Fish and Chips Recipe

Fish and chips  is an iconic, beloved British dish. It is a popular take-out food in the UK, and used to be served wrapped in newspaper. Chips are what Americans would call french fries.

This fish and chips recipe has a modern Niçois twist. The cuisine in Nice, South of France, is colourful, tasty and heart healthy. Olive oil is the starting point for almost all dishes. Fish is regularly featured on menus, and such a variety of fish and seafood is hard to find anywhere else. Tasty tomatoes, capers, black olives of Nice, lemons and basil are basic ingredients in the local cuisine and super sources of those important antioxidants.

In the UK, fish and chips are usually made of haddock, aiglefin, or cod, cabillaud. Haddock is not often available in our local supermarket in Nice, but they have regularly very good and fresh French cod.

In this recipe chips are coated with olive oil and oven-fried together with cod. This is a healthy way to cook chips and reduces the amount of fat and calories. Anyone can make this tasty and easy dish.

Fish and chips recipe

2 servings

2 large potatoes
4 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp flour
¼ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 large egg
2 fillets of cod, cabillaud, about 150 g each
2 ripe and tasty tomatoes
1 clove garlic, minced
1 shallot, minced
1 tsp dried Provencal herbs
2 tbsp black olives of Nice
2 tsp capers
½ lemon
Fresh basil

Heat the oven to 200⁰ C, roast.

Peel the potatoes and cut into about 1,5 cm thick slices, then cut each slice into about 1,5 cm thick chips. Pour 2 tbsp olive oil into a largish plastic bag, add the chips and shake well. Line a large oven tray with baking paper and pour the chips in a single layer onto it. Leave a small space for the cod fillets. Bake for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in a frying pan warm 1 tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat and sauté the garlic and shallots for about 5 minutes. Cut the tomatoes into wedges and add to the pan. Season the tomatoes with pepper and Provencal herbs. Continue cooking gently, stirring now and again. Add the black olives in the last minute.

Place the flour on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Whisk the egg, ½ tbsp olive oil and a pinch of salt on another deep plate. Coat the cod fillets in flour, shake off the extra flour. Then coat them in egg, again shaking off the extra. This kind of coating is in France called à la parisienne. Take the baking tray out of oven and turn the chips. Place the cod fillets on the baking tray. Bake the chips and cod for about 10- 12 minutes, depending on the thickness of cod fillets.

Wash and dry a few fresh basil leaves, and cut into strips. Cut ½ lemon into wedges.

Divide the cod fillets, chips and tomatoes on the plates and sprinkle the capers over the cod. Decorate with basil and serve with lemon wedges.