🌞 We can't afford to do this often, but Mrs. JP and I
Last edited Fri Aug 8, 2025, 05:00 PM - Edit history (2)
went out to dinner last night. We were hoping to find a replacement
for our old fish+chips seafood restaurant, from where we used to live...
another State another time.
The reviews were promising.
We don't drink much, so just had water, the waitress, observing our thirst, asked
if we'd like a carafe. Score 1 for the waitress..
Next she brought 6 slices of warm crusty French bread, with soft whipped,
unsalted, herbed butter, in a small ramekin. Score 1 for the chef.
At this point, I should mention, that I have held every kitchen station. From
Plonger (Pearl Diver if you like), Saucier, Salad + Dessert prep, Line Cook, and finally Chef.
Culminating as a Private Chef for 30 people every lunchtime. A full 3-course meal five
times a week plus menu planning - pretty much a solo endeavor.
Back to my story. Fish & Chips is a quick dish to prepare, so it wasn't long before our
entree arrived. Presentation was well above average. Resting on a full plate of hand-cut
Russet potatoes, were three filets that had been allowed to curl so the whole outside,
and only the outside, was coated with the batter. Fist-sized clumps (my wife initially
thought they were chicken-breasts from their appearance). Two large slices of lemon
flanked a large ramekin of freshly-made Tartar sauce. ( I should point out that this
was the small portion dish, ALL the entrees had a small and large size! )
Tried the potatoes first, then had another and another. Spiced and superb from small
young potatoes. (I knew that the fish would be too hot to just dive in.)
Finally, got to taste the fish and was shocked. Not only was the Haddock Icelandic,
but the batter was literally...uhh ethereal. Now I've had fish'n'chips hundreds of
times, (starting out in the U.K.) in literally dozens of ways including bread crumbs,
Buttermilk and Panko, egg-batters etc. and have never experienced a batter as thin,
(by thin, I mean less than 1/32 inch!) and yet at the same time, it was by itself, very rich in
flavor. The fish itself was perfectly cooked. (insert blanket generalization that Americans
seriously overcook fish, most of the time, destroying its subtle sweetness) This was
NOT overcooked. Moist, tender and buttery 
.After two bites "I said "Holy Shit!"
"This is superb!" Wife agreed.
Several minutes of munching ensued. (I became thankful I hadn't ordered the large plate!)
Just barely finished mine, wife had a nice doggie bag to bring home. We'll be returning.
Hope this was fun to read...
= new reply since forum marked as read
"Does that mean "you can't say" or "You Can't Say?"
"I Can't Say."
it means "diver" commonly referred to in English as a dishwasher
3 other movies you might enjoy:
Chef
Ratatouille
Burnt
and easy recipes out there...Hmmm let me check my library...
Here you are:
Roman Dough
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 14 minutes
Serves: 3
Difficulty: Easy
Heck forgot to translate
Ingredients:
• 3.5 g (1/8 oz) Dried powdered yeast
• 650 ml (2 2/3 cups) Water at room temperature
• 20 g (3/4 oz) Sea salt
• 1 kg (2.2 lbs) Whole-wheat flour, unbleached and stoneground
• 25 ml (1 1/2 Tbsp) Extra virgin olive oil
• ½ tsp. sugar, superfine
Preparation:
1. In a mixer, put the flour with a dough hook attachment.
2. In 100 ml of water, dissolve the yeast and add the flour with the
400 ml water that remained and the
superfine sugar.
3. Turn on the mixer to the lowest setting and mix for 2 minutes untilthe water is absorbed totally. Add
salt and water and mix. Adding the water slowly little by little, double
the mixer speed and add
more water once the previous amount you put is absorbed. Don’t
worry if the mixture looks quite
wet, just keep mixing for 8-10 minutes and the dough will gradually
start stretching and it will form
long gluten strands.
4. In a mixer bowl, rest the dough for 10 minutes while it's covered
with a plastic wrap before you fold
it. Leave it in the refrigerator to mature and form into three sheets of
roman style pizza dough. Shaping your Roman-style dough
1. When the dough has rested briefly, to give it strength, it needs to
be folded. Use a teaspoon of extra
virgin olive oil to oil your hands and also oil the work surface lightly.
Remove the dough from the
container to a work surface. To form pockets of air, gently lift in the
center and fold the ends under
and meet in the middle.
2. Repeat the fold and turn the dough at 90 degrees. Cover the bowl
with a plastic wrap and let it rest
for 15 minutes and again fold. Let it rest for other 15 minutes and do
a final folding as before. Get a
plastic container with an airtight lid and oil it and put the dough in
there. Put in the refrigerator and
leave for 18-24 hours.
3. When the dough matures once in the refrigerator, remove from
the container and put on a work
surface and divide the dough into 3 pieces.
4. To form a ball, shape each piece of dough by putting your hands
under the outer edges and slide.
Repeat this several times until the dough gets a ball-like
appearance.
5. Using your fingers, gather and fold at the edge of every piece of
dough and bring the balls towards
you. This makes the ball smooth and even. Dough balls should be
left to rise again for 2 hours at room temperature in three oiled contained containers.
6. Oil with extra virgin olive oil a baking tray or oven tray, on a work
surface, put flour and turn one
piece of dough. On the dough surface, start pressing gently using
your fingers to roughly fit the tray
size by stretching it.
7. Without a fan, preheat the oven to 250 degrees to cook the dough
for any Roman-style pizza recipes, which require the dough.
from "Homemade Pizza Cookbook the best recipes and secrets..."
Enjoy!
These two methods are the most popular ways to knead dough. (We’ll show each technique in detail below). Kneading dough by hand can be messy, and many home cooks add a lot of extra flour, which can compromise the texture of the baked loaf.
So while hand kneading can be a gratifying process, we recommend using a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment for this task. A dough hook is the best tool you can use to knead dough. It does everything your hands would do, but more quickly. Not only does a stand mixer and dough hook do all the work—but you’re more likely to get better results if you use them instead.
How Long Does It Take to Knead Dough?
On a practical level, it takes up to 25 minutes—and some well-developed forearm muscles—to knead dough by hand, and just about 8 minutes to knead in the stand mixer with the dough hook. However, if you do not own a stand mixer, you can still mix dough by hand and make a good loaf of bread from most doughs. Either way, both methods are simple, as long as you do them right. The trick for kneading by hand is to use a rhythmic, gentle motion that stretches and massages the dough.
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/articles/374-Bread-Baking-101-How-to-Knead-Dough
We recently tested a few additional stand mixers. The NutriMill Artiste Stand Mixer, which did a great job with everything from cake batter to pizza dough, is our new favorite lighter-weight stand mixer. Our overall winner remains the Ankarsrum Assistent Original 7 Liter Stand Mixer. Our best mid-priced stand mixer is the KitchenAid Classic Series 4.5 Quart Tilt-Head Stand Mixer.
https://www.americastestkitchen.com/equipment_reviews/2593-the-best-stand-mixers
Old Kitchen-Aid and Sumbeam's motors last forever you could probably snag one at a yard sale or Goodwill
The socket size is universal so pick up a bread hook off the bay...
HTH!
the day after. 
Note to everyone: A really good meal uplifts you!
Even I was helpless against Tilapia! The only way to go was Portuguese
(tomato onions & spices) to drown out its taste!
bad flavor! 
I don't know why because I don't even like fish. 
But thanks for the distraction.
Foreign Affairs, of course I can talk! 
a good one with the superior V-shaped blade. Not expensive,
but very very dangerous. Always use the holder.
Simplest is often best.