Try your hand
FISH PAKORA Serves 2-4 as a starter or snack
This is the recipe we used at The Clove Club as one of our snacks.
Ingredients For the spice mix
10g Cumin
18g Ground coriander 3g Cassia bark or cinnamon 0.4g Clove
3.5g Cardamon green 2g Fenugreek
5g Fennel seed
8g Black pepper
2g Cayenne
1g Curry leaf
For the dipping sauce
200g Greek yoghurt, not strained 40g Ketchup
25g Chilli sauce
For the pakora batter
2g Baking soda
40g Rice flour
150g Gram flour
40g Buttermilk
250g Water
2g finely chopped green chilli 2g finely grated ginger 2g finely chopped coriander 4g spice mix (no salt)
White Fish - 600g of fish fillets
2 litres Vegetable oil for frying. 1 lemon to serve
Method
•
Make your spice mix. Weigh out the spices above and put in a heavy pan over a low heat. •
Stir and shake around for 3-4 mins until the spices warm a little (any you have that are already ground – don’t add to the pan, just stir into the others after you grind them). Place them all in a spice grinder and grind until fine. Store in an empty glass jar with a screw top, the recipe will make more than you need. •
Next up take 10g of the spice mix, and add 20g of fine sea salt. Dry the fish fillets well, and then season on both sides, a little more than you think you need to, with the salt/spice mix. Leave for 30 mins, then cut into fingers around the size of thin fish fingers. • To make the dipping sauce, mix all the ingredients, adding a pinch of salt. You can use more or less chilli sauce as you want. • Weigh out the ingredients for the pakora batter. Mix all the dry ingredients, add the buttermilk, then whisk in the water to make a batter about the consistency of pouring cream, or slightly thicker. Stir in the chilli, coriander and ginger. •
Heat the oil to 180 degrees C in a heavy based pot. When it is ready a little bit of the batter flicked into it will sink a cm or two before rising up and bubbling on the surface. •
When the oil is hot start to fry one by one, dipping the fish into the batter and slowly swirling it from side to side in the oil before releasing, this means the batter will form a crust and won’t sink to the bottom and get stuck to the base of the pan. •
Fry three or four pieces at a time for around two minutes or until light golden brown. Lightly season the fried pakora with the salt/ spice mix. Repeat with the other pieces until it is all fried. • Serve with wedges of lemon and bowls of the dipping sauce.