How to Make Homestyle Fish & Chips

You probably won't be reading many food posts on this blog, but I'm going to share this one.
I. Love. Fish. and. Chips.
My dad used to own a fish and chip store, but unfortunately got rid of it before I was born, so I can't say I grew up in one. But we did go as a family quite often, and I just learned to love it. If we went to a different restaurant I would always order their "fish and chips" and be completely crushed when they put a plate of frozen fries and fish sticks in front of me. I was used to the real, battered, fried in golden fatty oil, halibut fish with hand cut, fried in the same fatty oil french fries. It's amazing I'm not 300lbs. Because of this, however, I learned to love halibut fish, and ONLY halibut fish. I didn't want to try other types, just because I didn't want to be disappointed (that, and also probably because I was scarred from my mom's salmon loaf she used to make. Salmon loaf, you ask? Yep. Just think meatloaf, but with salmon. Yum).
Thus I come to last night's dinner. I had taken fish out of the freezer earlier in the day, and still had to decide what to do and eat with it. I had a bunch of russet potatoes that started growing other russet potatoes, so I figured I should use them up. But I was sick of mashed or boiled or even baked. So I turned to my friend, Google.

Hi Google!
Hi Jes. Welcome back!
Thanks. I'm looking for how to make homemade french fries. Can you help me out?
Sure thing! Here are some links for you to check out - hope it helps!
Thanks, Google.
You're welcome - come back soon!
You know it!

So there you have it. I got to work washing and cutting, and picking off the potato sprouts. I chose six fair sized potatoes:

 Cut them into french fry size strips:

Then you want to put them in a bowl, cover with cold water, and throw some ice cubes on top. Put them in the fridge (or if it's winter and you don't have room in your fridge, outside) for about 30 minutes:

 Meanwhile, pour some vegetable oil into a pot, and start heating it up. You want it to get to 375F.

 When the 30minutes is up, strain the water from the fries and pat them down with paper towel REALLY well. You don't want excess water on the fries because it will make your oil sizzle and pop.

 Add a bunch to your preheated oil, and fry for about 10 minutes (I didn't really time it, I just checked to see if they were done, but it was about 10 minutes).

 When you think they are finished, put them in a paper towel lined bowl to soak up all that grease. They WILL be greasy. But will taste REALLY good. Salt or season to taste.

And while you're doing all this, or while you're waiting for the fries to soak, why not make some fish to go with these babies?
I used freshly caught (a few weeks ago) pickerel but didn't batter it because I didn't think I'd have the time or ingredients. So all I did was put the filets in an oven safe dish, lather with salt and pepper and margarine, and threw it in the 400F oven, covered with tin foil, until it flaked with a fork. This recipe works well with all types of white fish. I especially like Tilapia done this way.

I may have used a bit too much margarine here, but it still worked. Turns out I'm not a big fan of the pickerel taste. I think I'll stick to my halibut :)