Tuesday, January 26, 2021

Indian Style Red Snapper Fish Fry | Red Snapper Fry

Red Snapper Fish Fry, a delicious and flavorful Indian Style fish fry with red snapper. Red Snapper fish(also known as Sankara meen in Tamil) is a white flesh fish and it goes really well with Indian spices & flavors.

Here in North America, this is my go to fish for making Indian fish curry and Indian style fish tava fry. In recent times, it's quite hard to source this fish where I live now because of the current pandemic situation.

Last week, luckily got this fish from the nearby store and made fish curry and fry along with rice and rasam for our lunch and it was a hearty meal for sure ! If you haven't tried this fish so far and are desperately looking for good fish for Indian curry in North America, i would highly recommend the Red snapper fish.

Here in this recipe, I have used only the basic indian spices and didn't use any ginger garlic paste, coriander powder and garam masala powder. Nevertheless it still tastes awesome with the wonderful flavor of curry leaves and coconut oil.

For the good fish curry and fry, all you need is some tartness, spiciness and salt. Additionally i like curry leaves flavor in my fish fry so whenever i have some fresh leaves, i would use it in my fish fry. But if you can't source the curry leaves, you can skip that ! But i would highly recommend virgin coconut oil for frying the fish, it totally elevates the taste to the whole new level.

Related : How to make Finger Fish Fry

Ok, before moving on to the recipe, let's check out some FAQs about fish fry !

How to avoid the fish getting stick to the pan?

This is the most common issue that many people face while frying the fish. There are few things to be taken care of to avoid sticking to the bottom

First, the temperature of the pan is important. It should be really hot. Add the fish only when the oil is about to smoke.
Use a heavy bottom pan. Here I'm using a cast iron pan. Thick iron dosa pan(irumbu dosai kal) also works well for fish fry. If you're a beginner, use a non-stick pan to avoid the mess :-)
Don't flip the fish on to the other side immediately. Cook it for at least 1&1/2 to 2 mins in medium flame before flipping.

Why is the masala not sticking to the fish ?

It's an another common problem !

First make sure the masala is thick and apply a thin layer of masala on the fish.
Again the temperature of oil is important. Make sure it's really hot
You can add a tsp of rice flour or all purpose flour in the masala to stick it better.

Which oil is best for fish fry ?

Coconut oil !! I simply love the flavor of the coconut oil in fish fry. I may be a little biased here. Since I grew up eating fish fried in coconut oil as a kid, I can't think of any other oil for best fish fry !

That's it !! Now let's check out on how to make this delicious Red Snapper Fish fry !

Indian Style Red Snapper Fish Fry

Preparation Time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 10 mins | Serves : 2
Recipe Category: Fish | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients

Red Snapper Fish - 1 lb
Red chili powder - 1&1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Lemon Juice - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - 2 tsp(finely minced)
Salt - to salt
Coconut Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

First clean the fish pieces well and then mince the curry leaves finely.

In a plate add the spices(turmeric, chili powder ), salt and the curry leaves. Add the lemon juice and make a paste.

Take a piece of fish and rub the masala on both sides of the fish.

Do the same for all the fish pieces and then cover with lid and let it marinate for 30 mins.

Heat the coconut oil in a thick bottomed pan(i have used cast iron pan), let the oil melt completely and hot.

Then add the fish pieces. After about 3 minutes, flip the fish pieces into other sides and let it cook for 3-4 mins in the medium flame.

Tasty and flavorful Red Snapper fish fry is ready.

For fish curry, check out this recipe !

Related : How to make Pepper Fish Fry

Notes:

Depends on the thickness of the fish pieces, the cooking time varies.
If you like more flavor, you can add a tsp of ginger garlic paste and garam masala
Instead of coconut oil, you can use any flavorless oil also.
If you can't source the curry leaves, you can skip that.

Wednesday, March 28, 2018

Red Snapper Fish Curry | Sankara Meen Kuzhambu | Fish Gravy

Red Snapper Fish Curry, a delicious tamarind based spicy fish curry made with Red Snapper Fish. Here in US, we initially found it very hard to get the fish that suits to our taste. Most of the fish fillets available in the grocery stores are suitable for fish fry only. Later we found out this red snapper fish which taste so similar to sankara meen that we used to buy in India and it tastes great for any indian curries, but here red snapper is quite big in size, each fish weigh minimum 1lb, but in India, for 1 lb,we can get atleast 3 to 4 fishes. Though google says that both red snapper and sankara meen are same, i'm not sure about that.

Now coming to today's recipe, this is my favorite fish curry. We have been making this fish curry in our family for decades without a little bit change in the recipe. It's one of the delicious curry that you can make with very few ingredients.By looking at the ingredients list, you might knew that.But the key here is you have to know how to balance the seasoning, the tanginess from the tamarind, spiciness from the chili powder and the salt should be balanced well. If you achieved that ,then your fish curry would be out of the world !!! Here in the recipe, i have tried my best to give the exact measurement of ingredients to achieve that perfect balance of taste in the curry. Again every brand of tamarind, chili powder differs, so it's little difficult to achieve the perfect taste even with precise measurement. So my advice here is soak little extra tamarind, add 3/4 of tamarind juice, then add chili powder, salt & coconut paste. Taste the curry once the oil floats on top before adding the fish, if it's need more tanginess or spiciness, add at this stage and again simmer the curry till the raw smell leaves. Make sure that the seasoning should be perfect before adding the fishes. By saying all this doesn't mean it's a very difficult dish to make, i'm just sharing all the things that i have learnt so far. If i can make delicious fish curry, then any one can make it for sure :-)

Red Snapper Fish Curry

Preparation Time : 30 mins | Cooking Time : 20 mins | Serves : 2 to 3
Recipe Category: Curry | Recipe Cuisine: Indian

Ingredients
Red Snapper - 1 lb
Pearl onion - 15
Tomato - 1(small)
Tamarind - a small lemon size
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Red chili powder - 1 &1/2 tsp
Salt - to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp
Curry leaves - few
To grind
Coconut - 1/2 cup
Pearl onion - 3
Garlic - 2

Procedure

First soak the tamarind in water for 30 mins. Clean the fish and keep it ready. Take the pearl onions.

Peel the pearl onions and cut into small pieces, similarly cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Heat the kadai with oil.

Add the onions and saute till it became translucent and then add the curry leaves.

Then add the chopped tomatoes into kadai and saute for 2 mins. Extract the tamarind juice from the tamarind and add into the kadai.

Add turmeric, chili powder and salt.

Mix it all well together and bring into boil. In the mean, grind the ingredients listed under "To grind" into smooth paste.

Add the coconut paste, mix it well and let it cook until oil floats on the top.

Add the fish, mix it gently with the curry. Cover the kadai with lid and let it cook for 5 mins in the medium flame.

Tada, Delicious Red Snapper Fish Curry is ready. Serve it with some hot rice and rasam.

Notes:

Pearl onions gives great taste to the curry,so highly recommend to use it.
Once the fish is added into the curry, the curry tends to become little watery. So cook the masala until it's really thick before adding the fish to get the consistency that i got here. Otherwise you would end with watery fish curry. If that's fine for you, go for it.
Cook in medium flame once the fish is added into the curry. Vigorous boiling makes the fish to disintegrate into curry.
At the end, garnish it with coriander leaves if you like. Mostly we don't add coriander leaves to fish curry, so i skip that.
You can use king fish/vanjiram meen also for this curry.
Salmon fish also taste good with this curry.

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Tuesday, January 26, 2021