The Secret Ingredient In Gordon Ramsay's Fish Batter

It makes sense that British chef Gordon Ramsay is a master when it comes to the iconic meal of fish and chips. And if you have ever watched this celebrity chef in action, critiquing other cooks and their fishy dishes, you know that he is pretty particular when it comes to cooking seafood properly. If you don't believe us, you may want to revisit the episode of Hell's Kitchen where he allows a few f-bombs to slip out of his mouth as he berates a contestant over how much oil the fish is cooking in. To be fair, it was a lot of oil. 

Gordon Ramsay, on the other hand, certainly knows how to do it right, especially when it comes to the batter he uses to make his own deep-fried fish. In a "Ramsay in 10 Live" video posted to Youtube, Ramsay calls his "fish and chips in 10 minutes" recipe a "household staple." As he runs through the ingredients, one item raised our eyebrows until Ramsay explained why he uses it. What is this secret ingredient you will want to use the next time you make your own fish batter?

Gordan Ramsay's fried fish batter recipe has the usual ingredients you would think would be in a batter — flour, beer, and baking powder — but then he surprises us and adds a little curry powder to his floury mixture. In the video where he goes through the whole recipe, step by step, Ramsay says that, ". . .curry powder lifts the batter and makes it a bit more spicy." But Ramsay also adds it to the flour for dredging the fish. What if you don't have any curry powder hidden in the depths of your spice cabinet?

Per MasterClass, you can make your own curry powder which always has turmeric as its primary ingredient, along with ground coriander and ground cumin. Bon Appetit categorizes the taste of turmeric as "bitter" and "peppery." Add in ground coriander and ground cumin which can be both sweet and bitter and you have a festival of flavors happening. From there, MasterClass notes that you can add various other spices that include cayenne pepper, paprika, and ground nutmeg to name a few. Sounds good to us. 

Even if you don't try the fish batter recipe, it's worth watching the video of Ramsay with his kids. He seems so real and relatable, and we love when one of his daughters hilariously chides Ramsay about how quickly he speaks and if only he could cook as fast.