Mackeral (Fish) Cutlets

Cutlets are snacks that are not difficult to make and tastes really nice. Great as starters or as a quick snack in the evening.

I had bought mackerals and marinated them to be fried. My wife fried a few but my son ate very little on that day. So back it went to the refrigerator. Before leaving from office, I asked my wife to boil a large potato and keep it ready for me. And after I reached home, got into the kitchen to make the cutlets. And then I realized I had no bread crumbs. Not to worry any way. I had brown bread at home. Sigh of relief.

Ingredients for fish preparation

• 3 large mackerals (bangada in Marathi, Aiyla in Malayalam) - approximately 500 gm.

Fish marinade

• 1 tbsp of red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
• ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• ¼ tsp black pepper powder
• 1 tbsp of lemon juice (juice of half a lemon)
• Salt as per taste

Method: Preparing the fish

• Clean the fish and make gashes on both the sides
• Mix the fish marinade in a non-metallic vessel and apply this to the fish.
• Keep the fish marinated for about 30 minutes.
• Shallow fry the fish in a pan for approximately 5 minutes per side.
• Once the fish has reached the room temperature, carefully debone the fish.

Ingredients for the cutlet

• 1 medium sized onion finely chopped
• ½ a cup of coriander leaves finely chopped
• ½ a tsp of finely chopped ginger
• 1 green chilly finely chopped (optional)
• ½ a tsp of Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1 tbsp of cooking oil
• Salt as per taste
• 2 cups of deboned cooked fish (200 - 250 gm). Chop the fish finely. (mackeral in this case)
• 1 large potato boiled and skin removed
• 1 egg
• 2 cups of fine bread crumbs
• Sufficient oil for deep frying the cutlets

Method

• Heat a saucepan and add 1 tbsp of oil and once the oil is hot add the onion. Sauté the onion for a couple of minutes and then add the chopped ginger and green chilly. Sauté till the onions turn slightly brown.
• Add the chilly powder and sauté further for a couple of minutes
• Add the deboned fish and cook for 2-3 minutes.
• Add the coriander leaves.
• Add salt as required.
• Take out the mixture and let it cool.
• Drain water off the potato and mash it thoroughly.
• Mix the potato and the fish mixture. Knead it for a few minutes to make sure that everything is mixed properly. Add salt if required.
• Make lemon sized balls of the mixture and then flatten it to form a shape of your liking (round, diamond etc.). The thickness should be around 1cm.
• Break the egg into a bowl and beat it well and add a little salt.
• Dip each of the cutlet into the egg mixture
• Take the bread crumbs in a flat plate and coat the cutlet with the bread crumbs.
• Deep fry the cutlets till it is golden brown.

Serve with sweet and spicy tomato sauce.

Unfortunately I could not make proper bread crumbs. So I just chopped up brown bread slices and the crumbs were really large pieces. This is why the appearance is not as good as it would have been, had I used proper bread crumbs. But they tasted yummy.

Tips

• If you do not have bread crumbs you can prepare it easily at home. Trim the edges of a few slices of white bread and keep them in the sun so that they become hard and brittle. Powder them finely using the chopper jar of a mixer grinder.
• Instead of shallow frying the fish, they can be cooked with a little water. In that case, make sure that water is completely drained off before deboning them.
• You can also use any other fish for this. Fish like kingfish etc. would make the job easier since you can debone them very easily. The taste of course would be slightly different depending on the kind of fish used.

Enjoy your cooking.

Prawns Gassi

This is one Konkani/Mangalorean dish that I love. Simple to make and yet very delicious. Again, I hope this recipe is authentic. However if some friends from the Konkan coast could give their seal of approval or give the correct version of the recipe, it would be really nice.

Ingredients

• Prawns - 500 gm (weight after cleaning and deveining)
• One medium sized onion, finely chopped
• 3 tbsp oil (coconut oil preferred)
• 1 sprig of curry leaves (optional)
• Salt, as per taste
• Pulp extract of 1½ tbsp of tamarind (take a lemon sized tamarind ball and add it to a bowl of lukewarm water. Strain it after about 15 minutes)
• Prawns stock/water, 2 cups

Masala Paste

• Roasted whole Kashmiri red chillies - 10 to 15 (depending on how spicy you want it to be)
• One medium sized onion thinly sliced
• 2 tsp of roasted whole coriander (you can substitute with coriander powder)
• ¼ tsp of fenugreek seeds
• ½ tsp of turmeric powder
• 1 tsp cumin seeds
• 10-12 black peppercorns
• 1 cup grated coconut (half of one medium sized coconut)
• 8-10 garlic cloves

Grind the above into a fine paste using a little water.

Method

• Clean the prawns and mix it with salt and set aside for a while (15-20 minutes)
• Take a pan and add the oil
• Once the oil is hot, add the curry leaves (optional)
• Add the chopped onions and sauté till the onions turn slighly brown
• Add the ground masala and fry it on medium heat till the whole mixture turns brown and the oil seperates from the masala
• Add the tamarind extract as needed (keep tasting it so that you do not add too much or too little)
• Add 2 cups of prawns stock or water
• Once the mixture boils, add the prawns and salt and reduce the flame
• Cook the prawns for about 5 minutes

Prawns stock

• If you are buying fresh prawns, keep aside the shells, except the head, while cleaning them.
• Wash the shells well and add them to a pan with 3-4 cups of water
• Boil the mixture and then turn it to simmer and let it simmer for at least an hour
• Remove the scum that may form at the top
• Strain and you have the prawns stock. If you have excess stock, store them in the freezer and use them as required for soups and other preparations of prawns.

This goes well with white rice or naan.