Recommendations · Beer and food

Fish and chips with Rodenbach Grand Cru

Cod in a light beer batter and fries that go into the oil twice, with tartare sauce on the side. Against so much frying you set a sour beer.

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Bottle of Rodenbach Grand Cru, beer

From the shelf

The bottle

Rodenbach Grand Cru comes from Rodenbach in Belgium and has 6 percent ABV. The bottle holds 33 centilitres. It is a Flemish red-brown beer: a style that matures in oak casks and becomes distinctly sour as a result, with notes of red fruit and a dry, tart finish.

Rodenbach Grand Cru

The combination

Why this works together

Vinegar goes on chips and a wedge of lemon lies next to fried fish; that is not without reason, because acid clears away fat. A Flemish red-brown beer does the same job, but in the mouth and with carbonation as well, so that the batter and the mayonnaise do not linger. The red fruit notes stand out against the salt on the chips.

At the table

The dish

  • Before 4 people
  • Ready in 1 hour
  • Type main course

What you need

  • 800 grams of cod fillet, in four pieces
  • 1.2 kilos of floury potatoes
  • 200 grams flour
  • 50 grams cornflour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 330 millilitres of cold beer
  • 2 litres sunflower oil, for deep-frying
  • 200 millilitres mayonnaise
  • 2 tablespoons capers, finely chopped
  • 1 gherkin, finely chopped
  • 1 lemon
  • salt

How to make it

  1. Peel the potatoes and cut them into sticks of 1 centimetre. Rinse them and pat them bone dry.
  2. Heat the oil to 150 degrees and fry the chips for 6 minutes without letting them colour. Let the sticks cool on a rack.
  3. Stir the mayonnaise with the capers, the gherkin and a spoonful of lemon juice into a tartar sauce and chill it.
  4. Mix the flour, the cornflour, the baking powder and a teaspoon of salt. Pour in the cold beer and whisk to a batter as thick as yoghurt; small lumps may remain.
  5. Pat the fish dry, sprinkle it with salt and dredge it through a little loose flour.
  6. Heat the oil to 180 degrees. Pull the fish through the batter, let it drain and carefully slide it into the oil away from you.
  7. Deep-fry the pieces for 6 minutes, until the batter is golden brown and crisp. Let them drain on a rack.
  8. Fry the chips for another 3 minutes in the same oil until brown and crisp, sprinkle them with salt and serve with the tartare sauce and the lemon.

In the glass

Serving

Serve at 8 to 10 degrees in a tulip glass. Pour slowly and keep the head small; the acidity and the carbonation do their work in the mouth, not in the foam.

Everything about Rodenbach Grand CruBack to Recommendations from ’t Bockje

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