The easiest way to prepare a fish & chips is to buy the ready to fry, frozen dory fillet from the Pacific West brand. Of course that’s only suitable for losers whose experience in the kitchen is only limited to cooking instant noodle maggi mee. God knows if the fillet they used is actually dory fish.
To prepare a proper fish & chips is to buy an actual dory fillet. Here you can get one in the frozen section you’d normally find your frozen mackerel, cod, salmon and other continental fishes. Dory is the cheapest one, they sell about between RM8.90 – RM10.90 per pack of which each pack contains four fillets, enough for two dinner for 2.
Now the crux of cooking fish & chips is the batter. I have sample a lot of recipes on preparing the batter from the most complicated 10 ingredients one to the most simple, by far the best in my opinion is the one below. It resulted in a good, sufficient crispy fish that is to my liking.
Preparing the batter
½ cup all purpose flour (or regular wheat flour)
½ cup of corn flour/corn starch
a teaspoon of baking soda
½ cup of milk
½ cup of ice water
salt for seasoning
That batter is sufficient for all 4 fillets you would find in one pack as i described above.
Some recipe call for the use of an egg but i find that it hardly make any difference on the end result so i omit the use of an egg. Stir everything in a mixing bowl, don’t worry if the batter is lumpy, the lumpier the better as it is a signature for home cooking. I never like perfect smooth batter, i think that’s pretentious. Season the batter with salt to your liking by dipping your finger into it and having a little taste.
Heat your oil, dip the fish into the batter, pick it up and always, ALWAYS allow the excess to drip off. Let only a thin coating of the batter left clinging on the fillet. The biggest mistake Malaysians always do when frying fish dipped in batter is that they allow the batter to coat the fish heavily, as if they are preparing cekodok/cucur/cucoq which is the stupidest thing you can do. Remember, you want to taste the fish, not the flour!
Holding one end, lower the fish into the oil one by one, carefully so you don’t get splashed – it will depend on the size of your pan how many fish you can do at once. Cook until batter is golden and crisp.
For the chips, take some russet potatoes, cut it into wedges with the skin left on, boil in salted boiling water until soft, drizzle with a good lug of olive oil and bake in an oven at 230°C until golden and crispy.
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