In Australia the primary fish and chips is called flake locally, which is actually shark. The shark tends to be smaller species of shark. I find gummy shark is most common, but when available saw shark is great. There are also many other sharks cooked up, but I haven’t had them!

Anyway, more often than not I find that beer battered fish is oily. Don’t get me wrong, I have had great beer battered fish (i.e. fish dipped in a wet better made from beer and flour). But I actually prefer a dry batter over a marinated fish.  So I marinated the fish in a sweet and rich brown ale for about 1 h before breading. The breading mix was 2 cups white flour, 1 cup corn meal, 3 Tb salt, 1 Tb black pepper, 1 Tb cumin. After marinating the fish, toss in the flour/corn mixture. Then deep fry for 3-4 minutes, or until lightly browned.

For the chips, I read about a quick trick to essentially twice cook the potatoes, increasing the crispiness. I cut the potatoes in long strips, about 2-3 mm (3/4-1 inch) thick. I dried them by rolling them in a towel, then dropped them in hot oil for about 4-5 minutes. Take the chips out and using a large sieve, quickly rinse the potatoes in cold water for no longer than 5 seconds. Then put the chips back into the oil, and cook until crispy and slightly browned, about 7-10 minutes.

For the veg, it was a basic “throw it all in” stir fry. Red cabbage, corn, flat bean, broccoli, and of course onion and garlic, black pepper, oregano, beer, and salt.