Fish Pakora - Ethnic Foods R Us

Fish Pakora is chunky white fish, marinated in garlic, ginger and lime, then coated with a special, spiced gram flour batter, then fried until a rich golden brown. It will remind you of “chip shop fish” (if you’ve had that before), but Fish Pakora is sort of that kind of dish, only a bit more sophisticated.

(Photo Attributed to Author: Biswarup Ganguly)

Fish Pakora Recipe-

Ingredients:

1 lb. fish fillets (white fleshed fish is best)

For the Marinade-

1 tsp. garam masala
½ tsp. salt
juice from 1 lime
1 tbsp. freshly grated ginger root
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 Indian spice chili pepper, chopped fine

For the Batter-

3-1/2 oz. gram flour, sieved
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. salt
1 tsp. Ajwon seeds
1 tsp. red chili powder
1 cup chopped fresh cilantro (coriander)
fresh water
Rapeseed oil (for frying)

For Accompaniment-

1 head of cabbage, cored and rough chopped

You would also like to have (for authentic Indian cuisine cooking):

an Indian Karahi cooking pan (if you have a wok, that will work fine, also)

Directions:

Wash the fish fillets well, then pat dry with cloth of paper towels. Then chop the fillets into large bite-sized pieces.
In a mixing bowl, make your marinade paste by combining the lime juice, salt, ginger, garlic, garam masala and chopped Indian spice chili. The resulting marinade should have a dry pasty consistency.
Now rub the marinade all over the fish pieces and refrigerate for at least one hour. Even longer is better.
Run the gram flour through a sieve into another mixing bowl, and then add and stir in the carom seeds, salt, coriander, chilli powder, baking powder and just enough water to make a thick batter. Beat the batter vigorously, in order to aerate the batter.
In a karahi (or wok, if you do not have a karahi), heat the rapeseed oil over medium flame. Keep the flame at medium – frying the battered fish over high flame will cook the batter too quickly, leaving the fish inside not yet well done.
Using a slotted cooking spoon, dip one of the marinated fish pieces into the batter, toss and turn to cover well, and then gently lower it into the hot oil. Let it cook for about three minutes, using your slotted spoon to move the pakora around as it fries.
When the pakora is golden brown and crispy, remove from the karahi and transfer to a paper towel lined baking tray or large platter. This was your test run. Taste the pakora, and adjust the batter seasoning if necessary.
Once you are satisfied the oil and kahari and the batter are all just right, proceed to batter and fry the rest of the pakora pieces. Cook in batches, so there is space between the frying pieces.
Continue to cook the rest in small batches.
Serve your Fish Pakora while nice and hot. Place a bed of chopped cabbage on each serving plate, topped with a generous amount of the pakora pieces.