Project 365: Day 159 and 101 in 1001 update

Since I wasn't feeling motivated yesterday, I had my fish and chips tonight (along with some mustard greens to give the meal some color).

The fish came from this recipe from Wendy Sweetser's The Ultimate Fryer Cookbook:
1.5 lbs firm white fish like cod or haddock
Salt and pepper
All purpose flour for coating
Batter (see below)
Oil for deep frying

1. Skin the fish fillets and cut into four equal portions. Season with salt and pepper.
2. Dust the fillets with flour and then dip in the batter until well coated.
3. Heat oil for deep-frying to 375F. Fry the fish in the hot oil, two fillets at a time, for about 5 minutes or until golden brown. Drain and keep warm.

Beer Batter (from the same cookbook)
1 cup self-rising flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
8 oz light beer

Sift the dry ingredients together, make a well and pour in half the beer. Mix it up and then gradually add the rest of the beer, mixing until the batter is smooth. Let it rest for an hour.

Verdict: Just ok. I forgot the trick to prevent stuff with batter from sticking to the fry basket so I ended up with fish chunks rather than a big ol' fillet. The fish never really firmed up and the batter is too watery. It also didn't taste like much. It is doubtful I would make this recipe again.

French fries (from the same cookbook)
2 lbs Idaho potatoes
Oil for frying
Salt

1. Peel and cut the potatoes into roughly 0.25inx2.5in batons. Rinse, drain and pat dry with paper towels.
2. Heat oil to 325F, place half the fries in the frying basket and fry for 5 minutes until the fries are soft, but still pale-colored. Drain and do the other half the same way.
3. When you're hungry, reheat the oil to 375F and fry up all the fries for about 2 minutes or until golden brown.
4. Drain and eat.

Verdict: Not great. The fries had a decent taste, but wouldn't crisp up not matter how long I left them in there. Maybe the potatoes I used had too much moisture. I guess I could've let them dry out or something. I was hungry so I ate them a little mushy. It is also doubtful I would make this recipe again.

I've made many things out of this cookbook so I'm not sure why these two recipes bombed a bit. It could be I've lost the frying touch. I haven't had great luck with stuff with batter except for the chicken wings for the Super Bowl.

Still...two more recipes down for my 101 challenge.