BATTLE OF THE CHEFS - Best Fish & Chips

Celebrity chef Tom Kime, along with some fresh bait Executive Chef from the Keystone Group, George Diamond battled it out to cook up the best Fish and Chips dish.

Ingredients

• 200gm x Fresh Blue Eye Fillet, sliced into 4 lengthways

• 40gm x Pickled Vegetables

• 50 ml x Lime Mayo

• 100 gm Panko Crumbs

• 50 gm Plain Flour – seasoned with salt & pepper

• 2 x eggs whole beaten

• 1 x Lime Cheek

• 200gm x Fat cut chips

Pickled Vegetables – 6 portions

• 500ml rice wine vinegar

• 320 gm sugar

• 2 medium carrots, peeled - Julienne

• 2 Lebanese cucumbers - Batons

• 1 medium (3/4 pound) Diakon radish, peeled – Julienne

• 4 red radishes, thinly sliced

• 1/10th Wombok Chiffonade

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

Method

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar, sugar; set aside.Transfer to bowl with dressing. Add all vegetables and salt; toss well. Set aside to marinate 15 to 20 minutes, and then serve. For a stronger flavor, marinate up to 3 days in the refrigerator.

Lime Mayo - Mix together

• 500ml Mayonnaise

• 1 x Lime Juiced

• 1 x Lime Zested

• Salt

• Pepper

Dust the fish in the seasoned flour then coat in the egg; drain well, then into the Panko crumbs, deep fry for 4 minutes until cooked.

Season with salt and drain well. Fry the fat cut chips until golden and season with salt.

To Serve: Line small fry basket with a paper cone and fill with chips and top with the pieces of fish.

Garnish with a ramekin of lime aioli, lime cheek and pickled vegetables.

George Diamond is Executive Chef of hit restaurants and bars like The Winery, Cargo Lounge, Bungalow 8 and Manly Wine Bar. For more details visit www.thekeystonegroup.com.au

Batter

• 100ml of beer

• 100ml of soda water

• 12 ice cubes

• 200g of self-raising flour

• ½ teaspoon of baking powder

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Use a thick meaty fillet of fish that is fished in a sustainable manner for frying such as gurnard, ling or hoki. Fresh mackerel fillets also make a great sustainable alternative

Method

Combine the soda water and beer in a large bowl. Season the liquid well with salt and lots of freshly ground black pepper. Add the ice cubes

With a whisk, swirl the liquid, while gradually shaking in the self-raising flour. Continue to whisk until you have a thick creamy batter, the texture of double cream.

Leave to stand for at least 10 minutes before using.

When frying, dust the fish in a little flour and then dip in the batter. Place gently in the hot oil so that the oil does not splash.

Fry the fish at 180° until golden brown on one side, about 2 minutes. Turn the fish over and fry on the other side for a further 2 minutes until evenly golden. Remove from the hot oil and leave to drain before seasoning with salt. Serve with fresh chilli jam and tartare sauce and a wedge of lemon.

Fresh Chilli Jam

There are many different versions for chilli relishes, pastes and jams where the ingredients are either roasted or fried separately or cooked down in a pan together to form these delicious condiments. Make a large batch and then store in sterilised jars like a jam or chutney so that you can use it for anything from a beef stir-fry or to transform a sandwich or a cooked breakfast.

Ingredients

• 3 Tablespoons of vegetable oil

• 6 Large red chillies de seeded and finely chopped

• 1 3 cm piece of ginger peeled and chopped

• 4 Cloves of garlic

• 4 Medium sized onions roughly chopped

• 2 Tablespoons of soft brown sugar

• 1 Teaspoon of salt

• 2 Tablespoons of tamarind pulp

• 2 Tablespoons fish sauce (nam plaa)

• 100ml water

• 1 Lime juiced

Method

Pre heat an oven 200 C

1. De-seed the red chilli and finely chop. Roughly chop the onion. Finely chop or grate the garlic cloves and the ginger. Place in a bowl with the chilli, half the oil and mix together to combine. Spread this mixture out on a roasting tray and roast in the oven for 15 minutes so that the onion and garlic are soft and starting to caramelise.

2. Remove the roasting tray from the oven and scrape the contents into a food processor or magi mix. Add the brown sugar and the salt and blend to a paste. Add the tamarind pulp and the fish sauce and the water and continue to blend to a smooth pulp.

3. Heat the remaining oil in a heavy bottomed pan over a medium high heat.

Transfer the contents of the food processor to the pan. Lower the heat and cook for 40 minutes until the excess liquid has cooked away.

Add the limejuice and mix together. Taste the relish and adjust the seasoning. It should be hot, from the chilli, sweet and rich from the sugar and the onions.

The chilli jam will be salty from the salt and the fish sauce, and sour from the limejuice and the tamarind. Pour into sterilised jars it will keep for about a month in the fridge. This sauce is great with fish and chips.

House Tartare Sauce

• 2 egg yolks

• 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard

• 300ml of olive oil

• Freshly ground black pepper

• 1 x pinch salt

• 1 x teaspoon of red wine vinegar

• Juice of half a lemon

• 3 sprigs of parsley picked

• 1 tablespoon of gherkins chopped

• 1 tablespoon of rinsed capers chopped

Method

1. Place the egg yolks mustard, salt and the vinegar in a bowl. Stir to combine the ingredients in the bowl with a whisk. Gradually pour in the oil drip by drip, whisking all the time to make a mayonnaise. Continue stirring until all the oil is used up and you have a thick emulsion. Add the juice of half a lemon and the chopped parsley, gherkins and capers and stir to combine. Taste and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

There will be a great combination of flavours with the sour acidity of the lemon juice and vinegar cutting the sweet richness of the sauce and the fish that it will be served with. Salt, pepper and lemon juice are all essential when serving with a piece of fish.

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