Kerala Fish Fry (Meen Varuthathu)

One of my fav food!! This is one item which I find very hard to resist. However, I don’t make it that often. I usually go for fish curry. Other day when we went to buy fish, we were lucky to get a fresh catch of king fish. When I was asked whether the pieces should be separated for curry and fry, I didn’t think twice. How could I resist the joy of having a fresh neimeen (king fish) fry, its really bad to say “NO” to such simple pleasures of life, isn’t it ;)???

Regarding the recipe, I am taking bail in  advance. I don’t have exact measurement for this. Sometimes I feel like adding more garlic, sometimes I want to add a pinch of garam masala and so it goes. The recipe given below is the standard one and you can play with it as you like.

Here is the recipe:

1. King fish steaks – 4-5 of medium size
2. Ginger & garlic paste – 1- 1 1/2tsp each
   Kashmiri chilly powder – 1 – 1 1/2 tsp
   Turmeric powder – 1/4 tsp
   Whole pepper – 1/4- 1/2 tsp
   Lime juice – 1-2 tsp
   Salt
3. Coconut oil

Apply little salt and lime juice on the fish pieces and wash it with water. Drain the water. Grind together number 2 ingredients into a fine paste adding a little water. Make gashes in the fish pieces and marinate the pieces with the ground paste. Keep the marinated fish for half an hour. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish pieces.Serve with onion rings and a slice of lime.

Notes: Please adjust the qty of spices to suit your taste. The ground paste should not be watery (1/2 – 1 tsp of water is enough while grinding the masala). I usually fry the fish pieces on low-medium flame. Also you can add some fresh curry leaves while frying the fish pieces. You can use the same masala for any kind of fish.