Day 52: Fish And Chips And Vinegar, Vinegar, Vinegar ... Pepper, Pepper, Pepper, Salt

Last day of fish week and Chef has us making fish and chips and snapper en papillote.

I'm starting to get use to the idea of having dinner for breakfast. Actually, I have breakfast before school, so having dinner at anywhere from 9:00 a.m. is probably okay. Some say you're suppose to have your biggest meal at lunch anyway.

One of my colleagues has been looking forward to making and eating fish and chips. The mere mention of fish and chips brings a smile to his face. Today Chef has prepared a beer batter for us to use with our fish, which is sole. If you don't have any beer, you can substitute with any bubbly beverage such as ginger ale or soda water. By-the-way, you won't get drunk on this batter either, there isn't enough beer in batter on the fish to get you drunk.

To go with the fish we are making sweet potato fries. Chef has a mandolin that can make waffle cuts and we are all taking turns cutting our sweet potato. I'll have to dig out my mandolin and find out if I can make waffle cuts. With fish and chips you need tartar sauce and we are making our own. Mayonnaise is the base for the tartar sauce. We've made mayonnaise before and it's made by beating two egg yolks with oil and then seasoned with salt and pepper and a couple of drops of lemon juice. To the mayonnaise we add gherkins and capers.

After break and cleanup we get a demo on how to clean a whole fish by Chef. We need to know how to fillet a fish should the occasion arise. We each get our own fish and break it down so that we have fillets for our dish. I am using a white snapper and it is already drawn (guts removed) and need only remove the fins, scales and then cut two fillets (round fish have two fillets ~ one on each side) leaving only the bones behind. I've seen my dad do this so many times - hopefully I'll soon be as good as he is in the kitchen.

En papillote is a great way to cook lean fish. The fish is sealed in parchment paper by making an envelope. When the envelope has puffed up, the fish is ready. In my envelope with the fish, I add slices of lime, sliced scallions, minced lemon grass, kafir lime leaves, salt, pepper and butter. To go with our fish, Chef has asked us to prepare a starch and vegetable. I decided to go with a vegetarian sushi, string beans and julienne red peppers.