Sometimes people say our
national dish is roast beef, I've even heard people say it's chicken tikka masala, I
say that's all rubbish it's blatantly Fish 'n' Chips and the only thing
that should ever come with that is mushy peas. I've never had gravy
or curry sauce on chips in my life. When I lay my hands on that rare eastern delicacy - chip spice, I have been known to go a little crazy, but that's on chips strictly bound for butties and it goes no further.
Having been vegetarian for the best
part of two decades I really missed out on Britain's best loved dish
for quite some time. A couple of years before I became vegan I
stumbled across vegetarian fish and chips in a pub in Wapping which
was battered halloumi, chips and mushy peas. It was good but at the
end of the day it was just fried cheese - pure badness
and I can't eat it now I'm vegan.
The reason I chose to make fish and
chips on holiday, in Spain was not because I wanted to be an
obnoxious Brit abroad but more because I knew there would be a night
where my friends would want steak or fish and I would want something
simple that could be served with potatoes and vegetables also.
I had the idea of breading a piece of
tofu and frying it like fish a while ago as I thought the texture
would work like white fish (not that I have a lot of fish eating
experience). I thought wrapping it in Nori seaweed like sushi would
work best and happened to find a small Japanese section in the
supermarket in La Manga (weird that they had this and no Hummuss!).
My friend Kate suggested marinating the tofu in soy sauce and this
worked really well. It was much tastier than I thought it would be and not overly salty. After wrapping in moistened Nori I coated the whole thing in flour, then milk (whatever non-dairy milk you prefer), then breadcrumbs and shallow fried in a pan with vegetable oil on both sides until the crumbs were golden brown and crispy.
I served my tofu with a squeeze of lemon, oven-baked chips covered with salt and vinegar and minted mushy peas. My BF tried them and said it tasted fishy (but in a good way - a bad fishy way would be like a quorn fishless finger I imagine). I doubt it tasted of actual fish, not that I'd really remember but I would like to think that the seaweed gave it a taste of the sea.
These holiday creations have been so successful so far, I'm thinking of adding them to my Housebites menu. If anyone would like to comment on whether they would like to see this on my menu or want to suggest any vegan food that they would like to be able to order - I would love to hear from you.
I served my tofu with a squeeze of lemon, oven-baked chips covered with salt and vinegar and minted mushy peas. My BF tried them and said it tasted fishy (but in a good way - a bad fishy way would be like a quorn fishless finger I imagine). I doubt it tasted of actual fish, not that I'd really remember but I would like to think that the seaweed gave it a taste of the sea.
These holiday creations have been so successful so far, I'm thinking of adding them to my Housebites menu. If anyone would like to comment on whether they would like to see this on my menu or want to suggest any vegan food that they would like to be able to order - I would love to hear from you.
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