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- I need fish fingers and custard.
- Funny. - Am I? Good.
Funny's good.
(smooth music) - Hey, what's up, guys?
Welcome back to Binging with Babish,
where this week, we're taking a look at the fish fingers
and custard from Doctor Who.
For the control group, I have a big old bowl
of custard and some fish fingers, frozen.
I'm not sure if the good Doctor reheated these
before consumption, but I'm going to allow myself
that small dignity.
First, let's impeccably arrange these on a baking sheet.
Bake at 350 for about seven to eight minutes
before flipping and baking an additional six minutes,
as per manufacturer specifications.
Arrange on a plate and let's give this a try.
Maybe I'll try one by itself first.
That's pretty good.
Not too fishy. Not too crunchy either, though.
Can't imagine that it's gonna be much improved
by vanilla custard, so here's a spit bucket just in case.
Then we've just got to grab ourselves a fish finger
and give it a big old dunk in the custard, and...
Come on, Andy. This is what the people want to see.
And it's not that bad.
Not even saying that to be gross or provocative.
It's just, it only tastes like vanilla custard.
It doesn't really taste like fish anymore.
So surprisingly inoffensive, but definitely not good.
So obviously, I think we can do a whole lot better.
Let's start with the custard.
I'm going to take a crack at what I'm going to call
a savory creme anglaise.
First we're whisking together three egg yolks
and one tablespoon of sugar in a medium heatproof bowl.
Then, over on the stove top,
we've got three quarters of a cup each heavy cream
and whole milk that we're going to bring to a bare simmer
in a large saucier.
Once simmered, we're gonna remove it from the heat
and very slowly stream into the egg yolks,
whisking constantly to temper them
so that they might not scramble.
Put everything back in the saucepan,
bring it back over to the stovetop over medium-low heat,
and cook, whisking constantly, taking off the heat
when necessary for two to three minutes
before straining and cooling.
Then, once relatively cool, we're gonna add some stuff.
A tablespoon or two of chopped fresh dill,
one small dill pickle, finally minced,
and the freshly squeezed juice of one entire lemon.
This, along with a generous pinch of kosher salt
and a few twists of freshly-ground black pepper
results in something actually pretty delicious.
You can see when I grabbed myself a little spoonful
to taste for seasoning, I really don't know
what to do with myself.
It's got all the flavors of a tartar sauce,
but the eggy richness of an aioli
and the creaminess of a, you know, cream sauce.
But I suspect it's going to taste even better when chilled,
so I'm gonna spread it out on a rimmed baking sheet
lined with plastic wrap, pressing a sheet of plastic wrap
directly down onto the sauce so that it does not form a skin
in the fridge, where it's gonna hang out
for about 30 minutes while we make our fish fingers.
First up, a dry dredge of half a cup of corn starch
mixed together with one tablespoon of flour
and a teaspoon of kosher salt.
This is gonna soak up any excess moisture
on the exterior of the fish and help the batter to stick.
Speaking of fish, I have here some lovely filets o' cod,
which I'm going to cut into fingers across the grain.
That is, in line with the spine.
Which, after patting dry we're gonna dredge in the dredge,
making sure that they're thoroughly coated,
shaking off any excess, and placing on a rack
set in a rimmed baking sheet.
There we're gonna let them sit for about 15 minutes
before we begin to batter.
Because of the Britishness of the source material,
I thought it'd be appropriate to do
a fish 'n chips-style batter.
Into another pie plate goes a cup and a half of flour
and a half teaspoon each onion powder,
cayenne pepper, and paprika.
And then comes the beer, one and a half to two cups
of a light lager.
Your mileage may vary, so just keep adding beer
until you get a nice loose paint-like consistency.
Whisk until nearly lumpless,
and then it's time to start a-dunkin'.
In go the fish fingers, or fish sticks,
as we call them stateside, where we're gonna toss 'em around
to make sure that they're evenly coated before dropping them
into a 375-degree Fahrenheit vat of peanut oil.
If you are allergic to peanuts,
you could use canola or vegetable or any other
of your favorite deep frying oils.
After frying for four to five minutes,
until deeply golden brown,
we are draining on paper towels,
which is gonna help soak up excess oil,
so we don't end up with soggy fingies.
Rinse and repeat with the remaining fish fingers,
sprinkled with kosher salt while they're still
nice and warm, and let's take a look.
A crisp crackly coating with tender moist fish inside.
Perfect. Now, for our savory custard,
We're gonna roll our plastic cup into a tube,
and in what I correctly predicted would be
a very satisfying process, squeeze it out
like delicious toothpaste.
Arrange everybody on a platter, make sure you get
some good shots for socials, and there you have it,
fish fingers and custard.
Let's see how they taste.
And trust me when I say I feel super weird back-patting
myself like this, but in all honesty, they're perfect.
The fish fingers are like little handheld fish and chips
bites and the sauce is rich and creamy,
but also bright and flavorful and herby.
It's something I'll undoubtedly be making again
to the delight and horror of my dinner gusts.
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