CKP style fish fry

One of the cuisines I am growing to learn more is CKP-style cooking. I had heard CKP-style food is tasty but had never tasted it and experienced it until I married Neel. And the funniest part is that I was unaware that he was CKP until after we almost got engaged! I was psyched to know he is CKP, so that I could learn a new style of cooking. The cherry on the cake was the fact that his mother is one of the best cooks I’ve ever met 🙂 The essence of my Mother-in-law’s cooking is simple, flavorful and hearty CKP-style dishes.

Despite distance, she always painstakingly hand-writes recipes for me to follow. And since we both speak “perfectionist” I seem to get it right every time – at least according to Neel! 😛

Any fish preparation typically has an acid component – tamarind, lemon juice, raw mango and kokum are very common in Indian dishes. the CKP staple acidifying agent is kokum agal – concentrated kokum extract. I think its a great ingredient especially for cooking seafood with. The color also adds a lovely hue to the fried fish.

This is a 5 ingredient fish marinade, lightly coated with semolina or rice flour and that’s it. The secret? – fresh fish fillets and good quality, finely milled red chilli powder.

You will need:

about 6-7 fish fillets (I used fresh tilapia) – you can also use pomphret, catfish, king fish/ seer fish (surmai), Indian salmon (rawas) – basically any moist white fish

red chilli powder 1 tsp

finely crushed garlic 2-3 cloves

1 tbsp of kokum agal

salt (kokum agal is salty most times, so add salt carefully)

1/2 tsp turmeric

Fine rawa/ sooji/ semolina and/ or rice flour

Oil for shallow frying

Procedure:

• Clean the fish and cut 4 inch square fillets that are about 1/2 inch thick.
• Marinate the fish with kokum agal, salt, garlic, turmeric and red chilli powder and let rest for about 20 minutes

• heat oil in a flat shallow frying pan
• Roll the marinated fillets in rawa+rice flour or just one of the two, until evenly coated and place in hot oil

• cook covered for 4-5 minutes
• remove cover and fry for a couple of minutes on the other side, without covering. This way both sides stay crisp and the fish is cooked through

• Serve hot!