You can wrap many things to fry and serve in a similar fashion. I fried king prawns and served at the MasterChef challenge where we catered for Sir Ranulph Fiennes and the other explorers of his team. The ‘hairy prawns’ went down very well! And of course, you can replace the mayonnaise with any kind you fancy.
Ingredients (Serves 2)
For the cod
- 250g cod fillet
- 75g kataifi dough
- 20ml extra virgin olive oil
- Sunflower oil for deep frying
For the mayonnaise
- 100ml extra virgin olive oil
- 75ml wild garlic oil
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
- A squeeze of lemon
For the oven fried crispy sweet potatoes
- 1 large or 2 small sweet potatoes
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp chilli flakes
- 1 tsp corn flour
- 1 tsp polenta
Method
Wash and pat dry the cod fillet. Cut in pieces of about 2cm x 5cm long. Season with some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Brush a clean working surface with a little olive oil. Take some of the kataifi strands and thin out with your hands as much as possible (you don’t want clamps of kataifi as the texture will be uneven) and lay on your working surface in the shape of a long oblong a little wider than the piece of cod and about 15cm long. Place the cod piece on the edge of the strands and roll tightly. As you do this, the kataifi will be getting greased by the oil on your working surface. Repeat till you have finished all the cod pieces. Place on a flat dish, cover with plastic film and leave in the fridge for 2-3 hours.
To make the mayonnaise, whizz the egg in the small bowl of your food processor or a small blender for 20 seconds. Add the remaining ingredients other than the oils and blitz till smooth. Add the sunflower oil, a drop at a time while the blender is working till the mixture starts thickening, approximately after a quarter of the combined oil has been used. Then you can add the oil in a thin stream and finish by adding the wild garlic oil. Adjust the seasoning and add more lemon juice or vinegar if required. Keep in the fridge until required.
For the potatoes, preheat the oven to 2200C. Line a baking tin with baking paper.
Peel the potatoes and cut in half lengthwise. Cut in slices of 3mm thickness and place in a bowl with all the other ingredients. Mix well with your fingers to coat the potatoes and empty on the baking tin allowing space between them. Bake for 15-20 minutes, turn over and bake for another 15 minutes till cooked and golden. If they don’t appear crispy, cook for a few minutes more.
When you are ready to cook the cod, preheat your oven to 1800C in case you need to finish cooking the cod.
Bring a pan containing 4-5 centimetres of sunflower oil to a high heat. When a piece of bread dropped into the oil sizzles (around 1700C), put 2-3 cod pieces on a spider ladle and drop gently into the oil. Fry till the kataifi is a deep golden colour. If some of the strands of the kataifi have worked themselves loose during frying, don’t worry, just snap them off.
If your pieces are slightly too big or your oil slightly too hot and when cutting into a cod piece you find it is not quite cooked in the middle (should be opaque), finish in the oven for a couple of minutes.
To serve, arrange the cod fillets drizzled with a squeeze of lemon juice on a plate, add some potato slices next to it, a small bowl containing some mayonnaise and a few lightly dressed salad leaves.