Beer Battered Sole with Sweet Potato Fries

Hi everyone,
Although this is usually the busiest time of year, I had no idea just how busy we would be. Christie has been busy working 6 day weeks, and Ive been, well, busy cooking and apparently not posting. I know, bad Ian. Since I have last posted, I have baked my first ever batch of cookies from scratch, co-baked/decorated nearly 50 cupcakes for the cupcake cake, roasted everything from pork to blade roasts to two more turkeys, including a whopping 20lb bird for which I tried out a whole new approach, though of course after a really long day of cooking and running around, I somehow forgot to take any pictures of the Bird out of the oven.

One really fun thing I have been doing is a weekly get together with my mother. At least one day a week we get get together and I cook something up for her. One fine afternoon, while a blizzard whipped about outside, my mother taught me how to cook pork's feet, not something for everyone, but I learned (to my relief) that the hoof isn't used, and its actually the leg that is used.

It was at one of these weekly get together that I had decided to revisit a fish & chips recipe that I had really enjoyed

This time around, I switched out Halibut with Sole, a nice, light and inexpensive alternative, as well as switching the russet potatoes out for sweet potato fries, and Ive got to say, I actually preferred this dish over the original.

For the recipe, please view the original posting HERE
and just remember to switch out the Halibut for Sole, and Russet Potato for Sweet (approx 1 sweet potato peeled and cut into 1/4 in fries lenghtwise along the potatos)

Enjoy!

Beer Battered Halibut with Chips and Tartar Sauce

Beer Battered Halibut with Chips and Tartar Sauce


I did it, hit one right out of the park so to speak. Let me fill you in. My roommate and I have been mentioning on and off for the past few weeks how we should make a dinner of homemade fish and chips, being both huge fans of the meal. So this afternoon, while getting ready for my daily walk, I decided to take a quick look at my new favourite Food Network Chef, Michael Smiths website for recipe ideas. Lo and behold, right there, a recipe for fish and chips, I was excited. Not only had I found a recipe that had piqued my interest, but I had also found something productive to do with my evening.

I found everything I needed at my local grocery store, minus the Halibut. Though there was some halibut labelled “fresh” on the packaging, it also had a special “for quick sale” label next to it, not worth the risk for fish thank you very much. Off to the local fish market I went, and found that they also were out of “regular’ halibut, and only had the “Wild Atlantic” sort, which was actually a very large piece of fish on ice in the counter, when I say big, I mean 4 feet long big, seriously, that’s a big piece of fish. The wild Atlantic Halibut is a wee bit expensive mind you, so stick with the usual supermarket type if possible, saving the wild stuff for special occasions (at 35$ for 4 smallish parts its costly). Any kind of fish that you want to do will suffice, but I have a hard time imagining myself eating Salmon battered and fried (I am also from PEI, so I have seemingly grown a taste for saltwater fish, and detest freshwater fish in most cases). The important thing here is to get yourself nice, thick de-boned cut as they have less risk of being overcooked. For the Chips I went for a no brainer, Russet potatoes. So, without further ado, here is the recipe as adapted from Michael Smiths original. I hope you like it as much as Tom and I did. What are you waiting for? Seriously, get away from your computer and make this tonight, you wont regret it.

Fish
4 x 8-ounce halibut filets
1 cup all purpose flour
½-cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon of baking powder
1 x 12-ounce bottle of your favorite beer
Salt and pepper to taste
More flour for dredging

Tartar sauce
½-cup mayonnaise
2 tablespoons green hot dog relish
1-tablespoon capers
4 green onions, thinly sliced
Juice of 1/2 lemon

Chips
1 small bag of Russet potatoes, peeled



Heat a deep fryer with vegetable oil to 375 degrees and carefully maintain oil until ready to fry.

Chips

Peel the potatoes, approx 2-3 medium sized potatoes per serving is fine. Cut the potatoes lengthwise into ¼ inch fries, then place into a bowl of cold water and allow to soak for 20 minutes. Drain water and pat dry with a paper towel. Cook in fryer until golden brown. Place in oven at 200 degrees on a baking sheet to keep warm until fish is ready to serve. Salt as desired to taste.

Fish
Whisk together flour, cornstarch, baking powder and salt and pepper. Add beer and stir just until combined. If batter is over mixed, it will be tough.

Dredge halibut in flour then dip in batter. Allow any excess batter to drain away, then slowly, carefully, dip the fish into the hot oil. Fry until golden and crispy and fish is cooked through, approximately 8 to 10 minutes. The oil temperature will drop a bit, 365 degrees is ideal.

Tartar sauce
Whisk together the mayonnaise, relish, capers, green onions and lemon juice. Serve with the fish.

Asian-style baked drumsticks with dill side dressing, crispy oven fries, and a carrot-celery slaw with toasted garlic and lemon dressing

Wheeeeeeeeeww, now that was a long name! But in all seriousness, this was so worthy of its long winded title.

Now, for my birthday my loving mother just knew that I would be dying for the new Anthony Sedlak cookbook, "The Main". If you haven't seen BC's newest heartthrob on the Canadian Food Network then let me tell you, you are definitely missing out. So here we are, making our way slowly through each main he has in the book, word for word, or should I say ingredient for ingredient, but it seems that Ian and I have become stuck on this one recipe.

The book originally calls for chicken wings instead of drumsticks and blue cheese instead of dill dressing, but the first time we made this recipe it was good, but not great. And so over the past months we had set out to perfect this chicken dish, and hit the jackpot on the second try. Now it is just too good to pass up and every time we get out "The Main" to try a new recipe we end up drooling on page 31 and head to the store in search of drumsticks and dill (you can tell that we like it because the pages are stuck together and splattered with all types of sauce and food.).

Oddly enough the dinky little coleslaw brings the whole meal together. I don't know how and really, I don't care. I'm sure that is what Mr.Sedlak and his lackeys are paid for, not me.
I would like to say one thing though, if you don't have something to julienne the celery, then do not, I repeat, do not attempt the slaw. I personally do not own one and I don't know why, but every time I actually attempt this grueling task and sit for almost an hour cutting teeny tiny little match sticks, by the end I'm often convinced that I should just check myself into the insane asylum and save myself the trouble. Enjoy!

Baked Asian Spiced Chicken Drumsticks
adapted from "The Main" Anthony Sedlak

3/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup oyster sauce
1/4 cup chopped cilantro stems
1 x bunch green onion, coarsely chopped
4 x cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
2 tbsp hot sauce
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 x 1 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
10-12 chicken drumsticks
2 tbsp sesame seeds, toasted

Carrot Celery Slaw
4 x celery stalks, julienned
1 x large carrot, julienned
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 x cloves garlic, peeled and finely chopped
juice of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

Baked French Fries
8 russet potatoes
3 tbsp vegetable oil
salt, pepper, and Italian spices

Dill Dressing
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
1/2 tbsp dried parsley
1 tbsp grated onion
4 tbsp fresh dill weed
salt and pepper to taste

Baked Asian Spiced Chicken Drumsticks
In a large bowl mix soy sauce, oyster sauce, cilantro stems, green onion, garlic, ginger, hot sauce, and sesame oil. Add chicken and marinate 20 minutes - up to overnight.
Preheat oven to 450 F. Transfer chicken wings to a large ovenproof dish. Pour extra marinade over wings. Place in preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350F and bake another 40-45 minutes.
Sprinkle with sesame seeds.

Carrot Celery Slaw
In a medium bowl, mix celery and carrot to combine.
In a small skillet, heat vegetable oil over medium heat. Add garlic and sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from heat and add oil to celery and carrot.
Add lemon juice and toss to combine.
Season with salt and pepper

Baked French Fries
Wash potatoes with skin on. Cut potatoes into any sized fries you would like. Place in cold water for 20min. then pat dry with a towel. Toss with oil and spices then spread out on baking sheet and bake at 375F for 40 min. Flip fries half way through.

Dill Dressing
In a medium bowl combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, parsley, onion, dill weed, and salt. Mix all together, cover, and refrigerate.