The Last Samurai + Fish and Chips

I’m baaaack! I took a little hiatus recently, but I’ve been reading a lot of good books–and cooking a lot of tasty recipes–that I’m excited to share with all of you! Including today’s featured novel, The Last Samurai by Helen DeWitt, and the accompanying dish, the British classic Fish and Chips.

A Child Prodigy

Despite it’s title, DeWitt’s novel has nothing to do with a certain 2003 film starring Tom Cruise. It does, however, draw inspiration from another film, Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 classic, Seven Samurai.

DeWitt’s novel opens from the perspective of London based single mother Sibylla during the first years of her son Ludo’s life. She quickly realizes that Ludo is not an ordinary child. Sibylla struggles to support Ludo’s rapid intellectual growth, as he easily masters numerous languages and complicated mathematics at a young age. Also wanting to provide for his emotional growth, she has him watch Kurosawa’s Seven Samurai repeatedly, her attempt to provide him with some positive male role models in the absence of a father.

The novel eventually switches to Ludo’s perspective, as he becomes increasingly interested in the identity of his absent father. Inspired by Seven Samurai and piecing together clues from his mother’s life, Ludo begins a quest to find his father. Throughout the course of the novel he meets a varied group of men, each of whom displays different strengths and weaknesses as a potential father figure.

Fish and Chips in The Last Samurai

In Ludo’s encounter with one of his potential dads, the two go out to eat this British staple.

“I’d like some fish and chips. Would you like some fish and chips? Why don’t we go out and get some fish and chips and I’ll finish this when we get back.”

The Last Samurai, Helen DeWitt

Fish and Chips Recipe

To make my fish and chips I followed this recipe from The Spruce Eats. For the fish I used haddock and for the chips I used russet potatoes, but you can easily swap those out for a different variety. Serve with lemons and your sauce(s) of preference. I believe fish and chips is traditionally served with tartar sauce, but I mixed up some cocktail sauce because we are a horseradish heavy household.

What I like about this recipe

• It’s simple. This was very easy to throw together in a short amount of time. Plus, I already had most of the ingredients.

• It’s versatile. You can use pretty much any type of thicker white fish–haddock, cod, etc. You can choose from various varieties of potatoes. And you can opt for whatever beer strikes your fancy.

• The batter is just the right consistency. The carbonation from both the sparkling water and the beer create air pockets that ultimately make for a lighter, more airy batter. When fried it becomes perfectly crispy.

• Crispy Chips! First you blanch the potatoes, which helps to remove moisture. Moisture=bad for crispiness. Then you briefly fry the potatoes at a lower temperature, remove them, and then fry the fish. Once you remove the fish you increase the temperature of the oil and fry the potatoes again. This process ensures that the chips are cooked on the inside and crispy on the outside.

• It tastes good!

Things I did/would change about this recipe

• The style of beer. This recipe calls for a dark beer, but I felt that might be too heavy for what I wanted. I made mine with an Oktoberfest (specifically Tröegs Oktoberfest). This is probably not a traditional choice, but I really can’t help myself the second the Oktoberfests hit the shelves every year.

• The blanching process. The instructions have you rinse the potatoes in cold water first and then lightly boil them. While I did this, I also rinsed them in cold water again immediately after removing them from the boiling water.

• Frying the fish in two batches. I tried to fit all four pieces of fish into my large dutch oven at the same time–big mistake. The first two pieces were fine but after that it became crowded and the fish lost some of its batter in the process of rearranging.

• Frying the chips longer. I like crispy chips. Reallyyyy crispy. Five minutes for the second round of frying just wasn’t enough. I left them in a few extra minutes and was happy I did.

Happy Reading + Happy Eating!