Fish & Chips

Ever have one of those nights at home where you get the idea of something you want for dinner and nothing else will do? It could be anything - grilled cheese, White Castle hamburgers, French Onion soup... when that occurs, it doesn't matter, you have to have it. Your best friend could call you up and say "I won the lottery, I'm taking you out for lobster tails and a Porterhouse" and you still would say "No thanks, I'm good with my bacon sandwich on Wonder Bread."

That hit me pretty hard the other night: I needed fish & chips. I had no desire to make a fancy dinner of it; I went to the store and bought the most basic things: some breaded fish fillets, some shoestring fries, a bag of cabbage.

I mixed the cabbage with a blend of mayo and spices. It was good, but I have certainly made much better slaw before. The fries cooked quickly in a pot of oil. The fish took about four minutes of pan frying on each side to make it crispy. It wasn't as light and airy as homemade beer batter, but I wasn't in the mood for making a batter, so I can't complain about that. It was good enough to fulfill my need for fried fish.

I made two sauces. The cocktail sauce was a mix of ketchup, chili sauce, and Atomic horseradish. It was as spicy as any cocktail sauce I have ever made. And I loved it. For the tartar sauce, I mixed mayo, diced pickles, a touch of the pickle vinegar and some lemon juice, and a slug of Tabasco. It was good, but I preferred the cocktail sauce.

I washed the whole thing down with a cold Pacifico.