Deep-fried perch with pink eye potatoes, chorizo and spring onion mayonnaise

“One Saturday night, Catherine and I did a bit of recipe testing. I had some great pink eye potatoes leftover and with the perch I caught a few days before, fish and chips had to be on the menu. The idea for fried quinoa came from Garagistes restaurant (they served it on poached calamari). It was pure awesome.” Sam

• serves

  3-4

• prep

  25 minutes

• cook

  25 minutes

• difficulty

  Mid

Ingredients

• 75 g (½ cup) plain flour
• 75 g (½ cup) cornflour
• 1 tbsp salt
• 1 tbsp black pepper
• 1 whole perch (or any small whole fish), cleaned
• vegetable oil, for deep-frying

Spring onion mayonnaise

• 2 egg yolks
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• juice of ½ lemon
• 1 tbsp white vinegar
• ½ tsp white pepper
• 250 ml (1 cup) sunflower oil
• 2 tbsp sour cream
• 2 spring onions, finely chopped

Pink eye potato and chorizo chips

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 chorizo, thinly sliced
• 6 pink eye potatoes (skin on)
• 2 tbsp cooked quinoa

Instructions

To make the mayonnaise, place the egg yolks, mustard, lemon juice, vinegar and pepper in a bowl and slowly whisk in the oil (a piece of piss with a Kitchen Aid). Stir through the spring onions and sour cream (I blanched the spring onions first so they weren’t overpowering, but you don’t need to).

To make the chips, cook the potatoes in boiling salted water for 7 minutes or until just tender, then drain. Thickly slice into chips. Heat the oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook, turning, for 2 minutes or until golden, then remove the chorizo from the pan and set aside. Add the potato chips to the pan and cook in the same oil, turning, for 4 minutes or until golden. Remove the chips, add the quinoa to the pan and cook until just coloured. Place the chips on a plate and top with the chorizo and quinoa.

To make the deep-fried perch, fill a large saucepan one-third full with the oil and heat over medium-high heat to 180˚C. Mix the flour, cornflour, salt and pepper in a bowl. Cut the fins off the fish with scissors as they can burn, then coat the fish in the flour mixture. Deep-fry the fish until golden ­– it takes about 5 minutes.

Enjoy.

Recipe from Island Menu by Samuel Shelley and Catherine Miller, with photographs by Samuel Shelley and Catherine Miller.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.