Messing with British Institutions: The Fish and Chip Brit Pot

Messing with a British institution is a dangerous game. Putting Fish & Chips into a microwavable pot is a bit like giving Dame Maggie Smith a Mohican. We went ahead and did it anyway, and we’re pretty proud of the results too. 

As Brits, Fish & Chips, occupy a very special place in our hearts. Fish & Chips even managed to slip past McDonald’s Olympic dictatorchip, making its way onto the stadium menu as a classic British dish.  No easy feat, as any Stratford-based chip vendors will contest.

Calling up memories of rainy day trips to the Great British beach with every mouthful, it’s no wonder that people have such a personal interest in defining what exactly goes into making the “perfect” Fish & Chips.  Here’s our take on the British classic: 

The Fish

Once upon a time it might have been the only way our parents could get us to eat fish, but it has remained our favourite way of guzzling our gill-bearing friends. 

We didn’t want to get too caught up in the cod vs haddock debate, so we went with the majority vote. While haddock is the top choice for the Scots, it’s cod that wins out in England making up 61.5% of our consumption.  

The Chips

According to the BBC’s history of the classic dish, the chip, fish’ s partner in crime, started out life as a fish substitute when housewives began cutting potatoes into fishy shapes and frying them when the rivers had frozen over.  However this food phenomenon started out, we can no longer imagine one without the other. 

There are some fairly strong opinions about exactly what the humble chip should aspire to be.  Variation is the spice of life after all and we’re happy to accept the fact that while some occasions call for a sizable portion of fat chips, thin and crispy fries are also capable of hitting the spot. 

Our breaded “chips” are still soggy enough to soak-up all of the flavours but they are cut into cute little cubes in our own twist on the traditional chip.

Condiments

Condiments are yet another controversial ingredient of the perfect fish & chips. Not everybody agrees that the dish goes hand in hand with ketchup, even if the tomato-based sauce did fare well in recent polls, coming out top of the sauces.  

While every so often we appreciate a little soaking in gravy or a dollop of tartar sauce, we’re definitely backing ketchup all the way in this case.

We were even brave enough to take on Heinz and have come up with COOK’s own brand of tomato ketchup.  Ketchup-convert yet?

Mushy peas

To all those haters of peas of the mushy variety all we have to say is, are you sure you’ve given them a proper chance? We don’t believe that if you’ve tasted the real deal you’d still be complaining. 

Our fish & chips are nestled on a tasty bed of mushy peas (of entirely our own creation), finishing everything off with that perfect traditional touch.

How to serve?

Want to re-create the shabby-chic of polystyrene trays and newspaper wrapping? Leave it all in the little microwaveable pot it came in and not only will you save on the washing up, you’ll also have succeeded in recreating some of that portable beach-front magic.

Greasy fingers and guilty stomachs might all be key elements in our beach-side chippy memories, but the final little twist we gave to the British classic was to make it a little less of a sin. While the average portion from the chippy would contain around 595 calories, our fish & chips have just 366, making them virtually guilt free.