The Fish Kabiraji Cutlet.
Our indigenous Bhetki. Marinated in onion-ginger-garlic juices. Green chillies if you like the heat. Coriander leaves if you like the perfume. Dipped in an egg wash. Lightly coated with breadcrumbs. Fried to a sinful gorgeous golden. And cocooned lovingly in a delectable egg net.
Inspired by the Coverage Cutlet.
Yet our very own.
This is food heaven !!!
And if you are a ‘fishophile’ as much as I am, do not give my Bhekti Fish Fry or Bhetki Batter Fry a miss !!
Fish Kabiraji Cutlet (Fish Coverage Cutlet)
Our indigenous Bhetki. Marinated in onion-ginger-garlic juices. Green chillies if you like the heat. Coriander leaves if you like the perfume. Dipped in an egg wash. Lightly coated with breadcrumbs. Fried to a sinful gorgeous golden. And cocooned lovingly in a delectable egg net.
Inspired by the Coverage Cutlet.Yet our very own.
This is food heaven !!!
Ingredients
- 4 large sized bhetki fillets Bengali fry cut, washed and pat dried
- 1 small onion
- 1 inch ginger roughly chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic smashed
- 2-3 green chilies
- 1/4 cup coriander leaves roughly chopped
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- 2 tsp black pepper powder freshly ground
- 1/4 cup plain flour
- 2 eggs
- breadcrumbs for coating
- oil for frying
- salt to taste
For the Egg Net
- 5 eggs
- 1/4 tsp green chilli paste
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp palin flour
- 2 tsp corn flour
- oil for frying
Instructions
For the Fish Fry
- Marinate the bhetki fillets with lemon juice, black pepper and salt, keep aside for 15 minutes or so.
- Blitz the onion, garlic, ginger, green chilies and coriander leaves to a fine paste.
- Smear the paste evenly on the fish fillets,. Keep aside for at least 3-4 hours, even better overnight.
- Set up your assembly line, left to right 🙂
- Take the plain flour on a flat dish.
- Break the eggs in a big bowl, add a generous pinch of salt and pepper, whip well.
- On a third plate, spread the bread crumbs evenly. Season the crumbs with salt and black pepper.
- Now start assembling the fish fries.
- First, roll the marinated fillets lightly on the flour, dust the excess gently.
- Next dip the floured fillet in the egg wash.
- Lastly, transfer to the plate with bread crumbs, coat the fillets well.
- Press each fillet gently to ensure it is coated evenly on all sides. Shake off any extra crumbs. Keep aside.
- Repeat the process for all the fillets.
- Heat the oil in a deep frying pan, fry the fillets one by one till golden. Keep aside on a kitchen towel.
For the Egg Net
- Take 4 of the eggs in a mixing bowl, add the green chilli paste, salt and black pepper. Whisk well.
- Take the cornflour and the plain flour in a second bowl. Add 3-4 tbsp of the egg mix from above. Make a smooth slurry taking care that there are no lumps. Now add the rest of egg mix. Give it a hearty stir to form a smooth batter.
- Heat enough oil over a medium low flame in a wide-mouthed frying pan. (I use a 15” pan)
- Dip your fingers in the egg batter, carefully sprinkle the egg batter over the oil from one end to the other. Keep your fingers straight through the process.
- Now dip your fingers in the egg batter, very carefully sprinkle the egg batter with the tips of your fingers over the oil from one end to the other. Try to keep your fingers staright while sprinkling.
- Repeat the step above a couple of times, till it forms an egg net, a size or two bigger than your fish fry.
- Beat the remaining egg in a bowl. Dip a fish fry in the beaten egg.
- Gently place the fry over the long end of the egg net, roll the fry over towards the other long end, while simultaneously folding the egg net from the other sides. This shall ensure that the fry is covered uniformly with the egg net from all sides.
- Continue to fry for another 2-3 minutes over a medium flame till the egg net turns a gorgeous golden.
- Remove from the oil, keep aside over a kitchen absorbent towel. Serve immediately with kasundi.
You are so very right Anirban !! I did a series last year on Anglo Indian dishes and did some research into origins of some of the dishes. Elite Bengalis (Satyendranath Tagore and his wife Jnanadanandini Devi for example) and Memsahibs missing their ham and bacon, in my head, were largely behind creating this eclectic set of dishes !!!
Wonder what our lives would have been without chops and cutlets 😀
Maumita, most of these dishes were “Brown Sahib” dishes – the elite Bengalis returning from England after their College education wanted to carry on their “English” lifestyle back in Kolkata. But they made the dishes their own by removing the blandness of English food with dash of spices, onions, ginger and garlic. Some of these dishes have now come over to Britain and are very popular here.