Being a Keralan at heart, I always loved eating fish and all seafood. So incredibly tasty! And also so light on the stomach. This is the best part now on my Paleo diet. I eat fish 80% of the time for my protein and hence I am constantly looking out for new recipes. Well I have quite a bit of a stash of Kerala fish recipes but still any new fish recipe I see, I must try it! The recipe I am sharing today was developed due to that. I watched some youtube videos of street food vendors making fish fry and I saw one recipe that sent me salivating at midnight!
Fish first marinated in a mint and cilantro green masala and then deep fried by coating in a thick flour batter. All though mouthwatering, I needed to test grain free alternatives to flour. So the first time I tried by using tapioca starch. the coating was crispy however it didn’t hold well and came off easily. So this second time around, I decided to use cassava flour (which is also tapioca flour but it has all the fiber retained in it and hence its texture is different from tapioca starch which is more like corn starch). I added a bit of tapioca starch too to give some additional crispiness.
Pleased to present the recipe for Dhaba Style Masala Fish fry – paleo version! For non-paleo version, you can use all purpose flour, rice flour or chick pea flour for the batter
- About 1 and ½ pounds fish (or fish filets) - Any fish is ok -I used cod fish
- 8-10 fresh mint leaves
- ½ cup fresh cilantro leaves
- 1 green chili
- 2 cloves of garlic
- ½ inch piece of fresh ginger
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp salt
- ½ tsp cumin powder
- ¼ tsp black pepper powder
- ½ tsp coriander powder
- ¼ tsp kashmiri red chilli powder
- 2 tbsp cassava flour (I used Anthony's Goods)
- 1 tsp Tapioca flour
- ½ tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
- pinch salt
- 3-4 tbsp water
- Coconut Oil for frying
- Cut the fish into medium size pieces (about 1 inch by 2 inches). Dab dry and keep aside.
- Grind all ingredients listed under marinade to a paste. (It will be slightly coarse that's ok)
- In a bowl add the fish pieces and the marinade and using your hands coat fish pieces well with marinade. Keep aside at room temperature for unto 30 mins or in the fridge if longer than that (up to 3 hours)
- Fry fish just before serving. In a small bowl, mix all the batter ingredients and stir to get a thick batter.
- Heat a frying pan with the coconut oil (you can either deep fry or shallow fry - i prefer shallow frying as it takes less oil)
- Dip each fish piece in the batter coating it well on all sides and place in hot oil. Repeat with all the pieces. Fry the fish for about 2 -3 mins on each side until crispy on the outside flipping carefully to turn.
- Serve fried fish immediately!
Cut the fish pieces or the filets such that they are at least ½ inch thick.
This post made me drool! The recipe sounds great. Nice share.