Jess Murphy. Photo: Nathalie Marquez Courtney
Jess Murphy is the force behind the small and convivial restaurant Kai in Galway, on Ireland’s Atlantic coast, whose motto is: “What’s in season will be on your plate.” She grew up in the rural community of Wairoa in New Zealand, where her parents imbued her with enough “common sense to survive like a doomsday prepper – I know how to make bullets from scratch, change car tyres, drive a hay truck … tie rescue knots, sharpen a knife, hunt, fish and dive for food, and practically anything else you might need to know how to do in an emergency.”
After working in Michelin restaurants in Australia, she eventually moved to Ireland, where, in 2011, she opened Kai with husband Dave. (“Kai” is the word for food.) “I’d always dreamed of owning my own restaurant … in my make-believe utopia … I’d get all the ingredients in, cook a few meals, arrange flowers, maybe walk the prom after yoga. But Kai happened so fast, it was like getting thrown down the motorway in an old baked bean can.”
Her Kai Cookbook, subtitled “A Love Letter to the West of Ireland”, was published last year and has been garlanded with praise – food writers Nigella Lawson and Diana Henry are both fans. “There’s not an ounce of preciousness here,” Nigella has written. “Her food is vibrant, and yet calm.”
Here we share Jess’s recipe for fish fingers. “These started as a piss-take,” she says. “Dave’s late-night go-to dish when we’d crawl in after a rake of pints was a fish finger sandwich with mayo and red Cheddar.
“Then one day my sous-chef, Vinny, came back from Long Island with a tin of Old Bay seafood seasoning. ‘Let’s put fish fingers on the menu using Old Bay, for the craic,’ I said. We did, and they are now the bestseller at Kai that we can’t take off the menu. When I die, these fish fingers will be etched onto my gravestone, listed on RIP.ie and broadcast on the Galway Bay FM death notices.”
The recipe uses pollock, whiting or “sweaty Betty”, aka the Greater Forkbeard which is a deep sea fish found off the coast of Galway. “No-one knows how it got its nickname.” For home cooks, Jess says to serve them with preserved lemon mayonnaise and a radicchio, pomegranate and hazelnut salad with classic French vinaigrette. “I love mayonnaise so much that I always say my body is 65% mayo. Can you really trust a person who doesn’t like mayonnaise? I think it’s just a cry for attention, like saying you don’t like potatoes.”
Words by Jane Ferguson
Kai’s fish fingers and mayonnaise
Serves 6
Ingredients
1kg super-fresh pollock, sweaty Betty or whiting. Or any white fish is fine. Haddock works well
150g plain flour
400ml buttermilk
350g panko breadcrumbs
60g Old Bay seasoning or Cajun seasoning (yes, we really do use this much)
Vegetable oil, for deep-frying
Sea salt and ground white pepper
To serve
Lemon wedges
Coleslaw
And your favourite Kai mayonnaise (see recipe below)
Method
You need to make sure there are no bones in your fish, so ask your fishmonger to debone it for you and cut it into goujons.
Put the flour in a wide, shallow bowl. Put the buttermilk in a second wide, shallow bowl and the panko in a third. Season the panko with the Old Bay or Cajun seasoning and some salt and ground white pepper.
Put a wire rack over a baking tray lined with kitchen paper. Heat the oil in your deep fryer to 180C (or use a large saucepan filled no more than halfway with oil). And please, never use an air fryer for these. They desire to be plunged into hot oil.
Coat each goujon in flour, shaking off any excess, then dip it in the buttermilk and coat it completely in the breadcrumbs.
Working in batches, add the fish fingers to the hot oil and fry for 6-8 mins, until golden and super-crispy. Tip out onto the wire rack to keep crisp while you cook the rest.
Serve with lemon wedges, coleslaw and your favourite Kai mayonnaise.
For the mayonnaise
250ml olive oil
1 egg
2 egg yolks
1 garlic clove, chopped
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tsp apple cider vinegar (optional)
Sea salt and ground white pepper
Put your oil in a measuring jug. Put the egg, egg yolks, garlic, mustard and some salt and ground white pepper in a food processor or blender and whizz together until thoroughly combined.
With the motor still running on a low speed, add the oil, a couple of drops at a time at the start. When it starts to emulsify into a smooth, thick sauce, you can start to add the oil in a slow, steady stream. If the mayo is getting too thick, add the vinegar one drop at a time and it will all come together into a glossy mayonnaise.
Store in the fridge for up to two weeks.
Variations
Cornichon mayo: Finely dice 25 small cornichons and 2 tbsps capers to a pulp, then fold them through your mayonnaise and add a squeeze of lemon juice.
Coronation mayo: Finely chop a bunch of fresh dill and 2 tbsps capers. Fold them through the mayonnaise along with 2 tbsps Madras curry powder and a squeeze of lemon.
Harissa mayo: Stir in 1 tsp harissa.
Preserved lemon mayo: Stir in the finely diced skin of two preserved lemons.
The Kai Cookbook by Jess Murphy is published by Nine Bean Rows, £31. Photographs by Nathalie Marquez Courtney