Tajín Chips Will Change Your Life

Chips, with one condiment? Yes sir it can be done...

March is a funny month food wise, because besides rhubarb, there isn’t a whole lot in season to be excited about. One thing I’m always excited about though? Chips. I love chips so much. When I first put Tajín on them, it became impossible to stop eating them, and so: this recipe. Further down, it’s all about the West Coast Mainline and a mind-blowing meal in Lancashire.

You might think that salt and vinegar can’t be beaten. I did. But Tajín gives Sarson’s a run for their money (that and their new god-awful slim-line logo). The chilli-lime seasoning brings the best of salt, heat and acidity, so that you only need this one condiment at your side. You also get a really fun chip-tossing moment here, that simply isn’t possible when vinegar is part of the equation. And I think chip tossing is something we all can enjoy.

The cold oil cooking method is one I learnt from Nigella Lawson, and it was truly a turning point in my cooking life. No longer would I be faffing about with par-boiling, steaming off and turning chips – something I faffed about with regular, because as I’ve already mentioned, I LOVE CHIPS. I hope this week’s recipe might change how you think about cooking chips at home.

I’ve added fish to the chips here because a) Everyone knows that lemon on fish is delicious, and so the limey-ness of Tajín works wonders on it; and b) In this particularly dinner, there’s no such thing as too much salt and acidity. But you could enjoy these chips with a breaded chicken schnitzel, dusted with a little Tajín, just as happily.

This recipe is sponsored by Tajín, which is available from MexGrocer. A big thank you to them for supporting WTYCT.

Tajín Fish and Chips

4-5 medium Cyprus potatoes, peeled and cut into chips/batons
450ml sunflower oil
1 ½ tbsp Tajín
2 white fish fillets 
70ml ice cold water
60g flour
¼ red cabbage, very thinly sliced
¼ white cabbage, very thinly sliced
1 carrot, grated or sliced into matchsticks 
3 tbsp mayonnaise
1 lemon

1. Place your cold, dry chipped potatoes in a wok filled with 350ml of the cold sunflower oil, so that all the potatoes are as covered as possible. Turn the wok on low and cook the chips for 20 minutes, turning the heat up to crisp up the chips for the final 4-5 minutes.

2. Season the fish fillets with ½ tbsp Tajín. Prepare your batter by mixing the ice cold water with the flour and a pinch of salt. 

3. Mix together your sliced cabbages and carrot and stir through the mayonnaise, and a sprinkling of Tajín. Season with a pinch of salt and pepper.

4. Now, heat up the remaining 100ml oil in a frying pan that’s big enough to fit the fish fillets in. Dip the fillets into the batter and coat well, allowing excess to fall off as you lift the fillets out. Slowly lower the fish into the hot oil dropping the furthest end down gently, away from you. Fry for 2-3 minutes on each side (depending on the thickness of your fillets), until golden brown.

5. When the fish and chips are both browned to your liking, drain on kitchen paper and season immediately with 1 tbsp of Tajín. Toss the chips in the seasoning. Serve with the coleslaw and enjoy.

Both my parents are from Manchester and so travelling on the West Coast mainline is something I’ve done a lot in my life. It’s a journey I have good associations with, despite the cursed nature of its time being managed by Virgin and now Avanti West Coast. I have fond memories of being 16 and travelling up to go to gigs or maybe Old Trafford, listening to songs by Television Personalities or The Smiths that matched the names of places as I passed them. I revelled in the right to be twee.

Last week, I was incredibly lucky to travel on this particular route to eat at Moor Hall, a restaurant near Ormskirk in Lancashire, which produces the most intricate and impressive food I think I’ve enjoyed in England.

Each dish I was presented with (and there were a lot of them) was somehow prettier than the last. I tasted several things for the first time, including: poached oysters (woah), a batch of Taiwanese tea from 1998 (!), and guinea hen juices mopped up with onion brioche.

Sometimes my job leads to ridiculously good fortune and I have the urge to splash my face with water and ask “is this real?”. This was one of those times. Here were my favourite mouthfuls:

• A black pudding and gooseberry snack

• Poached oyster in a butter sauce with radish

• The bounciest freshly baked bread with two types of butter: one herby, one soured with cultures turning it pleasingly cheesy

• Scallop with fermented green tomato sauce, truffle and asparagus

• Guinea hen with morels, ramson and white asparagus

• Garden apples and gooseberry with birch sap and marigold

We were sent home with one of the best pastries I’ve ever eaten in my life: a custard and pear cruffin. I have no picture of it, but when I shared it with Charles we found it was an exclaim-with-every-mouthful kinda treat.

Moor Hall has another restaurant on site called The Barn where you can get a 3-course meal for £42, and both restaurants share a pastry chef. I recommend a visit if you have £42 spare and are ever in the North West. It was mind-blowing stuff! Long live Lancs.

I’ll see you next week, when I’ll be celebrating 2 YEARS of the newsletter with a VERY EXCITING INTERVIEW and a recipe to match.