There was a jug of creamy milk for the children (Mr. Beaver stuck to beer) and a great big lump of deep yellow butter in the middle of the table from which everyone took as much as he wanted to go with his potatoes and all the children thought—and I agree with them—that there’s nothing to beat good freshwater fish if you eat it when it has been alive half an hour ago and has come out of the pan half a minute ago.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, C. S. Lewis
On cold, grey winter nights, when rain has been drumming against the windows all day, and the sun never quite shows herself in the sky, I crave fish and chips for tea. I want a parcel of them, soaked in sharp vinegar, with enough salt to make my lips sting. For years I lived around the corner from a marvellous chippie in London, one where the fish was always fresh, the mushy peas were lurid green, and the chips were perfect. I miss it – especially in January. In my kitchen, fish and potatoes are the ultimate deep-winter comfort food. I think this may have something to do with the Pevensies.
When Lucy, Susan, Peter, and Edmund step through the back of the wardrobe into Narnia, they enter a world of perpetual winter, one without even the promise of Christmas to look forward to. They’ve stolen ill-fitting fur coats (although technically, as the world is in the wardrobe, they’re not really stealing at all), and have walked for miles through the snow, traumatized along the way by the horrifying discovery of Mr Tumnus’s disappearance. When they sit down to dinner in the Beavers’ dam, it’s with a tangible sense of relief. This meal of fish and potatoes is the last bit of comfort they see for a while – a meal to be savoured.
Realistically, fish caught, cooked, and consumed within half an hour is not on the cards for most of us. I’ve managed it only a handful of times: standing ankle-deep in the sea with my cousins as we fought against the waves to reel in flathead before cooking it over a barbeque. In winter, I can’t imagine that being quite so pleasant. Happily, fish and potatoes are a dream combination whatever time you have to hand, and however you fancy putting them together.