My First Mate is a typical South Indian Dekkani Muslim Male whose college life and early Chartered Accountant years were spent in Madras nalla Madras, savoring 'non-vegetarian' delights such as Chicken Kothu Paratha, Mutton varuval, Paaya-idiyaappam and whatnot either at wayside stalls or in hallowed institutions such as Velu's Military Hotel, Muniyandi Vilas, Buhari's, Ponnusamy's Hotel and Paramount Hotel, to name a few. Btw, restaurants in Madras are called 'hotels' for some reason - possibly to impart a glamor value to their delightfully unpretentious ambiences.
Well, the food is also accordingly very reasonably priced ('unlimited' meals and so on, but that topic will be reserved for another post). The bottomline is that you get what you pay for, and when you are paying near rock bottom amounts, it is best to train one's nose to make the most of the divine flavors wafting through the 'hotel'. That is the pre-requisite to virtually inhaling the food once it makes its entrance upon your formica topped 4 by 4.
'Nuff said about the 'hotels'. This post is about the regular pre-weekend meal in our home, in anticipation of the 2 days of supposed rest. I say this because we have 2 active boys, frequent bottlenecks with laundry and unwashed dishes, and my own MBA homework that gets done mainly during the weekend. This meal has my First Mate go "oh-ho, ah-ha!" (Tamil Nadu natives will get the inflections and delivery just by reading those two words). Its hallowed name - Mackeral fish fry, Aviyal, and Puliyogare.
Fish Fry:
1. Buy fresh Mackeral ('Bangra machchi' in Dekkani Urdu, and 'Eye-la meen' in Tamil) or fresh Seer fish ('Surmai' in Dekkani, and 'Vanjiram' in Tamil). Seer fish is also known as Spanish Mackeral.
2. Wash it, use a knife to scrape the scales off (there will hardly be any), snip off the fins etc with your kitchen knife, and cut the head and tail off. Then, cut into 1/2 inch slices. Wash the slices of blood and gore (the yucky insides), and keep aside.
3. In a bowl, mix 2 teaspoons chilli powder, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons garlic paste, 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh coriander, and 1 tablespoon canola oil. The oil helps the masala stick to the fish while marinating and being pan fried. If you like, you could add the juice of 1/2 a squeezed lemon to this masala.
4. Coat the fish slices with this masala and marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours. Don't marinate it too much or the fish will fall apart. It needs to remain fresh, see? And use your fingers - that's what they're for - useful tools to aid in cooking, instead of a sterile spoon or fork that wouldn't do as efficient a job. I'm sure there'll be a bunch who'd want to debate this point...I really don't care to as its pointless.
5. Once the fish has marinated sufficiently, pick up a frying pan - not to bash someone on the head - and place it on the stove, with 1/2 an inch of vegetable oil. Heat the oil till hot, but not smoking. We want to fry the fish at a steady pace, not char or warp it. Fry the fish in batches, as seen below...as many as your frying pan can hold. My 9 inch diameter pan can take 4 big slices or 6-7 small ones.
6. When the fish is done on one side - takes about 3 minutes till it turns brown - turn it over to cook on the other side. The color when cooked is not as light as fish fingers or fish burgers that are more golden-brown, but darker because of the masala (chilli powder, garlic, etc). The color is usually a good indication of whether the fish slices have been fully cooked. You don't want to poke or fork the slices while frying because - firstly, you don't want to be splattered with hot oil; and second, you'd risk breaking up the fish (although Mackerel and Seer fish are quite firm).
7. Serve the fried fish with rice and either sambar, rasam, and a poriyal...or shorten the lead time by making aviyal while the fish cooks. Here is the final product, served namma ooru-style on a steel plate, for my pati parmaatma ;).
Well, the food is also accordingly very reasonably priced ('unlimited' meals and so on, but that topic will be reserved for another post). The bottomline is that you get what you pay for, and when you are paying near rock bottom amounts, it is best to train one's nose to make the most of the divine flavors wafting through the 'hotel'. That is the pre-requisite to virtually inhaling the food once it makes its entrance upon your formica topped 4 by 4.
'Nuff said about the 'hotels'. This post is about the regular pre-weekend meal in our home, in anticipation of the 2 days of supposed rest. I say this because we have 2 active boys, frequent bottlenecks with laundry and unwashed dishes, and my own MBA homework that gets done mainly during the weekend. This meal has my First Mate go "oh-ho, ah-ha!" (Tamil Nadu natives will get the inflections and delivery just by reading those two words). Its hallowed name - Mackeral fish fry, Aviyal, and Puliyogare.
Fish Fry:
1. Buy fresh Mackeral ('Bangra machchi' in Dekkani Urdu, and 'Eye-la meen' in Tamil) or fresh Seer fish ('Surmai' in Dekkani, and 'Vanjiram' in Tamil). Seer fish is also known as Spanish Mackeral.
2. Wash it, use a knife to scrape the scales off (there will hardly be any), snip off the fins etc with your kitchen knife, and cut the head and tail off. Then, cut into 1/2 inch slices. Wash the slices of blood and gore (the yucky insides), and keep aside.
3. In a bowl, mix 2 teaspoons chilli powder, 2 teaspoons salt, 2 teaspoons garlic paste, 1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh coriander, and 1 tablespoon canola oil. The oil helps the masala stick to the fish while marinating and being pan fried. If you like, you could add the juice of 1/2 a squeezed lemon to this masala.
4. Coat the fish slices with this masala and marinate in the fridge for a couple of hours. Don't marinate it too much or the fish will fall apart. It needs to remain fresh, see? And use your fingers - that's what they're for - useful tools to aid in cooking, instead of a sterile spoon or fork that wouldn't do as efficient a job. I'm sure there'll be a bunch who'd want to debate this point...I really don't care to as its pointless.
5. Once the fish has marinated sufficiently, pick up a frying pan - not to bash someone on the head - and place it on the stove, with 1/2 an inch of vegetable oil. Heat the oil till hot, but not smoking. We want to fry the fish at a steady pace, not char or warp it. Fry the fish in batches, as seen below...as many as your frying pan can hold. My 9 inch diameter pan can take 4 big slices or 6-7 small ones.
6. When the fish is done on one side - takes about 3 minutes till it turns brown - turn it over to cook on the other side. The color when cooked is not as light as fish fingers or fish burgers that are more golden-brown, but darker because of the masala (chilli powder, garlic, etc). The color is usually a good indication of whether the fish slices have been fully cooked. You don't want to poke or fork the slices while frying because - firstly, you don't want to be splattered with hot oil; and second, you'd risk breaking up the fish (although Mackerel and Seer fish are quite firm).
7. Serve the fried fish with rice and either sambar, rasam, and a poriyal...or shorten the lead time by making aviyal while the fish cooks. Here is the final product, served namma ooru-style on a steel plate, for my pati parmaatma ;).
No comments:
Post a Comment