Kolkata Style Fish Fry Recipe

Fish fry is one of the most popular fish recipes from Kolkata. It is typically a restaurant food or street food and is also commonly served in banquets. Fish fry is made by first marinating white flaky fish in fresh green herbs, garlic, onions, and spices, which is then breaded and deep-fried. This is quite easy to make, too. While working with local, fresh produce to prepare delicacies for the British officers, the Indian cooks often instructed to replicate European food which were favourites among the British. Indian produce and the available ingredients were not enough to bring out the same western taste, so, the cooks started to mixing, twisting and seasoning the western recipes according to their understanding and experience with cooking. In a one sentence Bong version of their British legacy, breaded and fried fish, famously known as what else but "Fish Fry". 

 

Kolkata style fish fry is traditionally made with filleted bhetki, but I have made it with all sorts of flaky white fish fillets and they all taste great. In the Melbourne, where I can’t find fresh bhetki, I prefer basa fillets because they are fresh, very sturdy, and easy to fry. But if you can find fresh bhetki, meaning not frozen, then there is no substitute for it.

Kolkata Style Fish Fry recipe

Ingredients

500gm fish fillets (vetki / barramundi / tilapia / cod / swai / basa).

1 medium size  onion, chopped.

2 inches ginger.

4-5 cloves of garlic.

4 green chilies.

few coriander leaves 

few mint leaves.

8 eggs.

Salt, sugar.

Bread crumbs.

½  lemon juice.

few black pepper.

Half cup of all purpose flour.

          Cooking oil for frying.

  METHOD

Time Chart

 

METHOD

Step 1 : Wash and dry

Lay the fish fillet on a tray and wipe them with an absorbent cotton cloth or paper towels until completely dry. Leave it for 10 min in the fridge to let it dry further.

Step 2: First Marination

Prepare a marinade by grinding together onion, coriander leaves with roots, flat leaf mint, green chillies, garlic, ginger, salt, Bengali garam moshla, sugar, black pepper, and lime juice.

Smear the marinade uniformly over the fillet. Turn the fillet and coat the other side well.

Let the fish marinate for 30 minutes in the refrigerator.

 

Step 3: Second Marination

After 30 minutes add beaten eggs, and maida and mix well.

 

 Step 4: Breading the fillet

Fill a large tray with lots of breadcrumb and season with salt and chilli powder. Crack 4 eggs in a tray big enough to fit the fillet. Add one pinch of salt for every egg and whisk. Leave this for 15 minutes so that the eggs darken in colour and become loose and watery. You will need less eggs that way.

With your wet hand, take a fillet with a good coating of the marinade and place it on the breadcrumbs. Using your dry hand cover the fillet with breadcrumbs and press gently to cover. This is the first crumb layer. For a crunchier and thicker coating we are going to coat it twice.

With your right (dry) hand place the fillet in the egg wash. With your left (wet) hand turn over to coat the other side and pick it up. This has to be done quickly. Let all of the excess egg drip off. If you don't drain the egg well the second crumb layer will become too thick.

 Gently press it on a flat surface and give rectangular shape with  blunt knife. Keep the coated fillets in fridge for 1 hour.

Step 5: Frying

Then in medium hot oil fry each sides of them for 2-3 minutes.

When they will become nicely golden in color take out from oil.

Serve with Kasundi (pungent Bengali mustard sauce) and cucumber salad on side. Enjoy!

 

Tips

• Adding raw basha fish fillet in lukewarm water with vinegar will be helpful to remove the smell of fish. And that will also tenderize the fillets.
• The double coating is not necessary, it’s a choice of yours, can go with a single coating too.
• Putting raw fish fillet in the freezer will give it an awesome crunch and that is my trick which I mentioned above.
• After putting the fish fillet in the hot oil should slow down the flame, that will help to cook the fish from inside too. Otherwise, the breadcrumbs coating will be nice brown in colour but the fish remains uncooked.
• Here though I’ve used basha fillet for this bengali fish cutlet recipe, you can use any boneless fish fillet. Choose the boneless fish fillets as per its availability i.e, bhetki, basa, tilapia or catfish.

 

Suggestion:

Breadcrumb coated raw fish can be stored in freezer in airtight container. Just prepare everything as explained above except last frying step and wrap cutlets in ziplock bags to store in freezer. Once ready to eat, heat oil and remove frozen cutlets from freezer and add directly to the hot oil. Fry until golden brown on both sides and serve immediately.