Japanese fish and chips
Tim Anderson's Japanese fish and chips recipe is a brilliant take on the British classic. He uses tempura batter instead of the usual beer batter, and adds sweet potato into the mix too. The dish is served with both a traditional tartare sauce and tsuyu – a Japanese dipping sauce made from soy sauce, malt vinegar and peppery grated radish.
This recipe is taken from Your Home Izakaya by Tim Anderson (Hardie Grant, £26). Photography by Laura Edwards.
Tim Anderson says: 'Throughout the past few decades of fusion cuisine, there must have been dozens of dishes bearing this name. The most famous one in London is served at the Michelin starred Mayfair restaurant Umu, where chef Yoshinori Ishii serves a variety of seasonal fish and starchy vegetables, pristinely tempura-fried and served in an elegant washi cone. Of course, I made my own version way back in 2010 – it was the very first thing I cooked as a contestant on MasterChef. This is an updated, slightly simplified version of that silly but undeniably tasty recipe.'
Ingredients
Metric
Imperial
Tsuyu
- 2 radishes
- 1 1/2 tbsp of malt vinegar
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp of mirin
- 1/2 tbsp of yuzu juice, or lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp of water
- ½ tsp katsuo dashi powder
Tartare sauce
- 20g of pickled ginger, (any kind), finely chopped
- 4 tbsp of mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp English mustard
- 1/2 tsp dill, (dried)
- 1 handful of chives, finely sliced
Fish and chips
- 1 sweet potato, (ideally purple, but orange are fine, too), scrubbed clean
- 1 floury potato, (Tim uses red-skinned), scrubbed clean
- 300g of cod, haddock or similar white fish, boneless and skinless
- 1.5l vegetable oil, for deep-frying
- 2 medium egg whites
- 200ml of sparkling water, very cold
- 150g of plain flour
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 30g of cornflour, or potato starch
Equipment
- Thermometer
Method
To make the tsuyu, grate the radishes very finely, then squeeze out any excess moisture and combine with the rest of the ingredients
- 2 radishes
- 1 1/2 tbsp of malt vinegar
- 1 tbsp of soy sauce
- 1/2 tbsp of mirin
- 1/2 tbsp of yuzu juice, or lemon juice
- 1/2 tbsp of water
- ½ tsp katsuo dashi powder
For the tartare sauce, stir together all the ingredients until well mixed
- 20g of pickled ginger, (any kind), finely chopped
- 4 tbsp of mayonnaise
- 1/2 tsp lemon juice
- 1/2 tsp English mustard
- 1/2 tsp dill, (dried)
- 1 handful of chives, finely sliced
Preheat the oven to 1750ºC/gas mark 4. Slice the sweet potato and potato into rounds, about 5mm thick. Cut the fish into goujons, about 2.5 cm wide
- 1 sweet potato, (ideally purple, but orange are fine, too), scrubbed clean
- 1 floury potato, (Tim uses red-skinned), scrubbed clean
- 300g of cod, haddock or similar white fish, boneless and skinless
Heat the oil in a wide, deep pot or in a deep-fryer to 180ºC
- 1.5l vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Beat the egg whites until foamy, then gently stir in the sparkling water so you don’t knock out too many bubbles. Mix 120g of the plain flour with the cornflour and salt in a separate bowl, then tip into the liquid. Mix the batter just until it comes together with little lumps of flour still remaining here and there
- 2 medium egg whites
- 200ml of sparkling water, very cold
- 150g of plain flour
- 30g of cornflour, or potato starch
Prepare a roasting tin with a wire rack on top. Add the remaining plain flour to the batter and mix it very loosely, just two or three stirs
Dredge the potatoes and fish in the batter and carefully lower them into the oil, frying in batches so as not to crowd the pan, which will make them go soggy. As the food fries, use your chopsticks or tongs to drizzle a little bit of additional batter onto the surface of the crust as it forms, which will give it extra layers of crunch
The tempura is done when the batter is light golden brown and feels hard when prodded with tongs or chopsticks; this will take about 6–7 minutes
Drain on the wire rack and keep hot in the oven, with the door open slightly to let out moisture until all of the frying is done. Serve with the dipping sauces on the side
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