- 5 months ago
Bon Appétit joins Chef Ed Szymanski of Dame, an English seafood restaurant in the heart of NYC, to make their traditional battered fish and chips. Simplicity is best when it comes to making this classic British dish–fresh fish coated in airy batter, fluffy chips crisped to perfection, and then doused in vinegar with a sprinkle of lemon juice. A bite of Dame’s fish and chips is enough to transport you from the busy NYC streets to the great British seaside.
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LifestyleTranscript
00:00Hi, my name is Ed Chemieski. I am the chef and owner of Dame in New York City and today we're
00:11making our perfect version of fish and chips. We serve English food here. I'm English, I grew up
00:18in London. We've built a menu of modern British food around it but fish and chips is the anchor
00:23of the menu. No pun intended. I think the Dame fish and chips are so good because of how light
00:28and airy they are. The batter is this really delicate frilly lace batter that coats the
00:33fish. Potatoes that come out super crispy and crunchy and then we douse the whole thing
00:37in malt vinegar and eat it with a homemade tartar sauce. We're going to start by preparing
00:41our fish. This is local hake, which I think is the best fish if you're in the northeast
00:48of the US to use for fish and chips. If you can find local cod that's really delicious
00:52too and we use that a lot in the UK. We like hake for its texture. It has these really big
00:56pearly flakes fall apart delicately when you eat it. It gives a really pleasant mouthfeel.
01:01It also doesn't have too high of a moisture content which would interact with the batter
01:04and stop it from getting crispy. I stick to large firm flaky white fish where possible.
01:09These have very generously been semi butchered for us and pin bone so we're going to cure
01:14it. Curing it is a process of adding salt and other flavorings. Pull out some of the moisture
01:19and season it from the inside. We're going to add salt and lemon zest. Just two very simple
01:22flavors. Salt pulls out the moisture and it adds seasoning to it which is going to make it
01:25more delicious. The low moisture is really important so that the batter stays crispy.
01:30If you introduce a very wet product into a deep fryer, the water has to evaporate before
01:36the batter can form its shell on the outside. We don't want that to happen. That slows down
01:39the cooking process. It makes it oily and soggy. You do not want to like put wet products in
01:45the deep fryer. We use lemon zest because it has a really nice aromatic quality. We will use
01:49lemon juice later when the fish comes out of the fryer and we serve this with lemon wheels
01:53so that people can add as they wish but we add lemon juice at this stage it'll start to cure the
01:58fish in a much more intense way and tastes more like ceviche. The flesh will really like become a lot
02:04firmer to a point where it gets quite chewy. So this will sit in the fridge for a couple of hours and
02:09now we'll move on to the next step. The fish has been curing now for a couple of hours. I'm going to
02:16portion it. I like nice big pieces in my fish and chips. There's nothing worse than like a stingy little
02:21thin piece. It also will overcook the fish. So we'll cook nice big chunks. These weigh about six ounces.
02:28You can see from the curing process the fish is quite nice and dry on the inside which is perfect
02:33for deep frying. Now it's been portioned it's ready to go in the fryer. The chips are just as important
02:39as the fish. French fries for your American but these are different. These are English. They're thick
02:43golden brown on the outside. They're really fluffy on the inside. The closest thing you have in the
02:48states it's analogous is a steak fry but you'll see these are different and better. First thing we've
02:52got to peel the potatoes. Now skin on chips are delicious but to get the exterior of the potato
02:58extra crispy we need to break down all the cell walls around the edge of the potato. We use Idaho
03:04russets. They are the most abundant American potato. You see them sort of all over the place and then we'll
03:09soak them in water to remove some of the starch so that when we fry them they don't get gummy. When we cut
03:14them we're going to cut them into nice large chunks. They might look huge. When we cook them
03:18they're going to shrink a little bit. The potatoes are cooked three times. It's a two-day process. The
03:23reason we do that is to maximize crispiness on the outside and creaminess on the inside. So we soak
03:29them first then we're going to boil them in salted water. And normally when you boil the potato at home
03:33you put it into cold water and bring it up to a boil and it's to sort of cook it through without destroying the
03:38exterior of the potato. That's the opposite of what you want to achieve here. We want to destroy the exterior as much as
03:43possible to increase the surface area and that will allow it to get even crispier than it would
03:48otherwise. You can add a bunch of salt. So not only if you just cut a potato and then you fry it you
03:52don't get a chance to add seasoning to the inside. Whereas when you boil them you can season the potato
03:57from the inside out. And try not to burn your hands when you pop them in. So our potatoes have been boiling
04:03for about 20 minutes. See they're starting to fall apart. Getting nice and soft. So I'm going to pull them out
04:09onto the tray to let them cool down. We want to be gentle when we're doing this. We do want them to break up
04:13but not too much. You don't want to end up with just mush. The best part of these fries are going to be
04:18all these little craggly edges around the exterior. They look sort of fluffy and delicate. They're going
04:24to get really really crispy. Because if you try to fry them now they're just going to fall apart.
04:29So they need to have a chance to firm back up so we can fry them. I'm going to put these in the fridge
04:33and we'll keep moving on.
04:36Tartar sauce is a seasoned sort of mayonnaise and creamy sauce. We'll start by chopping up some of our
04:43cornichons and capers. So we like the the chunkiness in our tartar sauce. So we're not going to chop anything
04:49too fine. Cornichon is a pickled gherkin, a little cucumber. Capers bring a nice saltiness. The cornichons bring
04:56nice bite and acidity. The shallots bring a nice crunch too. We'll chop some chives. And lastly we'll chop some
05:06dill and some parsley together. Not too fine. That'll go in. The tanginess in the tartar sauce is a
05:13really nice foil for the richness of the fried potatoes and the fried fish. And the herbaceousness
05:18too is really good. We make a mayonnaise in house. You can buy mayonnaise from the store, especially if
05:23you're doing all the other steps. This is made with some egg yolks, a little bit of mustard, some champagne
05:27vinegar, a tiny bit of garlic, some salt and oil. And then a spoon of creme fraiche. If you can't find
05:34creme fraiche, you can serve sour cream. And if this sounds analogous to ranch dressing, I think
05:38that's the American version of tartar sauce pretty much. We make our own tartar sauce because we do
05:42everything in house here. Everything apart from making our own ketchup. Because if we could do ketchup
05:47better than Heinz, then we would be ketchup barons and we are not ketchup barons. We might one day be
05:51tartar sauce barons. And you see how sort of chunky this is? Now add a little bit of lemon zest.
05:57Mmm. Delicious. It's tangy, it's bright, it's herby and it's crunchy. You can hear the crunch. A little
06:07bit of salt. And at the very end, we're going to add just a dash of malt vinegar. Keep it true to its
06:12fish and chips origins. And now we're ready to move on to the frying the potatoes. We're going to do our
06:18first frying the potatoes. These have been in the fridge for a couple of hours. You can see the frilly
06:23edges have started to firm up a little bit and the potatoes themselves are much more firm now. So
06:27they're going to withhold going into the deep fryer. The goal of this first fry is to begin the process
06:31of getting them crispy. Start cooking the outside and to set the edges so that when we deep fry them
06:37the second time, they get super, super crunchy. And we do this at a low temperature in the fryer.
06:42Allow them to take their time. It's better to do this slow first and then do the high heat later.
06:48You get a much crispier product and a much creamier interior. If you're doing this at home and you don't
06:52have a deep fryer, the best approach is to get a pot halfway full with oil. Do not fill it to the top.
06:57You see all this bubbling that's happening now? That's going to overflow if you fill your pot to
07:01the top and then it'll get into the gas ring and then boom, up goes the house. The potatoes have been
07:07in there for about eight minutes now and they're starting to develop these nice little golden brown
07:12edges. Other than that, they're quite pale. However, they are now very crunchy. Just drain these of their oil
07:18and let them cool down again. These will now chill down and right when we fry the fish,
07:23we're going to put the potatoes in again at a high heat so that everything's hot and crispy at the same
07:27time. The batter I think is the most important part of this. It's what sets a great fish and chips
07:34apart from a good one. In general, with like frying philosophy, when you batter something, you don't want
07:39to fry the product that's on the inside of the batter. It's a bit of a common misconception. You are
07:44frying the batter but you are steaming the product that's on the inside of the batter. The batter
07:48needs to form a shell around the product. You don't want the oil to get into the batter and sort of
07:52like sizzle the fish on the inside. That'll result in an overcooked piece of fish and one that gets
07:58soggy quite quickly. Whereas if you have this beautifully textured batter that's light and fluffy,
08:02you can fry the batter and then the fish itself just steams delicately inside it. We start with AP
08:09flour and that'll give it some body. We'll add some rice flour and the rice flour really helps it get
08:15super crispy. Have you ever had the sort of chicken wings that are coated in rice flour at Asian
08:19restaurants? It's so good. The rice flour will help it stay crispy for a long time too. Whereas flour,
08:25AP flour, regular flour will absorb moisture much quicker than rice flour so it gets wet and starts to
08:34sort of dissolve and then you get this mushy fish and papery wet batter. It's just not very nice.
08:40And then some baking powder. The baking powder is what gives it the the puff. It's what gives it
08:44that really like lacy lassie texture. Same way that it helps cakes to rise. Baking powder does have quite
08:49an unpleasant taste when raw so it's important that it's fully cooked off. Now we use our two fine alcohol
08:55products. Vodka which is an interesting reading that you wouldn't see in fish and chips batters a lot. What
09:00vodka or more precisely the ethanol in vodka does is lower the evaporating point at the batter. The
09:05same way it would in a pie crust. So when the batter hits the hot oil, the liquid in it evaporates quicker
09:09than it would if it was just beer. Forms the shell quicker. Allows us to create that crust so the fish
09:14inside is steaming and the outside is frying. And then a freshly cracked Narragansett. It's a little nod to
09:21New England. This is a very English recipe. We did try this with a bunch of other beer and actually doesn't
09:25work as well. But there's something about the fizziness of Narragansett that works particularly well. So the beer is for
09:29flavor. You need some sort of liquid to form a batter. If you were making a very like refined
09:35tempura batter you might use sparkling water. You want carbon dioxide. You want bubbles. You want air.
09:39You're going to see that when we put it in the deep fryer. All these little bubbles will form and
09:43that's what gives you the light batter. You don't want water and flour. You don't want a paste that coats
09:48it and gives you this like hard shell. So some there and then some for the chef. And now we're going to mix it.
09:54But one thing we don't want to do is develop the gluten. This is true for making cakes and pastry work too.
09:59But you develop the gluten you form like this lattice structure like gluten strands are all loose.
10:04And the more you work them the more they sort of form this structure that ends up being the chewiness
10:09in bread. You don't want a bready batter. You want the gluten to be undeveloped in this. So it's really
10:14not important to get all the lumps out. You just want to incorporate this stuff together. This is true
10:18for pretty much everything that's not bread like pancakes, waffles, all of that stuff. You don't want to
10:22develop gluten too much. What we want is all these little frothy air bubbles around the outside. Now we have this light
10:28batter that's starting to souffle a little bit and pop up and in a minute or so this will be ready
10:33for our fish. The batter is nice and puffy. It's got all these little air bubbles in it. And now this
10:41is going to happen sort of quickly. We're going to dump the fish in in a very specific technique
10:45and then we're going to fry the potatoes. So lightly dust it in the batter.
10:50Allow some of it to drip off and drop into the fryer while shaking.
10:54Now spoon a few little bits of batter with your hand on top.
11:03And this shaking technique allows the batter to sort of break off.
11:09The best part of a fish and chip shop in the UK is all these little crispy batter bits that they sell
11:13on the side or give away for free. So we get all those on the side too. So we can either eat them
11:18or serve them. Then whilst the fish is frying, we're going to do the second fry on our potatoes as well.
11:22If the fish goes in about 30 seconds to a minute earlier than the potatoes, it takes a little bit
11:27longer to cook. Depending on the thickness of the fish, that's adjustable. And at this point,
11:31don't screw with it too much. Just let the frying happen. We want everything to be hot at the same
11:35time. So it's important that we fry the potatoes so they come out at the same time the fish comes out.
11:39You don't want soggy cold potatoes. The fish is swimming in a bath of hot oil, but the batter offers it some
11:46protection from getting fried on the outside and not cooked on the inside. Okay, the potatoes are
11:51pretty ready now. Golden brown and very crunchy. It's been four-ish minutes. It looks delicious.
11:59You can see this really sort of light coating and this airy crispy batter. All these little bits
12:07we'll take with us. We'll pull out our fries too. We'll hit it straight away with some flaky salt.
12:18You can hear how crunchy it is. Same on the fish too. You do need to salt it right away because when
12:23it's hot, it can absorb the salt better. Then when you're draining the fish, just move it a couple
12:28times on this tray with paper so the oil drains off the fish. But now we're ready. We go to the plate.
12:34So we have our crispy potatoes. I'm going to stack our fish. I'm going to add a few little crunchies.
12:45And then a nice generous portion of the tartar sauce. To finish it, we'll serve a lemon cheek.
12:51I'm going to spritz the whole thing with some malt vinegar. This is a perfume bottle. You get it at
12:56CVS for a dollar. A few little sprays. You just douse the malt vinegar on top. That is delicious,
13:03but it makes it go soggy quicker. So this is another way of not adding too much moisture
13:07to keep everything crispy. Add a few last flakes of salt. And here it is. This is the dame version
13:12of fish and chips. I like to start with the chip and dip it in the tartar sauce. Be generous with
13:17the tartar sauce too.
13:21These potatoes have totally transformed. They're really, really crisp on the outside, but the inside
13:25is really light and airy and fluffy. You break it over and you can see how creamy the interior looks.
13:30And how soft. It's almost like mashed potatoes in there. Fish and chips is finger food too. A lot
13:34of people don't think that, but you can eat every part with your hands, including the fish.
13:38You see how that flakes up into these nice, like big, pearly, juicy flakes. And you can see the batter's
13:45falling around the outside. Sort of coats it with this very light layer, still delicate and crispy.
13:53You can taste the lemon zest and the salt from the seasoning. The batter, crunchy at first and then
13:57melts in your mouth. You get another piece. You can sort of see here, all these like flakes. This is
14:05why we like cake so much for its texture. It's these really big flakes. I want people to see all the
14:10work that goes into a really delicious version of fish and chips and appreciate the craft that's
14:14behind this quite simple dish. But if you take each element seriously and work on technique,
14:19how delicious it can be.
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