PescaLive with Chef Ananya Banerjee

It was an eventful Pescalive session last Saturday with chef, influencer, food curator and consultant and former BBC Good Food India Executive Editor, Ananya Banerjee in our studio. She spoke about interesting experiences and anecdotes gathered from different parts of the world. However she agrees too, we can take an Indian out of India, but not India out of an Indian, especially when you’re a Bengali. In her words, Hilsa or the Ilish fish is not just a food, but an emotion in every Bengali home!

Inspired by the world-famous fish and chips stalls from the streets of London, Chef Ananya chose to make the popular snack with Sea Bass (bhetki).  Here is her specially curated recipe, also a part of her authored and published book, Planet Gastronomy.

FISH & CHIPS

Ingredients

For the fish

500 Gms firm-fleshed white fish fillets

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp chilli powder

1 cup chilled beer

3 tbsp corn flour, for dredging

For the chips

4 large potatoes

1 litre vegetable oil

Salt to taste

For the chips

• Cut potatoes in the shape of French fries. Wash and drain then fry the potatoes in small batches in hot oil for 2 to 3 potatoes. Blanch in hot water for 3 minutes. Drain well and minutes until they are pale and floppy. Remove from oil, drain and cool to room temperature.
• Reheat oil and re-immerse fries and cook until crisp and golden brown, about 2 to 3 minutes. Remove and drain on roasting rack. Season with salt while hot. (Tip: Cooking the potatoes thrice i.e. once blanching and twice frying produces super crisp fries from outside and crumbly and soft from inside.)

For the fish

• Mix the flour, baking powder, salt and chilli powder well. Add beer, and whisk until the batter is completely smooth and free of any lumps. Chill for 15 minutes. (Good-to-know: The batter can be made earlier but not more than one hour ahead of use.)
• Heat the remaining oil. Lightly dredge the fish fillets in corn flour. Dip the fish into batter and immerse into hot oil, few fillets at a time. Deep-fry the fish until golden brown on both sides. This process may take about 2 minutes. Drain the fish on a wire rack to get rid of the excess oil. Serve with the prepared chips.

Pescalive is an immersive experience, where we bring the freshest catches to our customers daily, on our app in the morning at 9.30 am. The idea is to enable the consumer to sit in the comfort of their homes and order fish and other meats, just as they would buy in a market. The only difference here is that we bring the market to you.  As an interactive platform, we encourage our viewers to ask questions and get comfortable with with buying seafood!