Cut 4 large Idaho potatoes in half, then into 1/2" wedges. Put into bowl of ice water and chill for 30 minutes. Drain, pat dry, deep fry at 325 F for 4 minutes, until lightly browned.

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Drain potatoes on paper towel, cool for 25 minutes and take heat off of your fryer oil. Pre-heat oven to 250 F. Turn heat up to 350 F and deep fry potatoes again for 5 minutes until fully golden brown. Season and keep warm on a baking sheet near the top of the oven.

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Combine 1 1/2 cups AP flour with a 12 oz bottle of beer (as you can see I used Sam Adams Pale Ale), whisk the beer into the flour gently until combined and all clumps are gone. Season with salt.

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Skin and fillet 1 1/2 pounds of cod (being a New England-er I use cod or haddock, but if they are not locally caught use a fish that is) and cut into 1" thick strips about 5-6" long. Pat dry and season lightly on both sides.

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Heat your fryer oil up to 375 F. Dredge fish in a bowl of flour, then coat in your beer batter and slide directly into the oil (if you have a basket have it already submerged in the oil). Fry until fully golden-brown, about 4 minutes. Turn frequently to brown on all sides and avoid sticking. Drain on paper towel and season immediately, and keep warm in the bottom part of the oven.

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Serve with malt vinegar and tartar sauce (I made my own tartar, a basic recipe) and enjoy!

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Mmmm--It sounds very good. I make a very similar recipe with a small difference. After trying a Paul Prudhomme recipe, I've taken to adding spices to the batter. Not too much, and I change them up depending upon my mood and what else we're eating, but it adds a nice little zip. I also make some tartar sauce variations. My favorites (other than traditional, which I like, too) are chipotle and Thai curry. Oh--I also skip the malt vinegar. Smelling it actually makes me kind of ill. Go figure.

This post was edited by JEB90 on Oct 24 2011 11:23pm

Yeah, I included the malt vinegar to keep it traditional, and of course I wouldn't mix it with the tartar sauce. I heard from someone else that a couple more traditional details I left out were to include vinegar in the water when I soaked the potatoes in ice water. I wasn't thinking of flavor at all, just about extracting startch. He said it doesn't have a huge impact on the flavor though. Also it's considered authentic to drain the fish on newspaper. Whatever.

I think people that get too hung up on tradition like that are just being lazy. I find very few recipes that I can't improve upon.

I agree, except I like to stick to tradition when I'm following an old family recipe, out of respect to my Grandfather or whoever else it came from. Especially if it was taught to me personally, as opposed to just following a recipe that I was given.

If you wanna go for the english tradition and get the traditional chips, they cook the chips in 3 steps. They boil em first, cool em and then the 2 frying steps..
Also i like to add whisked egg whites to the batter, adds more air to the batter.

This post was edited by hofx2 on Oct 25 2011 06:46am

The batter fell apart quite easily, if you turn them often while frying it helps.