Breaded Fish Filet

Breaded Fish Fillet

My recent trip to Odisha was a memorable experience. The weather, the beaches, the sea waves, the moonlit night everything made the whole experience special. 

What I really miss now is the awesome food. It is true that there are so many kinds of cuisine in our country that most of them have been left unexploited and unexplored. All of us are fond of Mughlai food, South Indian fare, to an extent Bengali preparations. But I seriously feel that Oriya food has not got its due recognition. 

Two things a Bengali cannot do without are fish and sweets. Travelling from Bikaner to Puri, via Kolkatta, I was happy that I would sample the choicest of Bengali sweets in Kolkata. However I was blown away by the taste and texture of Oriya sweets. In fact I found it better than the ones I had in Kolkata and I am talking about the simple fare not the 5 star variety.

 You have these local vendors carrying 5-6 variety of sweets in small aluminium utensils stacked one on top of another. Considering it rather pedestrian affair I didn't have them at first. And when I did sample one out of curiosity I could stop myself.

I then realized that for food to taste good it doesn’t have to be sprinkled with dry fruits or gently wrapped in silver warq. Those simple sweets were irresistible.

And of course not to forget the fish, the fruit of the sea, the glistening jewels of the deep, the utterly scrumptious, divinely tasty maach.

In Puri, every evening, you have laid out before you a bouquet of myriad varieties of fish that the fishermen had caught that very morning. You can just pick out the ones you like and the cook will marinade it, dip it in batter, fry it and serve it to you right in front of your eyes. The aroma of fresh fish fry permeates the environment and I bet you will not feel like having anything else.

Taking this trip down the memory lane has made me hungry for…(you guessed it!!)…some fish. Today I am making a very simple, quick, easy and tasty breaded fish fillet. You can use any kind of fish for this however it is always better to use boneless fish filets. This is basically finger food and you do not want to end up with a mouthful of fish bones and then having to use your fingers to pick them apart. I make this dish entirely on estimation and instinct. However for the uninitiated I will try to give some measurements.

Ingredients

55 gm fish fillet (I have used frozen Basa fish)

2 tbsp ginger paste

2 tbsp garlic paste

2 tbsp green chilli paste

1 tbsp lemon juice

Salt to taste

1 egg, beaten

1 cup flour

Bread crumbs as required

Cut the fish fillets into the sized you desire. You can even make them into fish fingers. Pat the fillets dry. Apply ginger paste, garlic paste, green chilli paste, lemon juice and salt and leave to marinade for an hour.

Now take each fillet, roll it into flour then dip it into beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs.

Rolling it in the flour ensures that the ginger-garlic paste adheres to fish pieces. If you dip them directly in egg then the paste runs off the fish along with the egg. 

What I prefer to do is prepare these fish fillets and store them in the fridge overnight. This allows the soft breadcrumbs to harden a little and when you fry them later they turn out crisper and crunchier. However if you don’t have that much time you can directly fry them after rolling in breadcrumbs.