Home/Recipes/Fish & Chips with Fancy Peas and Yoghurt Tartar Sauce
fish chips with fancy peas and yoghurt tartar sauce
Jump to Recipe
SEAFOOD

Fish & Chips with Fancy Peas and Yoghurt Tartar Sauce

By Stephen La Rosa

The classic chippy plate, made properly at home: double-cooked chips, beer-battered sea bream, and peas brightened up with leek, mint and lemon instead of the usual mush. A yoghurt tartar sauce keeps things lighter than the mayonnaise version.

Fish & Chips with Fancy Peas and Yoghurt Tartar Sauce
Print
Prep 45 minutes
Cook 45 minutes
Total 1 hour 30 minutes
Servings 2
Difficulty
Ingredients

For the Chips

  • 600 g potatoes
  • 2 L water
  • 30 g salt
  • 5 g sugar

For the Peas

  • 200 g peas fresh or frozen
  • 100 g leek halved and sliced
  • 1 clove garlic minced
  • 15 g mint leaves sliced
  • 30 g butter
  • 1 lemon juice and zest

For the Battered Fish

  • 2-4 fillets sea bream pin bones removed
  • 300 g lager ice-cold
  • 165 g all-purpose flour
  • 50 g cornflour
  • 8 g salt
  • 3 g baking soda
  • 100 g all-purpose flour for dusting
  • 2 L neutral oil for frying
  • 1 lemon for serving

For the Tartar Sauce

  • 125 g Greek yoghurt full-fat
  • 1 shallot minced
  • 10 g brined capers minced
  • 25 g cornichon minced
  • 1 tbsp dill minced
  • 1 tbsp parsley minced
  • 1 tbsp mint chopped
  • lemon zest to taste
Instructions

For the Tartar Sauce

  • Combine all the ingredients and keep in the fridge until ready to serve.

For the Chips

  • Cut the potatoes into batons roughly 1cm thick. Add to a pot of water seasoned with the salt and sugar.
  • Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook 10-15 minutes, until just tender.
  • Drain through a colander and shake lightly to rough up the outside of the chips, this is what gives them a craggy, crispy crust.
  • Lay the potatoes on a tray lined with baking paper, making sure none of them touch, and freeze for 2 hours or until solid.

For the Peas

  • Heat a tablespoon of oil in a small pot over medium heat. Add the sliced leek and season lightly with salt.
  • Cook 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened.
  • Add the garlic and cook 2 minutes more, stirring.
  • Bring a small pot of well-salted water to a boil. Add the peas and cook 1-3 minutes, until tender.
  • Strain the peas and either shock in ice water to hold for later, or stir straight into the pot of cooked leeks. Leave the heat off while you cook the fish.

For the Fish

  • Preheat the oven to 100°C with a tray inside to keep the fish (or chips) warm as you go.
  • Pour the oil into a large pot, no more than halfway up, and heat over medium-high until it reaches 180°C.
  • Whisk together the flour, cornflour, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
  • Pour in the cold lager and whisk lightly until smooth. Don't overwork it, a slightly lumpy batter fries up lighter.
  • Lay out the dusting flour on a plate and season lightly with salt. Line a tray with kitchen paper next to the pot.
  • Season the fish fillets with salt on both sides, then dust well in the flour, shaking off the excess.
  • Working one fillet at a time from the tail end, dredge through the batter and let the excess drip off.
  • Lower the fish into the hot oil, swaying it away from you to avoid splashes. Fry 2 minutes, until browned, then flip and fry the second side for 2 minutes more.
  • Drain on the kitchen paper, then transfer to the warm oven while you finish the rest.
  • Turn off the oil once you're done frying. If cooking fish in batches, let the oil come back to a steady 180°C before adding more.

To Finish

  • Raise the oil to 190°C and skim out any loose batter bits with a sieve. Fry the frozen chips in batches, 3-4 minutes, until crisp and golden. (An air fryer or oven works too: 14 minutes at 200°C air-fried, or 20 minutes at 200°C baked, tossed in a little oil and salt first.)
  • While the last batch fries, gently rewarm the peas with a few tablespoons of butter, the chopped mint and a squeeze of lemon.
  • Plate everything together and serve immediately, with the tartar sauce and a lemon wedge alongside.
Equipment
  • Chef's Knife
  • Chopping board
  • Small tray
  • Mixing Bowl
  • Small pot
  • Pot
  • Colander
  • Fish Spatula
  • Whisk
  • Microplane Zester
  • Sieve
Recipe Notes
Freezing the parboiled chips before the final fry is what gives them a shatter-crisp crust with a fluffy centre, don't skip it. The tartar sauce can be made a day ahead and keeps well in the fridge. If you're frying in batches, let the oil recover to temperature between rounds or the batter won't crisp properly.
RATE THIS RECIPE

No video for this one yet, check back soon.

You Might Also Like

Grey Mullet Brandade Panko-Crumbed Grey Mullet

From the Chef

The freezer step on the chips looks unnecessary until you taste the difference. Parboil, freeze solid, then fry from frozen, and you get a shell that genuinely shatters instead of just going soft and pale. The peas are the other upgrade here, leek and mint instead of just butter, so they hold their own next to the fish rather than disappearing into the background. Tartar sauce built on yoghurt instead of mayonnaise keeps the whole plate a little lighter without losing the tang that makes it work.

Similar Posts

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Recipe Rating