Boxes & Platters

Fish and Chips Box

£28.00

Haddock, cod or halibut cut thick, with batter, tartare, mushy peas, salt, vinegar and lemon. 225g of fish a head.

Feeds:

Two Two adults, two children Four

Fish:

Haddock Cod Halibut

Variant

How would you like it prepared? (optional)

Pickup available at From The Sea, Barnes

Usually ready in 2 hours

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Fish and Chips Box

Two / Haddock

From The Sea, Barnes

Pickup available, Usually ready in 2 hours

18 Barnes High Street
London SW13 9LW
United Kingdom

Cut to order, filleting free

Next-day delivery, order by 1pm

Collect in Barnes, about two hours

Haddock, cod or halibut. Cut thick, skinned and pin-boned by hand, 225g a head.

Choose the fish and how many are eating. We cut it to order at the counter and pack the batter, the sauces and the sides around it. The chips are yours to cut.

Which fish

Haddock. A finer, tighter flake than cod and a little sweeter. The tight flake holds a batter.
Cod. Large, soft, distinct flakes and a thicker loin. The fish every other white fish gets described against.
Halibut. Dense, lean and tightly bound. Cut as a steak it stays whole where a thin fillet would slide apart. The fish no chip shop will fry.

What is in the box

Fish, skinned and pin-boned, 225g a head
Batter mix, 200g
House tartare sauce, 200g
Mushy peas, 300g
Cornish sea salt flakes, 100g
Malt vinegar, 150ml
Amalfi lemon

The box for two adults and two children adds eight panko fish fingers. The box for four doubles the fish, the batter, the peas and the lemons.

Potatoes. Collect in Barnes and a kilo of potatoes from the greengrocer next door goes in the box. Delivered boxes come without them, because a kilo of potatoes doubles the weight of the parcel to carry about a pound of goods.

Subject to the market. The counter changes with the market and the weather. If your fish is not in we swap it. Pollack or hake stands in for cod or haddock, cut thicker because both are softer. Turbot stands in for halibut. The swap is the same price or better and the change is written on the packing note.

How you want it cut. Tell us at checkout. Filleting, pin-boning and skinning are free and we do them by hand.

Weights. Weights are approximate because fish are cut by hand. We pack to at least the weight shown.

Keep and storage. The box travels chilled with a gel pack. Unpack it into the fridge as soon as it arrives. Eat fresh fish within a day or two of delivery. Most lines freeze well on the day they arrive.

Photographs show one version of this box. Fish are different sizes, so yours will not look identical.

Origin, cooking and recipe

Origin and species

Fish flesh is blocks of muscle held apart by thin sheets of collagen. Those sheets are what you see as flakes, and heat dissolves them. How a fish behaves in a fryer comes down to how cohesive its flakes are and how thick it is cut.

Haddock has a finer, tighter flake than cod and is a little sweeter. The tight flake holds a batter instead of sliding out of it.

Cod breaks into large, soft, distinct flakes and carries a thicker loin. It is the fish every other white fish gets described against.

Halibut is dense, lean and tightly bound, and cut as a steak it stays whole in hot fat. No chip shop will fry a fish at £67 a kilo. Its risk is the opposite one, going dry, so cut it thick and give it less time.

All three are skinned and pin-boned by hand before they go in the box. Pin bones do not dissolve in cooking and there is no machine that takes them out.

How to cook it

Three things go wrong at home. Cold oil, chips fried once and a cold first batch. Get the chips going before the fish.

Fill a deep heavy pan no more than a third with oil and take it to 180C. Use a thermometer. Below that the batter drinks the fat instead of setting.
Mix the batter with cold sparkling water or cold beer to the thickness of double cream. Leave a few lumps.
Dry the fillets, season them, dust them in a little flour, coat them and let the excess run off.
Lower them in away from you, two pieces at a time so the oil holds its heat. Five to seven minutes to deep gold.
Drain and salt straight away, while the surface is still wet enough to hold it.

Halibut is the thickest of the three. Give it an extra minute and check the centre has turned opaque. It is lean, so it dries faster than the other two.

Warm the mushy peas through gently with a splash of water. Serve the tartare cold.

Recipe

Chips, fried twice

One fry cannot both soften the inside and build a crust. That is the whole reason for doing it twice.

You need: 1kg floury potatoes, oil for frying, salt. A waxy potato will not fluff inside.

Cut the potatoes into chips about 1.5cm thick. Rinse them in cold water until it runs clear, then dry them properly. Wet chips spit.
Fry at 140C for six or seven minutes until soft and still pale. Lift them out and let them cool.
Turn the oil up to 190C and fry them again for two or three minutes until gold and crisp.
Drain, salt straight away and eat them fast.

Fry the fish while the chips rest between the two fryings. Everything lands together.

Storage and preparation

Keep the fish in the coldest part of the fridge and cook it within two days of arrival.

The fillets freeze wrapped tight for a month. Thaw them overnight in the fridge and dry them well before they meet the batter.

The batter mix, the salt and the vinegar keep in the cupboard. The tartare and the peas go in the fridge once opened.

Tell us in the order notes if you would like the fish cut a particular way and we will do it by hand at the counter.

Cut to order

Tell us how you want it in the order notes. Filleting, pin-boning and skinning are free, by hand at the counter. If you ask for a fish to be trimmed, headed or skinned, the finished weight comes down accordingly.

Delivery and collection

Order by 1pm for next-day delivery across London and the UK. Same-day collection in Barnes, usually about two hours.

Our promise

If it is not right, we make it right. Tell us and we will sort it. Local customers can bring it back to the counter and we will replace it.

Fish and Chips Box

£28.00

Order by 1pm

Next-day delivery across London and the UK. Free over £60.

Collect in Barnes

Same-day collection from the counter, ready in about two hours.

Cut to order

Cut to order at the counter. Filleting, pin-boning and skinning are free.

Food Hygiene Rating

Rated 5 out of 5 by the local authority.