Who can resist digging into piping hot, beer battered fish and chips? Certainly not me.  

The classic British dish brings back wholesome family memories of eating this with greasy fingers at the seaside or as a Friday night takeaway when nobody could be bothered to cook. It is a beloved classic for a reason and, occasionally, a plate of the most comforting food in the world (however guilty it makes you feel afterwards), hits the spot like nothing else would.  

So, as we continue to rustle up our favourite dishes at home during lockdown, it seemed like a great time to experiment with Friday’s favourite and I decided to give it a makeover. I don’t know about you, but over these last few months I've become even more health conscious. I’ve never eaten particularly badly but I’ve been making swaps where I felt like I could ‘healthify’ a meal.  

So, stepping up the plate was the mighty Alaska pollock fillet. Smaller in stature but a powerful protein, it has a subtle flavour and lower oil content. It flakes beautifully when cooked and for those more eco-conscious diners, it is one of the healthiest, most sustainable, natural foods in the world.  

And like the deep-fried battered fish and chip recipes you find in your local, my baked version turned out just as golden and crispy on the outside, and moist and tender on the inside as desired.  

CHIPS...Now, you can’t have fish without the chips. But rather than deep frying mine, I chose to oven-roast, swapping Maris Pipers for root vegetables and sweet potatoes. They were really, really good and will leave less grease on your plate.  

So here it is, my Guilt-Free Fish and Chips.  

Ingredients 

• 4 large carrots, peeled, and cut into chips 

• 4 parsnips, peeled, cored, and cut into chips 

• 2 sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chips 

• A sprig of fresh rosemary 

• Sea salt flakes 

• Freshly ground black pepper 

• Olive oil 

• 4 Alaska pollock fillets, cut in half  

*I used frozen Alaska pollock fillets, defrost the pollock and pat dry with kitchen towel before you start the recipe 

• A small handful of fresh basil, chives, and parsley, chopped 

• 50g Panko breadcrumbs 

• 50g fresh breadcrumbs 

• 2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese 

• 2 tbsp seasoned flour 

• 2 eggs, lightly beaten 

Method 

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C/400°F/Gas mark 6. 

2) Line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. 

3) Put the carrot, parsnip and sweet potato chips into a bowl. Break the rosemary leaves into the bowl, season with some salt and pepper and drizzle with a little olive oil, tossing to coat evenly. Tip the chips onto a prepared baking tray and bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes until cooked through. 

4) Whilst the chips are cooking, make the crumb. Mix the chopped herbs, breadcrumbs and parmesan together in a bowl. 

5) Pat the pollock fillets dry and season with a little pepper. Dip the fillets first in the seasoned flour, then in the beaten egg and finally toss them in the crumb mixture to coat. Place the fillets on a baking tray, drizzle with a little olive oil and cook in the oven for about 8 minutes until the crumb is golden brown and crispy. 

6) Remove the fish and chips from the oven and serve with mushy peas. 

Let’s face it, the accompaniments are also part of the treat. No fish and chip dish is complete without the proper sides: salt and vinegar, mushy peas, bread and butter, tartare sauce and even curry sauce and gravy. I love homemade mushy peas and have included a recipe below for a healthier option, using frozen peas – it’s delicious!  For other healthy sides, you can have pickled onions and gherkins, as well as pickled chillies. But for me, it’s mushy peas and Tommy K all the way. 

Healthier Mushy Peas 

Ingredients 

• 250g frozen peas, cooked for 3-4 minutes in boiling salted water, drained 

• Olive oil 

• A small handful of fresh basil leaves 

• Sea salt flakes  

• Freshly ground black pepper 

Method 

To make the mushy peas, place the peas, a dash of olive oil, the basil and some salt and pepper in a bowl and blitz with a stick blender to a chunky purée. 

OM: At the moment I divide my time between Harlequin’s rugby club and the England football team. I suppose the two biggest names that I work with in Rugby are Joe Marler and Kyle Sinckler – both are currently in Japan. Earlier this year Joe decided that he would retire from international rugby, but quickly changed his mind. I think something clicked in his brain and he realised that he still had what it takes to play at that level and had another world cup challenge in him. So what do I do? My main job is to feed the players, the team and make sure that they are eating well.

How does it work? Do you arrange a diet plan for them?

OM: Essentially what I do is match up the team’s training plan to the food that they need to eat. On a heavy training day, it’s all about giving them as much lean protein as possible with high carbs for energy. It’s really simple when you know. I work with some of the world’s greatest performance nutritionists who essentially give me the scientific intel behind macro and micronutrients, which I then turn into good, tasty food. I think one of the things that I always try and do when I’m cooking is make sure that its recognisable. There’s no point in cooking everything with quinoa and avocado if they are not going to eat it – on the way home they’ll only stop at McDonalds!

Do you prep all of their meals for them and what ingredients would you typically include?

OM: On a typical day training day at Harlequins I’ll cook breakfast for them, then I’ll cook lunch and I’ll even do a post-training feed as well. All in all, they get three really good performance enhancing, recovery aiding meals a day. We try and include as much fish as possible. Salmon is our go-to especially around the lighter lunches where we want them to be eating high protein and the right kind of fats. A piece of grilled salmon, a salmon salad or the salmon katsu curry is a really good way of encouraging them to eat fish.

What do you think are the biggest health benefits of wild salmon for the players?

OM: Wild salmon has so many health benefits, but I suppose the biggest benefit is recovery. In theory, it can enable the recovery of joints and muscle soreness because of the high levels of omega-3 fatty acids. This should help them to run around for longer at the level and intensity required, as long as the rest of the meal has been planned correctly.

During the world cup, what will the nutritional team be focusing on?

OM: The nutritionists that are in Japan with the England team will definitely have gone out there with a set plan. They would have uncovered every dusty book out there and researched everything. They need to make sure that the players are getting the best diet to enhance performance. With the world cup being hosted in Japan this year, they’re going to be treated to some of the best quality ingredients. Not only will it be an incredible career highlight for them, but it will also be a phenomenal gastronomic experience.

You had a couple of seafood recipes in your book with James Haskell, what was your inspiration behind the these?

OM: Seafood, especially salmon, for James [Haskell] is a really important ingredient. James, as a slightly older athlete has been through the mill, eats fish in large quantities. Salmon, especially in dishes like katsu curry is perfect because you’ve got the added benefits of turmeric which science says helps with inflamed joints. The turmeric combined with the salmon creates a super bowl of anti-inflammatory food. Seafood is such an important part of his diet and his wife, Chloe Madeley, looks after him wonderfully well making sure he eats what he should be eating and not what he’s tempted by!

We wanted the book to be as personal as possible so in essence it’s a collection of recipes that I’ve cooked for James over the years that he’s particularly enjoyed. All tried and tested. I hope it’s a useful guide for other athletes who want to tailor their meals.

If you compare salmon to chicken – do you think that the two proteins have a different purpose?

OM: I think chicken in this country is massively oversold. We go to chicken because it’s just easy – it’s lean and full of protein. I don’t know anybody unless you’re a vegan or vegetarian who won’t eat chicken. On the other hand, I think fish in this country is massively undersold because we’re slightly scared of it – even though we’re an island in the middle of the Atlantic. The thing about fish, in particular wild salmon, is that it’s high in protein and low in fat, which is the perfect combination for training sessions. It’s hard for me to understand why we don’t all eat fish all of the time for that very reason.

My guess is that people don’t know how to make the best of fish or how to cook it properly. It’s not the go-to ingredient and therefore feels slightly alien. But hopefully with some simple recipes and tips, we can show that it’s super easy to cook with. And mega tasty.

So, why Alaska seafood?

OM: Alaska for me represents the best that fish has to offer. But firstly I would encourage people to just eat more fish because of the nutritional benefits it has – ideally naked fillets rather than breaded or battered fish. But once you’ve started to get the flavour for it, it’s worth looking at the different types of fish out there.

Wild salmon for example spends its life swimming in the Pacific ocean which means that the meat is leaner and heartier. The fat levels are lower than in fish that has been farmed, so the white lines that run through salmon fillets are a lot less pronounced or obvious. It’s a natural source of protein that we should be taking advantage of, so for me the more we can eat, the better.

Back at the Lodge we were preparing for a long night ahead with a large G&T, dinner and a dip in the Jacuzzi on the sun deck (great itinerary!) But we were also treated to a fantastic talk from our host Jeremy about the five different types of salmon.

A side note - Jeremy was born and raised in Alaska where his family has been based for generations. Many members of his family have worked in the fishing industry - his brother is a fisherman by trade, his father a retired fisherman and grandfather a fisherman before them. It makes sense that Jeremy developed his sea legs as soon as he could walk, spending ample time as a youngster on boats before becoming a fisherman himself. Now serving as ASMI’s executive director, he’s still spending his weekends on the water. Recharging with his wife and children on their family boat, passing his knowledge onto the next generation of fisherpeople, while rods are ready to go just waiting for the salmon, rockfish or halibut to bite. What Jeremy doesn’t know about Alaska, it’s waters and wildlife, isn’t really worth knowing!

But back to the salmon. In Alaska, there are five varieties – pink, keta, coho, sockeye and king. All differ from one another in size and look but there are also some key differences on and beneath the skin.

Pink salmon has a very delicate light pink flesh that almost resembles sea trout. What is interesting is that almost all of the pink salmon ends up in a can – traditionally loved by the UK market. It’s an economical choice for a variety of recipes and because of its milder flavour, it makes an excellent addition to sauces.

Sockeye salmon is almost the abject opposite. With a distinctive deep red coloured flesh and very little fat content, it’s really good for hot and cold smoking, grilling, sautéing, roasting, poaching or steaming. 

Keta salmon - also known as chum or silverbrite - has a pink meat colour, firm texture and mild flavour. It’s another good smoking fish, perfect when dried for jerky and makes a great choice for grilling or roasting. Here in the UK, keta is popular and sold as a chilled naked fillet in supermarkets. Lower cooking temperatures are recommended because of its low oil content.

Coho is the second largest of the species often migrating far into the ocean for prolonged periods before returning to their freshwater spawning grounds. Coho has a firm, orange-red flesh that, because of its delicate flavour, many consider it to be the best salmon for grilling although it’s also a great choice for sautéing, poaching, steaming, smoking or roasting slowly. It is comparatively fatty which keeps the flesh nice and moist without overcooking.

King salmon is the most highly prized of all the species. Considerably larger than even the coho, this fish can swim in open seas for up to six years before coming home to spawn. Its firm, fatty, meaty flesh is perfect for almost all styles of cooking. I personally love to cut lovely thick steaks for roasting.

And that’s just the salmon.

The following day were in for another treat. We were up at the crack of dawn for a hearty breakfast and it was a breakfast that I’ll never forget - homemade bircher muesli brimming with locally foraged forest fruits, salmon ‘bacon’, fried eggs with blueberry pancakes and sugared pretzels the size of my head. To say that I was content is an understatement.

It was a slow waddle down to the docks to catch the boat across to Homer – a lively little place (or at least as lively as it gets this close to the Artic!) It’s a busy harbour town entertaining locals and tourists alike. Pleasure cruisers bring hundreds of tourists to the coastal city for a day of sightseeing whilst locals prep their fishing vessels for a day at sea.

On dry land, Homer has a few shops selling fishing gear…. tackle, outboard engines and even the odd Sou’wester! But I found myself in a pub. The Salty Dawg Saloon. It was about as local as I could get with low ceilings and defaced dollar bills on the walls. Drinking beer at 10am isn’t normal, but the bar had a TV and it was the 11^th July. England vs Croatia. World Cup semi-final. I managed to watch almost the whole second half which ended in a nail biting 1-1 draw, but it was back to the boat before extra ‘time. Sketchy reception meant that I had no internet connection, so I hit it off with the captain of our boat to listen to the crackly commentary on the radio. We lost 2-1. A sad day for me, but the location, the setting and the experience I was having certainly took the edge off!

We are hosting an immersive lunch – in partnership with The Staff Canteen – at The French to taste and experience the flavours of some of Alaska’s most premium seafood served with a side of virtual reality. The finer details of which I’ll keep under wraps for now.

But for the pre-event filming and teaser clips it dawned on me, what do I cook? Which fish is my favourite? Which is WOW? What is WOWER than WOW?

So I started playing around with a few ideas but I found myself looking at the indoor BBQ (my standard failsafe…) and a pot of the beef and onion butter we serve with our bread basket at The French. I find myself questioning whether or not a gorgeously light piece of lean whitefish will barbeque in beef and onion butter. Yum or glum?! Only one way to find out I guess.

As it turns out, the combo doesn’t just pass for a quirky dish with eclectic flavours, but actually ends up being so damn tasty! We have the basis of a dish and not just one which shows off the quality of Alaskan halibut, but one which also imparts the flavour and personality of my cooking. Is this the winning dish for film?

I can’t stop there so I start playing around with crab legs and black cod as well. The black cod is so beautifully rich and oily without being greasy. I really like the taste and textures of it when I hot smoke the black cod, flake over a confit egg yolk with burnt onions and a beef broth (yes, beef again, I can’t seem to escape it).

So the crab legs. That experience didn’t go so well. They burnt on the barbeque. But I have a cunning plan for the future…

I went for the wild Alaska halibut and the filming with The Staff Canteen’s production crew goes to plan. It looks delicious, smells delicious and tastes, well… I finished the dish with a pesto made from pickled ramson capers, Westcombe cheddar, hazelnuts and parsley and then garnished with some tempura fried cavolo nero. Excellent.

I’ve got the flavour. I’ve caught the Alaskan bug and I can’t wait for The French to open its doors for what will be, I’m sure, a great event.

So I did some research on this, and the truth is that we export most of the fish caught around British shores, approximately 60% in fact.

At The French, I do try and use locally grown produce where possible because I like to support these businesses, but if I have to look further afield for the perfect combination of quality, price, availability and sustainability then I will. That’s what took me to Alaska.

Alaska seafood is:

Wild. Alaska seafood is about as wild as you can get. The state is home to over three million lakes, 34,000 miles of coastline and 3,000 rivers and this is where species swim freely and mature at a natural pace.

Lean. Having swum thousands of miles, they are fit fish. You kind of would be, wouldn’t you?! Aside from huge respect, this also means that the fish isn’t fatty or greasy but lean and a great low fat protein source.

I must point out that this is crucial when you come to cooking wild seafood. It takes less time to cook due to reduced oil levels.

Top notch quality. Alaska seafood hasn’t been pumped with artificial colouring, the sockeye salmon is bright orange because it eats plankton including tiny shrimp! The seafood is frozen within hours of being caught to capture and protect freshness.

Sustainable. As a chef, I’ve noticed that this is growing consumer concern. Diners are more conscientious and have started questioning where their food comes from, which in my opinion is a really good thing.

Alaska’s sustainability credentials are second to none. In Alaska sustainability isn’t just a buzz word, it is built in to the constitution and therefore for generations of fishing families it is a way of life.

Practically, this means each fishery is quota based – stocks are managed and carefully controlled to avoid over-fishing. Fishermen aren’t just fishing for the here and now, they are fishing in a way that will provide for future generations as well. When I travelled there last summer – this was inspiring to see.

Frozen. Now I know this will sound alarm bells for a lot of chefs, but hear me out…

Because of where Alaska is geographically located, seafood has to be frozen at sea. Although cooking from frozen is not necessarily how I prefer to cook, I have found ways around this and even found some benefits.

I have fallen in love with Alaska halibut, which is available all year round as a frozen product. It is shipped to the UK in bulk and because of its availability I can get it for a decent price.

With fish like wild Alaska pollock, you can buy frozen portions. Now I don’t currently use this in my kitchen but after speaking to the executive chef at the Midland Hotel here in Manchester – he is certainly considering it. He currently serves battered fish on his bar menu and buys fresh cod tails. They last three days before being binned. He needs 30 ‘en place’ every day, but may only sell six. Wastage. However, if he used frozen portions, they could come straight out of the freezer, into the batter, cooked from frozen and served. 0% wastage.

The method of freezing at source means that every portion is just as fresh at the point of service as the cod tails he is currently buying. As for quality – which I can hear you all screaming at me – it hasn’t been compromised. The taste and flavour is on the money.

My trip to Alaska was real eye opening experience and for me, now, it’s a no brainer in terms of seafood. You just need to know what to use it for, which is, at the end of the day, the job of a chef.

That’s what I thought. Until it went wrong. Trials and tribulations, it’s a chef’s life. 

You see, cooking with wild fish is a lot different to cooking with other types of fish. It’s a whole different ball game.

Firstly, it’s a lot leaner than expected. Take salmon for example. In the UK, we are quite used to cooking with farmed Scottish salmon which has a high fat/oil content. But when it comes to cooking with Alaska salmon, you have to be aware of how lean the flesh is. This basically means that you will need to be a bit faster, but much gentler with it.

Using the red sockeye salmon for example. I would pan fry it with the skin on. In a warm – not hot – pan, place the fillet skin down in a good dash of oil and as it starts to sizzle, slowly increase the heat to medium high. This will only take around 3-4 minutes.

You will see the flesh start to go opaque on the side of the steak and when this reaches half way up, turn the heat to low and flip the steak over for 5-10 seconds before removing. Drop a knob of butter in the pan and let it foam whilst going nutty in flavour and smell. Pour this over the fish.

Allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving. Essentially you are looking for the centre of the flesh to be just cooked, like a beautifully medium cuisson steak.

And voila.

Sounds easy, right? But the key things to remember is timing and heat. One second too long and it’ll be overcooked. I think quite unsurprisingly, this is why some of us chefs have had bad experiences with wild seafood expecting it to have the same cooking requirements as farmed and not quite anticipating the differences in meat textures.

But then again, practice has always made perfect.

I’d actually never really thought of Alaskan seafood as an option for me at The French since utilising produce from our own coasts has always been my first priority. However with an ever growing drive for sustainability and the future arrangements with Europe looking interesting to say the least, the time has never seemed more apt to explore all the possibilities.

But what is it that Alaska provides? What seafood can they possibly produce that would be of interest to me? Well let’s keep an open mind and see what happens…

Sunday

Taking off from Manchester at 1pm on a Sunday then landing in Alaska 10 hours later at 2pm on the very same day, it was clear that jetlag would be first on the list. But as you fly over snow capped mountains and icy shorelines, the view sells the destination before you even touch the runway.

After being picked up at the airport we took the more scenic route to the hotel in the hope of moose spotting! Unfortunately, we didn’t see any but what I did notice was how small Anchorage is. With a population of approximately 300,000, it houses almost half the total population of the state and Alaska is equivalent to a third of the total landmass of mainland USA (you can tell I was listening to the facts!)

After meeting the other international delegates and the rest of the team from the Alaska Seafood Marketing Institute, we went out for dinner in a restaurant called ‘South’. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of food we experienced on the trip and South was no exception. Starting with some lovely examples of cured Alaskan seafood including scallops, salmon and cod.

Monday

The next day started with a hearty American breakfast followed by a three hour road trip to a town called Seward. Predominantly a fishing town, this is where we would spend the rest of the trip. But before we reached our destination we stopped off at a ‘salmon counting station’. This is where we learned about how the salmon stocks are managed in Alaska, which is fascinating since it’s all done by hand despite the sheer quantity of salmon returning to their birth place to spawn. We were also given a quick introduction to the role of a hatchery which aids the stock levels by lower mortality rates and raising and releasing salmon back into the wild once considered healthy enough to survive in the wild.

So with an icebox full of freshly caught sockeye salmon, we went to the Alaska Institute of Technology (AVTEC) to prepare and cook our catch. It was here that I had my first tasting experience of wild Alaska salmon and what an experience it was! With delegates from China, Japan, Germany and France we cooked up a fusion of different dishes using the vibrant red sockeye salmon as the centrepiece on the plate.

Dinner that night was at a local restaurant called ‘The Cookery’; great cooking in a simple yet atmospheric environment and a stunning plate of locally caught Alaska halibut. What more could I ask for.

Tuesday

On the next day we had an early rise at 5am, but it was well worth it since we were spending the day halibut fishing and after my most memorable meal at The Cookery I was incredibly excited.

We set off on our charter boat down the bay towards the ocean stopping to see how salmon and halibut is fished. We couldn’t have timed this better as we saw a humpback whale in the distance breach and do a back flip, but being too slow off the mark I didn’t catch it on camera. Having reached the edge of the bay, we started fishing. Big plump lines with 3lb weights on dropping 200ft below the surface of the water with bait of octopus and mackerel. It wasn’t the best start for me. My broken rod left me fish-less but it wasn’t long before someone else pulled in the first halibut.

Not before long, the first bouts of sea sickness were kicking in. I seemed to be fairing ok but only with a good bit of concentration and by avoiding the cabin area, which left me feeling like I’d just walked in from a night on the tiles! The decision was made to fish closer to the shore. As luck would have it, I started catching fish left, right and centre pulling in a cod that weighed approximately 7-8kg.

With the day drawing in and dinner time looming, we took our catch to AVTEC for filleting and cooking. We also had a mini demonstration on sablefish also known as black cod or butterfish. Sablefish is exquisite. It’s a deep sea fish with a cod-like texture and an oily richness.

Wednesday

The final day was shellfish day – the day I had been most looking forward to because it meant KING CRAB! After a tour around the salmon processing plant where we learnt all about the canning process, we had the meal of dreams at AVTEC complete with king and dungeness crab legs served with butter. Simple yet sublime. A little later in the afternoon, we had chance to cook-up some of our own dishes using Alaska shellfish, which was brilliant in terms of gleaning ideas and perfecting my technique.

Rounding off my Alaskan experience, we had a riverside bonfire to celebrate summer solstice. I have to say this is something that I’ll never forget – the bright sky, picture perfect backdrop and great company just topped it all off. But as we made our way to the lodge I made sure I was in the company of someone who I thought may be slower at running than me – the bear stories had certainly made me weary!

Thursday 

The day of departure had a more relaxed feel to it. After packing up we had one last place to visit in Seward – the sea life centre. To see everything in one place was just eye opening and really showcased the scale of the Alaska seafood industry.

I have to confess to having an amazing trip. Alaska is a beautiful place and despite the scant population it has so much to offer, predominantly the mouth-watering seafood. Seeing the seafood so fresh and wild whilst still being fished and managed in a sustainable way makes me realise what we are missing nowadays from our own supply of what was once, world beating fish. I’ll definitely be seeing how I can factor some of it into my everyday cooking.

By Adam Reid

@adschef @thefrenchmcr