Kerala Style Meen Varuthathu | Meen Fry | Kerala Style Fish Fry

Fish fry ! Ahh, I love it the most with sambar rice and it was one of my most favourite lunch box menu during my school days. I still love fish fry the most with sambar rice though now we mostly go for fish curry - fish fry combos as that is Deeps' favourite. And since it is just the two of us, we try to finish it soon as we are not very great fans of freezing the fish and prefer to eat it as fresh as possible ! Now Dhruv has also joined the gang and lovvvvves fish. He knows it by 'mi-mi' and would immediately open his mouth when we say 'Its mi-mi' ;)

Coming to the recipe, I learned it from my mil and it's a typical Kerala style masala as in it has no coriander powder. Kerala cuisine uses less coriander powder compared to Tamil cuisine. Also this has only garlic and no ginger. Usually my mil uses pepper mostly for fish that has more of that 'fishy' smell like sardines or mackerel. She does not use it with big fishes like salmon or pomfret. But I use it with all the fishes as I like that peppery zing in the masala ! Mostly I grind the masala in bulk and keep it in fridge. As and when needed, I add the powders and marinate the fish and fry. This way I can also grind the shallots without adding water at all. Addition of water makes the masala loose and will not coat properly to the fish pieces and also you will not get the crispy outer layer on the fried fish. So that's about this fish fry. Now off to the recipe.. 

Recipe Source: Amma

Serves: 2 persons

I Took: 

Preparation Time: 10 minutes

Marination time : 45 minutes 

Cooking Time: 12-15 minutes

I Used:

Fish	-	200 gms
Small Onions/Shallots	-	10 nos
Garlic	-	5 cloves
Peppercorns	-	1 tsp
Red Chilly powder	-	2 tsp
Turmeric powder	-	½ tsp
Salt	-	As needed
Oil	-	To fry

The Way:

1. Clean the fish and cut into desirable pieces for frying 

2. Peel the shallots and garlic. Grind together the shallots, garlic and peppercorns to a smooth paste. Do not add water. Adding water will make the masala loose and will not coat properly to the fish pieces

3. Now add the red chilly powder, turmeric powder and salt to the ground paste and mix well. 

4. Now coat each and every fish piece with this masala evenly on both sides. Marinate them for half an hour to 45 minutes

5. Heat oil in a pan. I normally shallow fry the pieces. If preferred it can be deep fried also

6. Layer the fish pieces when the oil is hot. Fry the fish on low or medium flame and take care that it is not burnt

7. After 2-3 minutes, flip over the fish and cook on the other side, You can flip the fish twice or thrice and cook so that they are crispy on the outside and does not get burnt

Serve hot with rice and fish gravy !

Cheers,

Chitz