MyMusingsSangSpeak-Pet Puja- Fish Fry

Fish Fry

Fish can be fried in many ways, either it can be deep fried or shallow fried. Every place or household has a typical way of marinating fish. The fish needs to be marinated well with right amount of spices and flavouring so that it does not lose its original taste. My mother liked minimum flavouring so most of the time she marinated fish only with salt, turmeric and chilly powder and shallow fried with little oil and the taste still lingers on. I relish marine fish more than freshwater varieties. I have been in many places where marine fish is not readily available, so I started cooking the freshwater varieties like Rohu, Catla, Seelan, Singhada etc too. You may use a variety of marinades as per taste and choice.
While buying fish do take care to buy good quality, well stored products. Fish is generally not eaten in the months that do not have "R" in their spelling(May, June, July, August), reason being that fish spawn during this season. Another reason is that seas are quite choppy and the fishermen do not go to the sea, it is only after offering coconut on occasion of "Narali Pournima"(approximately Mid August), that fishing restarts.

Ingredients

Sole (Seelan) Fish – 500 gms (deboned and cut into 3 inch sized pieces)

Turmeric Powder – ½ teaspoon

Chilly Powder – 1 teaspoon

Salt – As per taste

Ginger garlic coriander paste –1½teaspoon

Lemon Juice – 2 teaspoons

Rice flour – 2 tablespoons

Gram flour – 2 tablespoons

Oil – half cup

Method

Mix turmeric, chilly, salt, lemon juice and garic ginger coriander paste well and apply this marinade paste to the fish pieces. Refrigerate the marinated fish pieces for 1-2 hours so that the marinade is absorbed well. For the coating, mix together rice and gram flours and add a pinch of salt, turmeric and chilly powder to this mixture. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a pan and coat the fish pieces in the coating mixture and shallow fry by turning sides alternately till done. Shallow frying needs to be done on medium flame so that the coating becomes crispy and fish is cooked well. Once frying is done, remove the fish on paper to drain out the excess oil. Serve with tomato sauce, green chutney or tamarind chutney. Accompaniments can be rice and solkadhi.

Note –

For the tangy taste, you can use tamarind or kokum in place of lemon juice. In Bengal, mustard paste is used to marinate fish. If you like green chilly, you may use it in place of red chilly powder. If you want the fried fish to be more flavourful, then add a pinch of cumin and coriander powders.