Crispy Crunchy Fish and Waffle Chips!

Normally when I prepare fish for dinner, it's not fried. We had a couple of nice cod fillets, and I thought it was time to have homemade fish and chips.

While I enjoyed my morning coffee, I used the crinkle cutter to make waffle fries and let them soak in clean water and baking soda throughout the day to bring the starches to the surface for an extra crisp exterior when they got fried.

I watched about a dozen YouTube videos to find a nice crispy batter recipe for the fish, as we wanted a very crunchy crust on the fish.

I ended up just using a simple 60/40 mix of flour and cornstarch (because we do not have rice flour) with a tsp salt, some fresh ground pepper, 12 oz of good beer (Samuel Adams Summer Ale), and a healthy splash (about half a cup) of vodka. The consistency should be a bit more runny than pancake batter. Add a little bit of flour as needed.

Apparently, a famous chef in England (Heston Blumenthal) experimented and found that due to the rapid evaporation rate of the vodka, it makes for a very crisp crust. It was definitely the most crispy batter I've ever had on fried fish and we were very happy with how it turned out. After the fish cooled last night, we placed the leftovers in a Ziploc bag. I just took one out and cracked it in half . . . t's still crispy!

After you initially salt the fish, remove any excess moisture with a paper towel after letting it sit for about 20 minutes in the refrigerator. Dredge it in cornstarch, dunk it in the batter and (slowly and carefully!) place it in the oil (350° f), then a few minutes later, you drizzle another tablespoon-full of batter over the top surface of the fish. Flip it over, and do the same thing in the other side, and fry until golden brown on both sides. This provides all the extra scraggly crispy bits that make it extra crunchy. Our son, Ivan, hit the fish with a grind of pink Himalayan salt when I took them out of the oil.

I also made a homemade tartar sauce with mayo, sweet relish, salt, pepper, lemon juice, lemon zest, and about a quarter of a very-finely-diced onion. I paired the fish and waffle chips with buttered sweet peas.