Apollo fish fry

It has been kind of a long break that I took. Well, I was quite busy with both my professional and personal life. God I wish I was good at multi-tasking, but alas I like to take up things slowly and mostly one at a time. I do panic when I have too many commitments to fulfill within a very short span of time. But then life is all about progressing, so here is what I have improved at. Last night when I was cooking, I realized that I have become much faster in completing my daily cooking chores. I was all smiles at the very self-appreciation moment.

Now coming to the “Apollo fish fry”, it is one of the best tasting Andhra fish recipes that I have tried so far. One bite into the "Apollo fish fry" you will taste the amazing mix of spiciness-sourness-crunchiness and tenderness. So whenever you manage to get some boneless fish, try it out for the very spicy and yummilicious treat.

Apollo fish fry

Serves: 3 to 4 persons

Ingredients:

Boneless fish- 500 gms

Marinate with the following ingredients:

Ginger-garlic paste- 1 tbsp.

Turmeric powder- ½ tsp.

Chili powder- 2 tsp.

Lemon juice- 2 tsp.

Pepper powder- ½ tsp.

Egg-1

Salt to taste

For frying

Oil to shallow fry

Maida- 2 tbsp.

Rice flour- 2 tbsp.

For tadka

Curd- ½ cup

Coriander powder- 2 tsp.

Kashmiri lal chili powder- 1 tsp.

Black pepper powder- ½ tsp

Garlic- 4 tbsp. (finely chopped)

Ginger- 1 tbsp. (finely chopped)

Curry leaves- 1 spring

Green chilies- 4 (sliced)

Coriander leaves- 2 tbsp. (finely chopped)

Soya sauce- 1 tsp

Red chili sauce- 2 tsp.

Oil- 1 tbsp.

Salt to taste

Procedure:

Clean fish properly and strain out any excess water. Then marinate the fish with the above mentioned ingredients for 30 minutes. Heat oil in a Kadhai to shallow fry the fish. Meanwhile, add rice flour and maida and coat the fish well. After that fry the fish on medium flame till a nice crust is formed and fish is cooked from inside. It will take about 1-2 minutes (depending on size of fish cut-outs). Strain the fish and keep aside. Fry the fishes in batches so that they don’t stick to each other.

Now for the tadka, heat oil in a pan. Meanwhile take curd, soya sauce, coriander powder, Kashmiri chili powder, red chili sauce and whisk everything well till nicely blended. Once the oil is hot, add ginger fry it for few seconds and then add garlic, fry it well till slightly browned. Then add curry leaves and green chilies and continue frying for 1 minute. Then add the curd mix and let it cook for 3-4 minutes on low flame. Finally add the fish and let it soak all the maslas. In the end salt, add coriander leaves and add black pepper powder, give it a final stir and serve.

Notes:

Don’t over fry the fish, as it could spoil all the flavors.

Adding rice flour will give it a nice crunch, otherwise you may add corn flour to it as a substitute.

Adding lemon juice is important to curb any foul smell in fish.

Use boneless and firm fish for this recipe.

Add salt only when required as soya sauce itself has high salt content.