La Tête’s deep-fried fish sandwich

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Ingredients

For the “eggy mayonnaise”:
3 free-range egg yolks
1 T Dijon mustard
1 T white wine vinegar
1 lemon, juiced
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
250–300ml olive oil
6 free-range eggs 6, hard-boiled
1 T capers, chopped
1 T cornichons, chopped
1 T parsley, chopped
For the batter:
1 x 340 ml bottle lager
1 cup self-raising flour
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
For the cooking
vegetable oil, for frying
180 g fillet hake or angelfish
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Flour, for dusting
2 slices really good sourdough
butter Butter
A handful watercress
Woolworths pickled red onion petals

Cooking Instructions

To make the mayonnaise, place the egg yolks in a blender with the mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, salt and pepper and run for 1 minute. The lemon and vinegar will start to "cook" the egg yolk, and form a sabayon. Slowly add the olive oil in a constant stream. Keep a close eye and ear on it. The recipe should take all the olive oil depending on the size of the egg yolks. Check the seasoning – you should have yourself a rich mayonnaise. Pop into the fridge.

Peel and quarter the eggs, then place in bowl with the capers, cornichons and parsley, and fold in some mayo. I like mine chunky, more like an eggy mayonnaise.

To make the beer batter, pour half the beer into a bowl, slowly whisk in the self-raising flour, ensuring you don’t have any lumps. You're looking for something that coats the back of a spoon comfortably. Add more beer if it gets too thick, or more flour if it's too thin. Chill until ready to use.

To make the fish,, heat the oil to 180°C in a deep saucepan or fryer. Season the fish with salt and pepper, dust in flour, then submerge in the batter. Slowly remove the fish from the batter ensuring that it is completely covered, and lower it into the hot oil, as if you were slowly getting into a hot bath. The fish should be floating. Allow to cook for 4 minutes while you start on the sandwich.

To assemble the sandwich, butter 1 slice of sourdough and apply the eggy mayo to the other. Spread the watercress and pickled onions on the buttered slice. Flip your fish and cook for a further 4 minutes – after 8 minutes in the fryer you should have a golden piece of deep-fried fish heaven. Once cooked, drain and allow to stand for a minute. Season well with salt, place the fillet on top of the watercress and quickly flip the other piece of sourdough on top.

Cut in half and enjoy with an ice-cold beer and a smile on your face.

This recipe is from the My Family Kitchen in the April 2018 issue of TASTE Magazine. Former chef turned photographer, Claire Gunn, took her camera backstage to document the 'family' meal, which can forget deep connections in a kitchen team.

Discover what the staff of other restaurants, including La Colombe, The Test Kitchen and Thali, eat here.