Tawa fried Pomfret

Ingredients :
A) White Pomfret cut into half or kept whole as per choice ....with slits for masala penetration- 3 nos.
B) Ginger Garlic paste - 2 tbsp
C) Lemon juice of 2 small lemons
D) salt to taste
E) kashmiri mirch - 1 tsp for colour
F) Green chilis paste - optional
G) Coriander leaves - optional

H) Spices for dry roasting :
Whole Coriander seeds - 2 tsp
Whole Cumin seeds - 1 tsp
Cinnamon - 2 to 3 sticks
Cardamon - 3-4
Cloves - 4-6
Whole Black Pepper 15-20 
Tej Pata - 2 small
Whole dry red chili - 3-4

Procedure :
1. After dry roasting the spices at 'H', dry grind them into a not-very-fine powder.
2. Mix with all other ingredients at B to G with the dry spice mix . Add a little mustard oil (or any other oil of your choice). This is the marinade  to smear the fish with
3) Liberally coat the cleaned pomfret pieces (or whole) & even the cavites with the marinade.
4) Marinate for a couple of hours. I refrigerated the marinated fish overnight.
5) Tawa fried in mustard oil.

Instead of Tawa Frying, this can be grilled too.....

Goan Green Chutney stuffed Pomfret Fry

Pomfret is something I havent cooked often. Earlier had always either tawa fried or microwaved (with a blob of butter) simply marinated (ginger-garlic-lemon-salt-pepper) pomfret pieces. 

This time thought of trying something different. Hence the internet hunt ....which yielded a simple stuffed pomfret recipe in which most of the ingredients were available at home.

Ingredients :

* Whole pomfrets - 4

* Juice of 1 lime

* Salt to taste

* Sooji/Semolina/Rawa for rolling/ dredging (optional)

* Wheat flour for dusting/sprinkling (did not use)

* Refined oil for pan frying

* Turmeric - 1 tsp

* Freshly crushed black pepper - 1 tsp (not in original recipe)

* For the green chutney

   - A large bunch of fresh coriander leaves

   - 2 sprigs fresh mint leaves-optional (I did not use)

   - 1 medium onion peeled and roughly chopped

   - 1 tbs fresh tamarind paste (I used juice of 1 big lemon)

   - 7 cloves fresh garlic

   - 1 " piece of ginger

   - 2-3 fresh green chilies

   - 1 tsp cumin seeds

   - 4 tbsp grated coconut (I used 1/2 a medium sized coconut )

   - A large pinch of turmeric

   - A pinch each of Cinnamon & Clove powder (I used 1/2 inch cinnamon stick & 3-4 pieces of cloves)

   - A large pinch of sugar to taste - optional (I used 1/2 tsp)

Grind the above chutney ingredients into a thick paste with minimum water

Procedure :

1. The fish is to be cleaned and slit into pockets. I got this done from the fishmonger

2. Rub the pomfrets and their cavities with lemon juice, salt , turmeric and freshly crushed pepper and marinate for 15-20 minutes.

3. Now stuff the cavities with the green chutney and cover the whole pomfrets in a thick paste of green chutney (as per the original recipe, only the cavities were stuffed with the green chutney)

4. Marinate for 15-20 minutes (I marinated for more than an hour)

5. When ready to fry, roll each pomfret in sooji and then dust/sprinkle wheat flour on either side. I only rolled in rawa and skipped the flour sprinkling.

6. Heat oil in a skillet / pan and slide in the pomfrets one by one into the heated oil. Cook each side for at least 5 minutes or till evenly cooked and crispy. 

Serve with tomatoes, onion and a squeeze of lemon and chopped corinader. Also potato wedges & salad as the original recipe mentioned .