Something's Fishy

     I'm sure all of you correctly identified the cuisine I imitated last night.  It was of course from the United Kingdom.  Fish and chips are practically a national treasure there.  One of the best meals I enjoyed while across the pond was in a "Chippy Shop" as Rita refers to them.  It was in a small local restaurant on a back street in Edinburgh.  The North Sea cod was flaky on the inside and golden crisp on the outside and a delight to consume.
     But it is something else again to attempt to replicate that same goodness in a kitchen with no deep fat fryer.  I know, I have tried unsuccessfully several times.  It is impossible to maintain the proper temperature of the cooking oil once the batter coated fillets are placed in it.  It should remain at a constant 375F.  But unless you are cooking with a large quantity of oil the temperature can drop precipitously nearly 100 degrees.  That makes for a soggy piece of fish, indeed.  So I have abandoned that method and save the UK experience for a trip to an eatery equipped for the challenge.
     But what about last night's meal?  I have to fess up.  I used some frozen cod pieces already breaded and marketed by Omaha Steaks .  Their high volume items are of course their steaks which they advertise in their catalogue at prohibitively high prices.  But every so often their retail stores will offer their products at deeply discounted prices.  Such was the case last week when I got wind of a 50% off sale on every item in their Chestnut Hill store for one day only.  We do not make a habit of eating much red meat but they also carry a line of pork and chicken products, as well as some fish and seafood.  So I thought it was worth a try.
     So what did I think of the prepackaged fish?  Not bad, actually.  Before putting in the oven for 20 minutes I doctored the pieces up a bit with a spritz of olive oil and a dash of smoked paprika.  Reading the ingredients on the box gave me a bit of pause, though, when I came across words I couldn't pronounce, like sodium tripolyphosphate.  One of the reasons I prefer to cook fresh and local is to avoid things like that.  Sodium is prevalent in far too many processed foods and causes health concerns for many Americans, myself included.  And the sodium level in the Nutrition Facts section of the box was higher than I liked, too.  It looks like these fish and chips will be a very occasional meal I prepare.
     In a future post I will discuss our equivalent of the British "chips" and how our term for them "French Fries" is actually a misnomer.