Fish and chips

After staring at cases full of chicken parts, beef steaks, and pork chops at the farmers market this weekend, I finally had an epiphany to try to make fish and chips. I had noticed the recipe for beer-battered fish while I was reviewing Mitchell Davis' Kitchen Sense and then again when I was aimlessly reading excerpts from Rob Deborde's Fish on a First-Name Basis.

Davis' recipe is happily simple. As a beer-battered recipe, it is foamy and light. It stood out in my mind in two ways: one, it required the batter to sit at room temperature for an hour before using; and two, it called for covering the fish with cornstarch before battering. I'm happy to report that the fish sizzled happily in their oil bath, and even J pronounces that they were light, crispy, and beautifully colored! "As good as I've had in any restaurant," he said. That's sure to guarantee he'll get fish and chips again! Though perhaps next time, I'll try to get a smaller piece of fish. Two pounds is rather a lot of cod for two people. A nice homemade tartar sauce rounded out the meal.

This afternoon, I made crab cakes, also Davis' recipe. I was too cheap to spring for the jumbo lump crab meat, but I really feel that the plain ole lump crab meat did its job admirably well. After all, today when I was in Whole Foods, I noticed that their $3.99 each (raw) or $18.99/lb (cooked) crab cakes use the lowest crab meat grade! (Tiny little flecks of meat!)

It's amazing how filling three crabcakes can be. It's probably because we ate at least 1/2 lb of crab each. I also learned that the breadcrumbs (I used panko) really does something -- it helps keep your cakes from falling apart in the skillet. The very simple recipe also called for 1/2" cube bread soaked in milk in the crab mixtures. I'm unsure how I feel about the milky bread still, but the cakes sure were tasty.

Well, I'm off to make braised short ribs for this weeks' dinner.