I’ve always loved seafood and growing up it was a treat to eat my mother’s fish fry. I would wake up early on Saturday or Sunday morning and go to Russel market with my father. We usually bought fish from Naidu’s fish stall – run by the third generation of the family now. We usually got sardines, mackerels, pomfret or seer fish (king fish). Once the fish was cleaned, my mother would apply her masala and let the fish marinate before frying it at lunch time. Aparna and the kids love this now and so without further ado, here is the recipe for my mother’s fish fry.
Ingredients
- Fish steaks - 1 lb (Palmburo/Pompano/Pomfret used in this recipe)
- Oil for frying
- Rice flour - 1/2 cup for coating.
- Cream of wheat - 2 tbsp for coating.
- For Marinade
- Chilli powder - 1 tsp
- Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
- Asafoetida (hing) - 1/4 tsp
- Lime juice - 1/2 tbsp
- Salt to taste
Instructions
Clean and wash the fish and pat dry with paper towels
Mix all the ingredients for the masala, add a little water if required. The paste should not be too watery.
Marinate the fish in the masala and refrigerate for a couple of hours (overnight if possible).
Heat the oil in a fryer.
Mix the rice flour and cream of wheat.
Coat the fish with rice flour-cream of wheat mixture and deep fry in the oil until done.
Serve hot with white rice and Daal.
Note:
- Rice flour can be subsituted with panko bread crumbs or any other store bought fish seasoning.
- The cream of wheat makes the fish crispy when fried.
- I’ve known people who shallow fry rather than deep fry, the masala works well for shallow frying.
- Baking does not work well with this masala, the masala tends to remain raw.
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