in the act of homemade tartar sauce
making, we're gonna start there. In a bowl, we are combining
one cup mayonnaise, preferably homemade, with
the juice of one lemon, one tablespoon fresh chopped parsley, two tablespoons fresh chopped dill, and two teaspoons of
freshly chopped tarragon. In other words, a little pile of each. Any of these being slightly off isn't gonna be the end of the world. We're also adding two
tablespoons of capers drained and finally chopped, and a quarter cup finally
chopped cornichon pickles, but you could just use some relish if you find yourself in a pickle pickle. Last but not least, a half
teaspoon of Dijon mustard. Mix this stuff up until it
almost has the consistency of tartar sauce, cover and
refrigerate for up to three days, ideally overnight before serving. Next up the chips or French-style fries. I like using Yukon Golds,
both for their slow oxidation and their steak fry texture. To that end, I am peeling
and cutting two pounds of Yukon Golds into the
thick imposing form factor most commonly served with fish and chips. Before getting fried into fries, these guys are getting boiled
in some heavily-salted water that you can optionally
spike with a tablespoon of white vinegar, which
can help the potatoes retain their form factor while cooking. These are getting boiled for
anywhere from 8 to 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of your fries, until very tender but not
quite yet breaking apart. This basically allows the
potato to be fully cooked so that we can fry it fast and hot, giving us potatoes with crisp exteriors and fluffy tender interiors. Spread these guys out on a wire rack. Make sure nobody's overlapping, and let them cool the room temperature before frying about 30 minutes, during which time we can
contend with our cod, or haddock, in this case. Any thick, mild, tender
white fish will do. I'm gonna slice this guy across the grain into individual filets before noticing that it
hasn't properly been de-boned. Before frying, you should remove
these translucent pin bones with tweezers running your
finger along the length of the filet to feel for any sharp spots. Once it's certified boneless,
you can break it down into two to three-inch wide filets. Since the tailpiece is so thin, I'm gonna leave it a little
bit longer and fry it first when the oil is extra hot
and it can cook through a little more quickly. Next and last in our
preparatory to-do list, aka, Nissan Plus, is to ready
our dredge and batter. For the dredge, I'm combining
half a cup of cornstarch with two tablespoons of all-purpose flour and a generous pinch of
kosher salt whisked together until evenly combined. For the batter in a larger bowl, I'm combining one and a half
cups of all-purpose flour, one teaspoon baking powder,
half teaspoon paprika, and a quarter teaspoon cayenne pepper, both of which are gonna nicely
flavor and color are batter. This is getting whisked
together until homogenous, and we're not adding beer to
it until we're ready to fry. Which brings up an important question, which to fry first, fish or chips? Restaurants have the advantage
of multiple deep fryers, but we've only got one. So really it's a question of
who's gonna hold up better being kept warm in the oven. We let both the fish and
chips hang out in a low oven for about 15 minutes, and
found that while the potatoes were still pretty crisp, they had degraded since being freshly fried. The fish, however, remained
crispy and still pretty juicy after 15 minutes at
250 degrees Fahrenheit, which means we're frying the fish first. Which means it's time to add
one and a half to two cups of light lager to our flour
baking powder and spice mixture. Start with one and a half
cups whisked together and add more as needed to
achieve a paint-like consistency. The thicker your batter,
the thicker of a shell is gonna form around the fish. So like I always say,
keep it thin and loose. Arrange your bowls in
a side by side pattern. Generously coat your fish in the dredge. Shake off any excess, and
give it a dunk in the batter. The dredge is what enables the
batter to stick to the fish, so make sure that no facet goes uncoated. Once you've got two pieces
swimming in the batter, it's time to head over to the stove top where we've got two quarts
of neutral flavored oil like peanut vegetable or canola, heated to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Shake off the excess batter
and gently lower in the fish, frying for anywhere from
five to eight minutes, depending on the thickness of your fish, how quickly your oil cools
off when it's dropped in, and how powerful your burner is enabling it to return
to target temperature. Fish only needs to cook
to 145 degrees Fahrenheit, so if it looks done, it probably is done. Drain on paper towels or a wire rack and generously salt fresh outta the oil. Once you're done frying the
fish, you wanna skim out all the batter to tritus from the oil because next up we're frying the chips, this time at a slightly
lower 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Since these guys are
already cooked through, the only goal here is to get them brown, which shouldn't take more
than two to four minutes. As you can see, I topped up the oil perhaps a bit too generously, so don't be afraid to ladle
some out into a nearby saucepan if things get too scary. And don't be afraid to crank the heat when you add the fries,
especially early on, it can plummet by as much as 50 degrees. These likewise are getting
drained on paper towels or a wire rack and
immediately salted upon exit. Don't be too discouraged if your potatoes brown a little patchy. This apparently has to do
with the age of the potatoes and not your abilities as a cook. Last thing left to do
is plate everybody up with tartar sauce and lemon wedges. And there you have it,
the world's favorite fully deep fried meal, fish and chips. As you can see the batter
fries up into a nice thin, crisp layer rather than
the big gummy fish burrito that normally plagues
Friday night fish fries here in the States. The tartar sauce is fresh and flavorful, and the chips are, well, chips. Now, if you'll excuse me, I
gotta go find some malt vinegar. This recipe and more than a hundred others in the "Basics with Babish" cookbook are available for pre-order now. Link's in the video description, and the book arrives October 24th. ♪ Ooh, yeah ♪ ♪ You can do (indistinct) ♪ ♪ Ooh, yeah ♪ ♪ You can do everything again ♪ (singer sings indistinctly)
