Fish and Chips with Halibut - pandemic birthday meal

Pre-pandemic, birthday celebration dinners were one of my favorite things. You know, you get to have something you don't normally have, something a bit fanciers, something a bit more special. During pandemic, though I have been slowly gaining cooking experience, the normal dinner fare was just not going to cut it. I guess the grocery gods (is that a thing?) heard me and I was able to score fresh halibut filet in my local grocery fish counter. Ok now this is a no brainer, I know what I'll have for my birthday now. My all-time favorite pub fair: the holy grail of fish and chips with halibut! 

Anything that needs a deep fryer always kind of makes me nervous. Well I don't have a proper fryer, and liters of oil seems kind of wasteful if only use once, and the oiliness is not the most heart healthy. Yea yea, though all the health alarms were ringing but of course all my logics and reasons went out the window. This is where my stomach (and taste buds!) told my brain to be quiet because we are having fish and chips and no one can stop me.

Fun fact: did you know halibuts are flounders? aka flat fish. These are weird looking buddies with both eyes on one side. If you are curious, wikipedia is the place to go https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halibut. Their name is actually from hali (holy), butte (flat fish). Cool eh? Alright let's move on to the cooking part.

What you need:

- 400g of halibut fillet (skinned)

- Guinness beer

- 1/2 cup flour (and extra on the side)

- 1 tsp baking soda

- Salt and pepper

- 1 tsp of garlic powder

- 1 egg

Recipe:

- Wash your fish, pad dry fish surface with paper towel.

- Mix beer, baking soda, salt and pepper, egg, and garlic power together. add flour so you end up with a thin pancake-like consistency for batter. 

- Heat up oil in deep pan over stove top. Many sources tell me 350F is a good temp, I don't have an oil thermometer, the one i have was meant to check meat internal temp it ends around 200F. Dont worry, I dropped a tiny bit of batter to ensure it starts to sizzle to check the oil is hot enough, keep it at the sizzle stage but not to hot as not to burn the batter, about med heat.

- Coat the fillet of fish in dry flour only on all sides, then dunk it in batter until coated on all sides. Throw into the oil pan and fry about 5-6 min each side. This kind of depends on the thickness of your fish, just try not to over cook it. 

- Drain the oil by putting fish on rack, or paper towel to soak up the oil. let it rest for a few min. 

- I had some freezer fries and added to the meal. Nothing special but just frozen pre-cut stuff, normally it asks you to bake it. Since I had the fryer going so I did 2 batches fries in the fryer to go with the fish for a proper fish and chips meal.

- Annnnd that's a wrap. Ready to eat!

This recipe was so good! the batter created this nice crispy layer but not at all bready and it was just the right amount of thickness and airiness and not cakey at all. The beer and baking soda created enough carbonated bubbles so the batter was so light and yum. I read other sources when other beers are used no baking soda is needed, with Guinness I guess it's not a carbonate beers so this is a must.

The oil: I used canola oil, and since the batter was so clean the oil was not dirty or gross at all. I simply let it cool down and pour it into a mason jar for my next time frying needs. Hmmm I see fried chicken in my near future. 

Seriously, this fish and chips meal was amazing and so surprising easy. It went down so well with a glass of cold brew. The fish was flaky and soft, the batter was crispy, and fries were 10x better than the baked version. Haha fried anything tastes better I kid you not. Pandemic or not, this was such a good and satisfying birthday meal. I'd order this again, compliments to the chef, and happy birthday to me :)