Fakeaway recipes with chef Maggie Roche

Fish tacos

Batter Ingredients

• 300g plain flour
• 100g cornflour
• 10g baking powder
• 500g cold sparkling water

Ingredients (for 1 taco)

• 100g haddock
• Half cucumber
• 50ml olive oil
• 6 cherry tomato
• Small bunch of coriander
• 1 red onion
• 1/4 red cabbage
• 1 baby gem lettuce
• 100g mayonnaise
• 1 lemon and 1 lime
• 2 small 6 inch tortilla wraps

Method

Make the tempura batter, in a bowl mix all the dry ingredients and pour in sparkling water until you get a thick pourable batter. Set aside.

Make your salsa

Peel cucumber and cut into 4 lengthways.

Take out the seeds in the middle. (The seeds make the salsa very watery)

Dice the cucumber into small dice.

Cut your cherry tomato into 4.

Peel red onion and cut into small dice.

Roughly chop coriander, and mix all together in a bowl with half of the juice of the lime and sea salt.

Slice red cabbage, thinly and put in another bowl, squeeze the other half of the lime over the cabbage and sea salt.

Roughly slice baby gem lettuce and set aside

For the lemon and lime Mayo.

In a small bowl, mix in the juice and zest of half a lemon and lime. Mix in mayonnaise, make it as tangy as you like. And if you have some leftover it will last in the fridge.

Cut the fish into 4 small pieces.

Dip your fish into plain flour and pat off excess flour, dip into batter and tap excess batter also.

Put straight into the fryer at 190 degrees.

Hold the tip of the fish for 10 seconds until you see the fish starting to float on the oil and let go. Keep your hand well above the oil and be very careful.

When fish is golden it's ready, about 3- mins, as they are small pieces, they will cook faster.

To assemble Fish tacos

Flash tortilla wrap on a hot pan to crisp up on one side.

Place small handful of baby gem on bottom.

Then a spoon of red cabbage on top, followed by your cooked fish

Place a spoon of salsa over each taco

And finish with a drizzle of lemon and lime Mayo and sliced spring onion and coriander.

Spicy buttermilk cornflake chicken

Ingredients

For the chicken:

• 3 chicken breasts, sliced into strips
• 250ml buttermilk
• 2 tbsp fajita seasoning
• 1 tsp paprika (optional but great)
• ½ tsp garlic powder
• Salt & black pepper

For the coating:

• 3–4 big handfuls cornflakes, crushed (not dust – keep texture!)
• 2 tbsp plain flour
• ½ tsp chilli flakes (optional for heat)
• Olive oil spray

Method

1. Marinate the chicken
2. In a bowl, mix buttermilk, fajita spice, paprika, garlic powder, salt & pepper
3. Add chicken, mix well, cover and chill for at least 30 mins (up to overnight is even better).
4. Prepare the coating, Crush cornflakes in a bag or bowl. Mix with flour, panko bread crumb and chilli flakes.
5. Coat the chicken, take each piece from the buttermilk, let excess drip off, then press into cornflake mix until well coated.
6. To Cook Oven: Heat oven to 200°C (fan), Place on lined tray, spray with oil. Bake 18–22 mins, turning once or Air fryer:190°C for 12–15 mins, shake halfway or Pan-fry (extra crispy): Shallow fry in oil for 3–4 mins per side until golden & cooked through.

Garlic Yogurt Dip

Ingredients

• 150g thick Greek yogurt
• 1 small garlic clove, finely grated
• Squeeze of lemon
• Pinch salt
• Drizzle olive oil
• Optional: chopped parsley or mint
• Mix everything in a bowl. Taste and adjust lemon/salt.

Homemade fries

It is a lot of effort, but homemade chips are always going to be nicer than anything else you’ll get.

Method

Cut them into chip size

Bring cold salted water and bring to boil for about 6/7 minutes then drain them off

If you don’t have a deep fat fryer, you can shallow fry them on a pan or pot and fish them out

You will probably need to do this in batches and then keep them warm in the oven

Salt them when they come out of the pan so the salt sticks to them.

Air fryer is an option but they’re not going to be as crispy in the airfyer – And the oven is not going to get you that crispy texture either. You need to put these deep into some fat!

Home-made taco chips

Ingredients

• 500g steak mince
• 1 onion fine dice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 250 cherry tomatoes
• 1 cartoon passata
• 2 chillies fine dice
• 1 teaspoon tomato paste
• 2 spoons fajita spice mix
• 4 Rooster potatoes

Leftover mince is so easy to turn it into a spicy mince – just chop up an onion, fry off your spice, make sure the chlli powder or any other powdered spice cooks up a bit before you add the meat. Also make sure to brown your mince well, so that it's kind of caramelised and then you throw in black beans or kidney beans.

Method

You can also use the salsa we used for the fish tacos on these fries too! That salsa will keep for 3 days in the fridge.

Then add grated cheese and your spicy mayo and you’re done!

You’ve got one more topping for the fries?

Garlic bacon fries.

You cook off some streaky rashers and then blitz them so you have a kind of bacon crumb, then you sprinkle it over the chips.

Next add your garlic mayo. I just add a minced clove of garlic to about 200g of mayo and it’s delicious.

I would grate cheese on top too, for the perfect fakaway treat!

Spicy Mayo dressing

Ingredients

• 200g mayonnaise
• 1 tsp Tabasco
• 2 teaspoon chipotle paste
• 1 red chilli
• 1 teaspoon ketchup
• Squeeze of lemon juice
• A little water to thin
• Taste season and taste again.
• Topping - Red cheddar cheese, grated finely.

Method

1. Place pan on to heat and brown the mince, until it’s caramelised and sticky on the bottom and add fajita spice mix and cook it out for about 3-4 mins. Set aside.

2. In another pan heat olive oil, add dice onion and garlic. Cook without any colour, add a teaspoon of tomato paste, cook for 2-3 minutes. Add fresh tomato and passata. Cook out for 20-25 minutes.

3. Add tomato sauce to spicy mince and simmer for 15-25 minutes, to allow flavours to combine.

4. Cut potato into chips- I always leave a little skin on.

5. Blanch chips at 140 degrees in fryer, for 12mins. If chunky chips Set aside. Cut them smaller, no need to blanch.

6. Blend mayonnaise in a blender, and blend until all combined. It should be a pinky colour and have a nice kick to it.

7. Once the mince is ready and the flavour is good- start to assemble.

8. Turn fryer at 200 and cook chips until crispy. Season with a little salt and put into serving bowl.

9. Add a big spoon of spicy mince, followed by a spoon of taco sauce.

To finish a good sprinkle of cheese. And jalapeno if you wanted an extra kick

And enjoy!