Fish Fry

I have been blogging for some time now. While my blogs have touched various nooks and crannies of Bengali and Indian cuisine but somehow a mainstay of Bengali food, the famed Kolkata Fish fry has been missing. I did blog the recipe awhile back and it was one of my more popular posts but somehow the post got deleted.
So here it is back on bongcook, and to make up for the deletion I actually have a video to go along with. I love short and sweet videos and in that theme this is only around 2 minutes.
The reason I call it restaurant style is because while a lot of people make it at home it doesn’t quiet get the restaurant look. In the video I tried to cover how to really make it look good as well.
Hope you enjoy the video and as always I have the recipe below as well.

Ingredients For Marination

• 250gms bhetki fillet cut approximately 2 inch by 2 inch
  
• 1 lemon
  
• 2 tbsp. onion paste
  
• 2 tsp. ginger paste
  
• 2 tsp. garlic paste
  
• 2 tsp. green chili paste
  
• 1 tsp. fresh ground black pepper corn
  
• Salt to taste
  

Procedure For Marination

Mix all the ingredients above including the juice of one lemon and apply to the fish fillet so that all the sides are well covered with this spice mixture. Marinate for 3 - 4 hrs.

Ingredients For Coating & Frying

• 2 eggs
  
• Plenty of bread crumbs
  
• Enough refined oil for deep frying
  

Procedure For Coating & Frying
In a bowl beat 2 eggs with salt.
In a wide tray or plate take bread crumbs and spread it to form a layer.
With a spoon or fork take each fillet out, and dip it in the egg wash and place flat on the bread crumb layer. With your dry hands sprinkle a fistful of bread crumb on the open top layer of the fillet so that that this surface too is covered with bread crumbs.
Press gently with the palms of your hand to flatten them.
Use the blunt side of a knife and press it along the all 4 edges of the breaded fillet to give them a professional look. :)
Heat enough oil for deep frying till it smokes. Reduce the temperature and let it cool down a bit before you slid in the breaded fillet. Fry on medium high heat till both sides turn golden brown and crispy.
Remove on a paper towel and serve with salad.

Not Pumpkin Flower Fritters

Every year during this time everyone in USA gets crazy about pumpkin for all the wrong reasons (ahem ghosts). They drink pumpkin lattes and pumpkin beers, decorate their home with hideously large pumpkins.
Last year I started looking out for pumpkins flowers and vines. My queries were met with strange looks. A farm owner in Ballard even offered me to get tones of the vines because essentially it is waste for them. However, I rarely found the flowers.
This year, I decided to grow my own, but not pumpkins, but rather zucchini, a cousin of the pumpkin which is easier to grow. The flowers are almost identical and I can vouch they taste exactly the same.
Using zucchini flowers this is how I made my kumro phul er bora or pumpkin flower fritters.

Ingredients

• 10 zucchini flower
• 1 tbsp. kalonji / nigella seeds
• 1tsp. turmeric powder
• 5 tbsp. Besan / Bengal gram flour
• 2 tbsp. rice flour
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• Salt to taste
• Oil for deep frying

Procedure

Wash the flowers carefully in running water. Now cut the stem short and make a vertical cut through the flower to take out the stamen and the pistil.

In a mixing bowl mix gram flour, rice flour, nigella seeds, turmeric powder, salt and baking soda very well.

By adding water little at a time make a thick batter.

Heat enough refined oil for deep frying in a pan. Coat each zucchini flower with the batter and gently slide it in the hot oil. Fry on medium heat till crispy and golden brown.

Remove with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel. Serve with hot rice and your favorite daal.