Fish and Chips

The other night, we were in the mood for fish and chips. That usually means deep fried fish and deep fried potatoes. We decided that frying both was too much, so we settled on frying the potatoes and making the fish with a tomato sauce.

Ever since I tasted khreimi, the North African fish dish with tomato sauce and cumin, I've been making it a lot. I often use tilapia, which isn't as good as when you make it with salmon or another richer fish. But tilapia is cheap and healthy (I think) so I usually end up buying it and making khreimi anyway.

I don't use a recipe, I just cook onions in a pan with garlic, cumin, salt and pepper, and then add tomato sauce. This time I added in some red wine too, because I had it lying around. Then you put the fish into the sauce and cook it with the top covered until it's done.

Then I made fries. Here is how to make fries the Right Way:

1. Cut away the round part of a potato (I used a baking potato, russet might have been a little better) until you have a long squared off potato

2. Cut into sticks

3. Wash thoroughly and dry on paper towels for at least 30 minutes. They should be BONE DRY

4. Heat oil to 325 degrees.

5. Fry them until they are pale and limp, a couple minutes. They will not be crispy... yet. This is ok.

6. Heat the oil to 375

7. Fry the suckas until they are golden brown and crispy

8. Apply salt

This takes a long time, especially if you are frying in batches, as I did. But they taste real good, and are worth it.