As I mentioned before (Kitchen Academy - Course II - Day 22), I missed this day in class and had to rush my dishes to make it up. Sort of sad, since I really liked today's dishes and would have preferred not to rush them: fried calamari with cocktail sauce (which I didn't get a chance to make) and Fish and Chips with Tartar Sauce and Malt Vinegar.

Of course, to make fish and chips, you first need a fish. Ours was lingcod. Another ugly fish that was fairly easy to fillet (though there is a trick or two to trimming the edible parts of the fillet). It certainly makes wonderfully shaped portions for fish and chips (not to mention it is quite tasty). Luckily, I got an entire fish to myself, as my first batch of beer-battered deep fried fish had a serious problem.

When I put the battered fish into the deep fryer they immediately sank to the bottom and then stuck to the fry basket. When I tried to free them, the batter tore off and they were in no shape to present. Ooops. Back to the fish and trimming the other fillet ... also had to use the 1/2 bottle of beer I had left to make more batter (damn). The trick here is to lower the fish into the frying oil slowly so that the batter starts to crisp up and provide some buoyancy before you let the fish go entirely to finish frying.

Well, that's it for this day's cooking. I was just happy to move on to the rest of my production for day 24.