We’ve been on holiday to Devon. We had three lots of friends to stay at various points and I (happily) did more cooking than I ever remember doing before in a two week period: roast chicken with mash, black pudding and orange glazed carrots, salted caramel chocolate cheesecake, chicken and prawn paella, raspberry ripple and pistachio parfait, dark chocolate mousse, bbq Moroccan lamb burgers, tabbbouleh with pomegranate and mint, freekeh with coriander and feta, lemon mousse and lemon pastry biscuits, Mexican pulled chicken with homemade coleslaw and bbq corn on the cob, hot chocolate mousse (the one I made on Masterchef), meatballs with tagliatelle, chocolate, nougat and pistachio semifredo, cheesy pasta bake with the leftover mince from making the meatballs, Korean Bulgogi chicken skewers, garlic prawns, Chinese Char Siu stiky ribs and rice noodle salad with sesame dressing, gluten free fish and chips, chocolate cornflake crispy cakes and gluten free birthday cake (Mr Arabella Cooks and I have the same birthday and it fell on the penultimate day of the holiday).
The brilliant joviality of the evenings and far too much wine) meant that I stupidly forgot to photograph much of the food. I also nearly sliced off the tips of two of my fingers whilst making the coleslaw. There was a disproportionate amount of blood (rivers of the stuff). The friends staying that night assured me this was because I’d thinned my blood with alcohol. Luckily that also served to numb the pain and anyway it wasn’t really serious so I didn’t need to have them stitched. Also luckily I did have the wherewithal to start taking photos at around the lemon mousse evening so I do at least have a few recipes to share with you. The one I got the most excited about was the fish and chips because Delilah (the coeliac) had been asking if she could have some fish and chip shop fish and chips (which of course she can’t) so I had promised to make her some at home. I found a cute retro chip serving kit in John Lewis to authenticate the experience and she couldn’t get enough of them. Triple cooking chips makes them gorgeously crispy on the outside and fluffy and light on the inside.
She was less enthusiastic about the fish because she is without doubt the fussiest eater on the planet, but she gallantly ate almost a whole goujon before admitting she’d probably prefer a gluten free mass produced fish finger. Mr Arabella Cooks and I had a whole battered fillet each however and they were delicious. Gluten free flour works so well for this because you don’t actually want any gluten in your batter. Recipes for it warn you not to overwhisk the mixture and release the gluten in the flour as that would make it heavy and tempura batter needs to be fairy light and crispy. Frankly I don’t know why everyone doesn’t just use gluten free flour in the first place. Don’t be put off that this isn’t a big butch beer batter – the lovely light tempura batter is gorgeous.
Gluten free tempura battered fish ingredients (serves four):
- 4 white fish fillets (sustainably sourced cod, pollock etc)
- Oil for frying (choose one with a high smoke point like sunflower or groundnut)
- 100g corn flour
- 150g gluten free plain flour
- 10g baking powder
- 1/2 a teaspoon of table salt
- enough iced sparkling water to make a batter that will coat your finger (or more importantly your fish or whatever you want to fry. Don’t deep fry your finger, obviously). About 150ml.
Method:
- Heat your deep fat fryer, or oil in a heavy bottomed pan (no more than half full) on the stove top.
- Mix the flours, salt and baking powder together in a large bowl.
- Slowly add the iced water, stirring gently (DO NOT overstir).
- Make sure your fish fillets are bone dry. When the oil has reached 180ºC dip the fillets one by one into the batter. Make sure they are completely covered. Lower each fillet slowly into the hot oil. When the bottom of the fillet is submerged in the oil, wave it around from side to side, gently, for a few seconds, before letting go. Don’t splash yourself.
- The fillet is cooked once it’s turned a beautiful golden brown, usually about 3-4 minutes. Don’t overcrowd your pan or fryer as that will lower the temperature of the oil (which needs to stay nice and hot at 180ºC). I did all mine separately. Use a slotted spoon to remove the fillets from the hot oil once cooked if using a pan and drain on kitchen paper.
Triple cooked chips ingredients (serves four):
- 800g Maris Piper potatoes, peeled and cut into chips (roughly 2 × 2 × 6cm)
- Groundnut or vegetable oil for frying
- Salt
Method:
- Rinse the chips for a few minutes to remove the starch
- Put the potatoes into a large saucepan with enough cold water to cover them. Bring the to the boil and simmer for about 10 minutes until tender. Heston Blumenthal recommends 20-30 minutes until the potatoes are almost falling apart but I couldn’t wait that long.
- Carefully drain the potatoes and dry them on a cooling rack (not on kitchen towel or they’ll go soggy). Put them in the freezer for as long as you can (Heston says an hour; I didn’t have an hour more like 20 minutes and they still worked).
- Heat a deep-fat fryer or a deep pan no more than half filled with oil (around 10 centimetres) to 130ºC.
- Fry the chips in small batches until crisp but not coloured (about five minutes), remove from the oil and drain on kitchen paper.
- Put the potatoes back onto the cooling rack and back in the freezer. Again, Heston says for an hour. I didn’t have that long (who starts cooking chips three hours before they want to eat them?). Half an hour would be good. I think I waited about 10 minutes.
- Heat the oil in the fryer or pan to 180ºC and fry the chips until golden (approximately seven minutes). Remove from the oil, drain on kitchen towel and sprinkle them with salt. Mr Arabella Cooks had some cider vinegar on his too. Eat. Yummo!
Arabella Cooks 