Specials

Serves 4

This is a Northern dish that my grandmother used occasionally to make us. She was from Lancashire and apparently these colloped potatoes fried in batter would appear on Fridays nights on local fish and chip shop menus. Robert Eyre at my local restaurant, Eyre Brothers in Shoreditch in east London, also told me he used to have a similar dish in the North (called "cake"), with a slice of cod sandwiched between two slices of potato, and fried the same way.

800-900g large potatoes, boiled in their skins until cooked through and cooled down

Vegetable oil for deep frying

for the batter
4g (½ sachet) active dried yeast

300ml milk at room temperature

1 small egg yolk, size 3

100g plain flour

100g cornflour

pinch cayenne pepper

½tsp salt

First mix all the batter ingredients together until you achieve a smooth consistency and leave in a warm place for about 30-40 minutes or until it begins to ferment. Peel the potatoes and cut into 1cm-thick slices. Pre-heat the vegetable oil in a deep-fat fryer to 160-180°C. Dip the sliced potatoes in the batter a few at a time and fry them until golden and crisp. Remove from the fat with a slotted spoon and repeat with the rest of the potatoes. Season them lightly with salt and serve immediately.