Fakeaway Fish & Chips with Young’s.

Did you know that it was National Fish & Chip day on 1^st June? Well, I didn’t – I didn’t have a clue and the lack of awareness has left me asking myself if I’m really even British at all? In all seriousness though, fish and chips are really just lush aren’t they? As you can imagine, when Young’s got in touch and asked me if I would be willing to recreate the classic Brit nosh with their Young’s Chip Shop range I jumped at the chance like a woman possessed. I’ve recently mentioned creating versions of your takeaways at home and I think that fish and chips is one that we totally forget to “fakeaway” – it’s easier with other foods but how will we create that delicious unique, crisp, bubbly batter that requires a skilful hand?

Buy it from Young’s. Their Chip Shop range has been designed for this, this is the moment they anticipated when creating the range – how, they said, can we make it so that thousands of British families can eat a chippy when they don’t live near the beach, can’t be arsed to trek down or, even more shocking, their chippy closes at 7pm (LIKE OURS…). At least that is how I envision the marketing meeting going in my mind’s eye, but either way, the fact remains that their Chip Shop range really is perfect for recreating that perfect chippy dinner – and I wanted to show that we were walking the walk, so we decided to make our own at home.

In case you had it in mind that you were on some diet that had to be calorie controlled, this speaks to you just as much as anyone else too with Young’s Chip Shop Cod Fillets coming in at only 243 calories per fillet and Young’s Chip Shop XL Fish Cakes only 209 calories, making them significantly lower calorie than the real thing and I challenge you to taste the difference! Go ahead – I’m always sceptical with “fakeaways” too, so this was just as much a surprise for me as it will be for anyone giving this a go, there is a reason why Young’s Chip Shop is the nation’s favourite. Before I share the recipe for Young’s Chip Shop Cod, if you’re like me you will be questioning how anyone, ANYONE, could dream of eating fish and chips without curry sauce… but I have you covered (or more accurately Young’s do) with this curry sauce recipe too.

Here is the recipe we tried:

For the Curry Sauce

• 1tbsp Rapeseed Oil
• 2 small Shallots – finely Diced
• 1 Apple – peeled, cored & diced
• 1 Clove Garlic- Crushed
• 1tbsp Medium Curry Powder
• 1tbsp Plain Flour
• 1tsp Fresh Ginger – finely chopped
• ½tsp Tomato Puree
• Salt & Ground Black Pepper
• 1/2 tsp Fish stock paste
• Water 500 ml

For the chips:

• 800g Potatoes – washed
• 4tbsp Rapeseed Oil
• 1tbsp Fresh Thyme – Chopped
• 1tbsp Fresh Oregano – Chopped

Now we omitted the herbs on the potatoes because our kids aren’t really keen (Edith’s bellows of “I DON’T LIKE THE BIIIIIIITTTTTS” could be heard for miles) but we followed everything else to the tee:

To make the chips:

1. Roughly cut the unpeeled potatoes into chunky chips, leave to soak in water for 10 minutes
2. Drain the chips well
3. Mix chips with extra virgin rapeseed oil, (oregano & thyme can be dried) & season.
4. Bake in the oven at 200°C Fan on baking tray for 25 -30 mins.

To make the curry sauce:

1. In a sauce pan on a medium heat the oil & shallots until soft
2. Add garlic, ginger & apple & sweat for 2-3mins
3. Add tomato puree, curry powder & flour stir well
4. Add water & stock paste, and stir
5. Simmer for 10mins
6. Liquidise slightly with a hand blender making sure to retain some texture.

Serve with a fillet of Young’s Chip Shop Cod and enjoy! If you want to go old school, you can totally eat it on paper too to save the washing…

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