Spicy Fried Fish

"This is an authentic  Konkan style ( Sea-side belt of Maharashtra/ Goa in India)  fried fish recipe, which while it sounds spicy, it uses chilies more for color than spice, and you could use as much of the spice paste as you think you can handle. My kids just love this one ..."

Serves : 4

Ingredients:

• Spice paste
• 50 grams dried red chilly(kashmiri or any other chili - high on color-low on spice)
• 20 grams (1 1/2 tbsp) ginger and garlic paste
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 4 palm size pomfret fish (around 200 grams each - whole with shallow cuts on both sides ) 
• 6 tbsp semolina
• 1 lime

Method:

Spice paste

1. Soak the dried red chilies for 10 minutes in 4 tbsp of water
2. Make a paste of all the 5 spice paste ingredients along with the chilly water (add more water if needed to make a thick paste)
3. Use 1 heaped tbsp of spice paste to marinate each pomfret fish, making sure the paste is rubbed in well into all the shallow cuts
4. Coat the fish in semolina, and leave for at least 10 minutes outside or upto 2 hours in the refrigerator.
5. Shallow fry till golden and crisp and eat immediately after sprinkling some lime juice 

Tip:

• The spice paste ingredients make enough to fill a 200 ml bottle and can be refrigerated against further use
• 1 tbsp of spice paste can be used to marinate between 100 and 200 grams of fish as per taste
• Instead of whole pomfret fish, you could use any other firm white fish - whole or fillets