Tripta's Food Tunnel: Amritsari Fish Fry

Amritsari Fish fry is a street food originated from the streets of Amritsar, a city in Punjab and famous all over the world. Boneless and skinless cubes of fish are marinated, deep fried and then served with green chutney and radish salad. For this recipe you can use any river-water fish (white Fish eg Basa, Soul.) The reason behind using river-water fish is that these fish have a long skeleton which can be removed without much difficulty. And in Amritsari fish we use a skinless and boneless fish. Big fish fillets are cut into smaller cubes and marinated with spices and chickpea flour or 'Besan' and deep fried.

This recipe requires two very simple types of marination. The first marination is gently rubbing some salt and lemon juice and keeping it for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes the marination of spices and flours is given. But this marination is not to be kept for too long, because fish is delicate in texture, if kept too long in marination it is bound to lose its crispness. The recipe is very simple and requires not much active effort. So let us get started.

We Need:

500 Gm Boneless skinless Fish cut into cubes.
1 Tbsp of Lemon Juice.
2 Tbsp Chickpea flour (Besan)
2 Tbsp Corn flour
2 Tbsp Rice Flour (Mandatory)
½ Tsp Turmeric Powder
2 Tsp Red Chilli Powder
1 Tbsp Carom seeds (Ajwain)
1 Tbsp Dhania Powder.
1 Tbsp Sour Curd / 1Egg
1 Lemon.
Salt to taste or 1 Tsp.
1 Tbsp Chat masala
Oil for Deep frying
Garlic- 10-12 cloves
Green chillies- 2

Let us start:

Marination One: In a bowl take the cubes of fish, lemon juice and salt. Mix everything and keep aside for 15 minutes. This helps to remove smell from the fish and it also becomes tangy and tasty.
Grind garlic cloves and green chillies to a fine paste.
Marination Two: In another bowl mix chickpea flour, rice flour and corn flour. To this add turmeric powder, red chilli powder, carom seeds, dhania powder, garlic and green chilli paste and sour curd or one egg. Add fish pieces. Mix everything together with your hands rubbing each piece. Set aside for another 15 minutes.
Heat cooking oil in a pan on medium flame. When heated add fish pieces. Fry them till half done and the fish pieces are of golden colour. Drain them on tissue. Fry all pieces like this. Set aside for 5 minutes.
Again fry them in medium hot oil till reddish brown and crisp. This double frying method makes the fish pakodas nice and crisp. Sprinkle some chat masala for extra tang. Serve them hot with green chutney and grated raddish . Enjoy them as evening snacks.