PUnjabi style Surma/ king fish fry

Punjabi fish fry is an authentic style preparation of the fish fillets unlike south indian style.Here fish is well coated in the batter of Gram flour ,curd and egg ,where as in south india rice flour or rava is used for the coating the fish.It is one of the favorite recipes from Punjabi cuisine,ready to spread its aroma all over.

Ingredients:

1. 5-6 Surma/king fish/anjal ,1 cm thin slices
2. 1/2tsp turmeric
3. 1tsp lemon juice
4. 1tbsp Mustard oil for the marinade
5. 1tbsp ginger garlic paste
6. 1/4 cup hung curd
7. 3tsp red chilly powder
8. 1/2tsp Garam masala
9. 1cup Besan/Gram flour
10. 1/2tsp Ajwain/carom seeds
11. 1 Egg lightly beaten
12. Salt to taste
13. Oil for frying
14. Chat masala as per taste

Method: 

• Wash and clean the surma slices and make them dry and keep aside
• Add red chilly powder,Garam masala,Crushed ajwain,ginger -garlic paste and salt to the gram flour,mix it well.
• Add curd ,mustard oil and egg beaten to the same besan mixture and make a thick paste.You can sprinkle little water if needed,but the consistency of the batter should be thick so that fish could coat properly.
• Now add the pieces of fish in this mixture and nicely massage each pieces of fish  with this besan batter.
• Let it marinate for 10-15 minutes in this batter.
• Heat oil in a pan and Shallow fry all the pieces on both the sides till golden brown.
• Sprinkle some chat masala and Serve hot with onion and lemon slices.

Chef's tip:

• You can use water instead of egg for the batter.
• If you want to make fish more crispy then deep fry the fish in hot oil instead of shallow frying.
• YOU can also try this same batter with pomfret or any other fishes of your choice.

Sending this to one of my favorite blog Amchigele Vasari as a guest post