*Note from Sarah: Please welcome my brother Mark to the blog! Mark has been a part of the Everyday Paleo Team behind the scenes for a couple of years now but he’s finally/officially a blogger for EP!
I’ve always considered myself a foodie and as a child I was given the blueprint for what I now consider a true passion of mine. I have fond memories of cooking with my mom and spending time with her in the kitchen was one of my favorite childhood pastimes and most importantly, it really taught me how to be independent in the kitchen as an adult. I used to also love traveling  with my family and a special part of our trips always included experiencing new and local cuisine. I have been eating paleo for over two years now and I never have loved food as much as I do now. Cooking for my family and friends has always been a joy of mine but never as exciting, challenging and rewarding as trying a whole foods, gluten free approach. Fish-n-chips has been on my list of potential new recipes since Sarah first made her tempura batter for her Fried Squash Blossoms found in her latest book Everyday Paleo Around the World Italian Cuisine.
Sarah’s ability to duplicate classic sauces and base ingredients without comprising quality, taste, consistency or appearance is setting a new standard in the paleo culinary world. Sarah’s passion coupled with the benefits of using whole food ingredients over the last few years has inspired me to push the edge of the envelope even further in recreating favorite recipes such as tamales, sliders, barbecue sauce (found in Everyday Paleo Family Cookbook) and now fish-n-chips.  One memorable vacation as a child was our trip to visit some family friends in Brookings, OR. The father of their family had been fishing that day and everyone was in the kitchen filleting fish and preparing dinner. I was so enthralled by the excitement and energy involved in making such a simple recipe so much fun; and the fresh caught fish frying in a beer batter just seemed really cool to me.  As an adult I would be reminded of this experience any time I was in a pub or local grill enjoying a nice beer battered cod and garlic fries and I’ve always wanted to recreate my childhood experience for my nephews. I am ecstatic to now make fish-n-chips for my nephews without the worry of bad ingredients and also to share with you all my latest creation. The star of this whole recipe is Brother Mark’s Tarter sauce, so so good, it’s sure to bring back some memories for you too. I hope you have as much fun as I did with this one. Enjoy!
Beer Battered Fish-n-Chips
Serves 5-7 people so cut the recipe in half if needed.
3-4 pounds wild caught alaskan cod filets
1 cup tapioca flour
1/4 cup gluten free beer or sparkling water
2 eggs
pinch salt
1-2 cups of lard or palm shortening for deep frying (I recommend using Palm Shortening from Tropical Traditions as they only source from sustainable farms – for lard check out Fatworks)
1. combine beer batter ingredients in bowl and whisk
2. cut cod into large chunks and dip in batter
3. deep fry in pre-heated lard at med high, make sure the oil is hot before frying the fish, deep fry until golden brown and fish flakes apart when cut open
You can also use Halibut or other premium fish of your choice such as mahi mahi or haddock
Pub Style Garlic Fries (The Chips)
3 1/2 pounds white and orange sweet potatoes cut into 1/4 inch thick “fries”
1Â tablespoon granulated garlic
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/3 cup minced fresh garlic
1/4 cup coconut oil, butter, or ghee
2 tablespoons minced fresh parsley
1. pre-heat oven to 350.
2. mix together the granulated garlic ,black pepper and paprica and toss with the cut up sweet potatoes to coat
3. bake on a cookie sheet greased with coconut oil for 30 min or until fully cooked and starting to turn slightly brown
4. saute 1/3 cup minced fresh garlic in the butter on med low heat until garlic is fragrant, but do not over cook or let the garlic turn brown or it will be bitter. Turn off the heat and stir in the fresh parsley
5. toss the baked fries in the butter, garlic and parsley and serve
Brother Mark’s Tartar Sauce
1 cup Everyday Paleo Mayo
4 tablespoons minced dill pickles
1Â tablespoon coconut or apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon minced capers
1 tablespoon minced fresh dill
1 tablespoon minced white onion
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon ground mustard
pinch salt (or to taste)
pinch black pepper (or to taste)
1.whisk together all ingredients in a bowl and serve with the fish; garnish with lemon wedges and fresh dill
This looks so incredibly yummy! And hip hip hooray for Mark’s blog…so exciting!
YES!!! This is my favorite meal and I am always trying to re-create ever since I went to london and had some amazing fish and chips! Thank you I can’t wait to try it!
Hope you enjoy it Brittany!!
Yum! Will try this soon!
Just started the paleo diet…or lifestyle… on December 27th. I am so glad that I can alter recipes to meet the Paleo way of life and can’t wait to try this recipe out.
is palm shortening just the same as coconut oil then?
Nope! Here’s a link to where you can learn about palm shortening: http://www.tropicaltraditions.com/organic_palm_shortening.htm
Can I use arrowroot instead of tapioca?
I would stick with tapioca in order to get the right crisp/consistency for the batter. I’m sorry!
I did! Equal parts arrowroot and almond flour. Yummy!
This is definitely going to be tried over the next couple of weekends! Thanks for sharing.
Is Tapioca flour/starch truly Paleo? I’ve heard conflicting information about this. I hope it’s Paleo because I made the most awesome pizza crust with it the other day and I’d love to try this recipe too.
Well, I doubt cavemen ate it but I’m not in that camp in particular of trying to always emulate our ancestors and in my opinion this is a valuable ingredient that does not tend to harm get health that can be used now and then to make an awesome meal like this one that won’t harm your health. Enjoy!
Do you think I could bake these. My stomach has problems with frying (stupid stomach).
Sounds good, but this post has a few glaring typos: “slider’s” (you should never pluralise words with an apostrophe-ess) and “tarter”, among some grammar issues.
Well I guess we can all be grateful that this blog is about sharing health tips and great food and that we don’t run a blog that offers tips on perfect grammar/spelling….
Wow! I just made the fish! It was amazing! I am loving all of these modified recipes that I used to love before going paleo! I put the fish on top of soft taco shells made of plantain, then dressed with guacamole and lime. So amazing! Thank you for sharing this recipe!
I don’t have palm oil (will get some); might I use ghee? Or ghee and coconut oil? Also, don’t have lard because cannot get it locally. Will order from both places you listed. But for now…?
Don’t want to have to wait! Thanks, Sheila
You can use coconut oil but just be careful because it does tend to splatter way more than the palm shortening!! Good luck!
OHHHH wow these look amazing!! We want to try these (hmmm NEED to try these!!)
YAY to family + siblings!! We love your site. xox
Tapioca flour and gluten free beer? Two of the unhealthiest alternatives when eating paleo. And I’ve read posts of yours that specifically say your family doesn’t indulge in the alternative flours and recipes using them because there’s no nutritional value and your family will start to crave them. It doesn’t matter whether it’s considered paleo or not, people who eat real food wouldn’t touch this. It does look like an awesome recipe but it wouldn’t do anything towards making you feel better.
Why is Tapioca flour one of the unhealthiest alternatives? It’s in my opinion completely benign and a very decent “safe starch”. Here’s a link from Mark Sisson’s site that explains tapioca flour. http://www.marksdailyapple.com/dear-mark-vitamin-k2-washing-eggs-tapioca-flour-short-term-grain-feeding-and-a-raw-fed-pack/#axzz2dN3QWvrj
Furthermore, this recipe calls for very little tapioca flour (which comes from cassava root which is a tuber) and only 1/4 cup (4 tablespoons) of gluten free beer and you can of course as suggested in the recipe use sparkling water as an alternative. This is not at all like eating a pile of almond flour cookies and I can’t imagine what the negative health repercussions might be of eating delicious fish fried in healthy fat with a little bit of crispy outside thanks to the tapioca batter. If this is a slippery slope back to eating daily doughnuts or bags of potato chips, than know that about yourself and don’t eat this dish, however, this meal works for us and we will happily eat our crispy fish now and then because, well, we can, and we feel great after we do. Fruthermore, I have never said “specifically” that we NEVER indulge in any type of treats (although this recipe I don’t consider a treat, it is real food, fish and cassava root fried in yummy delicious healthy fat). Now and then we DO eat treats but I don’t spend hours and hours baking cookies and cakes because yes, the majority of the time we eat real food. However, you might now and then see me eating some nachos or drinking some wine or eating a paleo treat but it’s not the norm. When it happens it happens and life goes on. So, if I’m going to be judged based on this recipe, go for it. I’m doing the best I can for my family and trying to share great information with those who want it and if you don’t want to eat this particular recipe, than by all means don’t. Thanks so much for you candid comment, I appreciate all feedback, I really do, but dear God please help me if I’ve ever claimed to be perfect because perfect is lame and boring and sad and scary. We are trying to be healthy and happy and every now and then, crunchy fish makes us happy, especially when we eat it togetehr as a family, laughing, smiling, sharing and having FUN.
Good explanation to the Food Police ~ and I totally agree ~ you go girl!
🙂
I’ve had your Everyday Paleo book for years and I just went back on Paleo. I love your recipes and I don’t understand the negative comments that I’ve seen. Personally, thank you for making Paleo more fun. Here’s a little tip to all of the “Negative Nancy’s”…next time don’t type in the web address, this isn’t the only website on the net, I checked. I’m certain I made grammatical errors. Guess I better start going to http://www.Everydaygrammar.com. Thank you again Sarah and your entire team! 🙂
Thank you so much Scott!! 🙂
Thank you so so much for this amazing recipe. We had it for dinner tonight and everyone loved it. I made the soda water version and it tasted just like regular battered fish. Love your work and thank you for being so generous and sharing your recipes with us all. I am so sorry to see a couple of rude and critical comments above. You certainly don’t deserve them and the comments say more about the kind of people they are than it says of you. Thanks again!
Now that it is ALMOST summer, my mind has started going back to some of those wonderful New England Clam shacks from my non primal days. I have been looking for a Primal Fried Clam receipe. Do you think I could use this batter for fried clams? I would love to surprise my wife one day with a nice basket of fried clams and a cocktail on the deck.
You could 100% use this for fried clams!! When you do, let me know how it turns out and enjoy!!
It’s doesn’t get any better than this! It’s been years since I’ve had pub style fish ‘n chips and this was as good as the real deal! We enjoyed EVERY bite!
Thank you!!!
I remember seeing this post awhile back, but skimmed over it since we don’t really eat fish…but now we’ve decided to try fish (or other seafood) at least once per week. This sounds like a perfect way to ease into our fish eating 🙂 On the menu for next week!
Hi Sarah! I made the fish last night and it was the most delicious thing I have cooked in a long time! I had all of the ingredients on-hand already, so I decided to go for it. Hooray for LARD! My little boys loved eating big chunks of crispy fried fish and that made me happy. It’s always great to find something new that everyone in my family likes to eat. Thanks for posting this!
We just cooked this for dinner, we used safflower oil and kind of deep fried them and they turned out DELICIOUS. It’s my husband’s favorite thing that I’ve made since we started paleo. Even though it’s kinda “cheating” according to the food police, it’s amazing!!! Thank you SOOOOO much for this recipe!
love this recipe and Mark’s name! I am a Purdy too!
I would just like to say thank you for brother Marks Tartar Sauce! I just made it in preparation for fish and chips tonight and it is fantastic! Why has no one else mentioned it? I’m cooking the fish a different way tonight but most certainly will try yours next time because it sounds and looks delicious! Thank you from the UK!
My sister introduced me to this recipe….oh my goodness it’s just freaking amazing!! This will be on our regular rotation of recipes! Thanks!
Thank you and brother Mark too for this awesome recipe. My hubby says its his new favorite!
I would like to receive your email postings. I live in Ma. will think about shipping.
I have made this recipe for the battered fish several times for baja style fish tacos (cabbage wrapped with a lemon-garlic cashew cream sauce)….soooo good! The batter is perfect. It’s loved by non-paleo people, too (the true test). The kids love the “funnel cakes” I make with the leftover batter drizzled with a little honey. Thank you for a great recipe that our whole family loves!
Love the baja fish style taco idea, thank you for the suggestion and I’m so glad you like the recipe!!!
how many carbs in one piece of fish and can I get tapioca flour at the grocery store or where?
I made this recipe tonight and can not figure out what I did wrong. I used the correct flour, angry orchard beer, red palm oil to fry in and the batter was very runny and the palm oil was so awful tasting. My husband and I have been on this Paleo lifestyle routine for a little over 4 weeks and this was the first recipe that was thrown away. I also used flounder. Not sure if you have any suggestions. Enjoy your website and the ideas you have for life and cooking!!
Hi Molly, the batter is runny, not a thick batter but a thin one. The problem is with the red palm oil!! I would definitely NOT recommend using red palm oil to deep fry in. The palm shortening is much much different than red palm oil. Palm shortening is white and looks like lard and has no taste, unlike the red palm oil that I also don’t really like the taste of as well. I’m so sorry they didn’t turn out for you but I hope you try again using the palm shortening or lard as suggested in the recipe rather than red palm oil. Thank you!
Couldn’t get it to crisp up for the life of me. I used the sparkling water instead of the gluten free beer. I have no idea why it didn’t work but it was very tasty anyway. ; )
Hmmm…we use sparkling water and it comes out perfectly crisp every time!
@Molly – I might add that Angry Orchard is not beer. It is a cider. Try using a gluten-free beer or just sparkling water.
To bad its not scd safe. Tapioca flour is on the illegal list cause its high starch.
i did some substitutions with very good results!
No tapioca so I used arrowroot and almond meal in equal amounts. Also my family doesn’t like Palm very much, so I made a frying mix of ghee, coconut oil and Palm oil too! And lastly, I didn’t have beer or sparkling water, so I just splashed enough regular water to give it a good batter texture. I wish I could post a photo because it turned out beautiful, the crispy light texture was very nice with the moist halibut and the flavour was really good! (Great tartar BTW, and the s potato fries seasoning was perfect)
I just made this for dinner tonight with cod. It was excellent, just like from a restaurant!
So glad you enjoyed the fish and chips! Thank you!
We are almost done with our 4th Whole 30 and cannot wait to devour this tonight for dinner!!!!! The sauce is amazing.
Thank you Sarah! So glad you like this recipe!
Bother Mark’s Tartar Sauce is hands down the BEST tartar sauce recipe I’ve ever used!! I have searched far and wide for a good tartar sauce recipe but every recipe was missing something. I served it with salmon burgers and my family went wild! So glad I found your blog and look forward to trying your recipes.
Awesome Donna and I agree – it IS the best tartar sauce ever! Thanks for following my blog! 🙂