Today is our granddaughters 5th birthday, this morning we went to their place for brunch. It was a perfect brunch that I totally enjoyed. Tonight I am cooking fish and chips for a birthday supper. But that birthday supper isn’t for our granddaughter, it’s for me, because it’s my birthday too. Thought about a lot of different things I could make tonight, most were things my wife wouldn’t eat. Fish and chips she likes as much as I do, since I didn’t want to make 2 meals, it was the perfect choice. Two meals to make on my birthday just seemed silly, or maybe it’s I am just being a bit lazy on my birthday.
The batter is the key part of good fish and chips, mess it up and no one is happy. Played with different batters over the years and finally made one I was happy with. I think a batter needs to stay crispy right till the last bite. Lots of the recipes come out of the fryer crispy but in a minute they turn soggy. So since I cook different types of things I kind of applied a little bit of another batter to the normal English style batter and it worked. So think everyone knows how to make a batter and fry fish so just giving the ingredients for the batter. I salt and pepper the fish and dust it with flour before I dip in the batter.
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1 and 1/3 cup beer ( enjoy the rest)
mix all together and use immediately
How I Cook — by Graham Stewart 
Nice! Is that cod? This looks like authentic fish & chips…real batter, thick fries! Nicely done. Happy fifth birthday to your granddaughter (and you)!
Yes cod. Would of preferred halibut but couldn’t find any fresh today. Son-in-law would say fries are to thin but he is Irish so doesn’t know properly cut fries. Hate the batters made with eggs, it’s fish batter not pancake. Restaurants use it to give you something that looks big but the amount of fish is small. Used this batter for about 20 years. And thanks for the granddaughter birthday wish. Grandpa always takes second place now.