Cutlets are patties or croquettes made from mashed vegetables or cooked and mashed meat, shaped, breaded and deep-fried. They serve as a great appetizer or tea time snack. Fish cutlet is made with cooked and mashed up fish meat, potatoes and spices. With some tomato ketchup on the side, these are sinfully delicious and so addictive.
Mom always used to make fish curry with the head, tail and other shapeless pieces which cannot be fried. But since my kids do not like fish curry, almost always I reserve all these parts to make fish cutlet and it simply vanishes in a jiffy.
I prefer a spicy cutlet so have used all possible avenues to add heat – green chilly, red chilly powder as well as pepper powder. Without the slight spicy edge, I feel that the cutlet seems kind of bland. But it’s up to individual preference 🙂 .
A small amount of potato is added to bind the meat together. If you do not like dipping the cutlet in egg, before dredging it you can use a batter made of all-purpose flour and/or cornflour. Finally, tap off the excess bread crumbs before deep frying.
For me, deep frying is never an option 😀 . Almost always I use the skillet or my air fryer. But this time, for once I deep-fried and boy, I could see the difference. Got solace from the fact that deep-frying at home is still a lot more healthier than restaurant stuff.
And when it’s once in a way, nothing at all to worry 🙂 . What say you?
Let’s get to the recipe…
Fish cutlets
Ingredients
- 1 cup cooked and mashed fish (250g)
- 1 medium sized potato(100g)
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
- 2 tbsp oil for sauteeing
- 1 medium sized onion(75g)
- 1 green chilly(deseeded)
- 2 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp cumin powder
- 1 tsp garam masala powder
- ½ tsp red chilly powder
- ½ tsp pepper powder
- juice of ½ lemon
- a handfull coriander leaves
- salt as needed
- 1 egg
- breadcrumbs as needed
- oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Keep all the ingredients ready. Cook the potato. Chop the onions, chilly and coriander leaves
- In a pan, take the oil and saute the onion and green chilly. Once it starts browning add the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.
- Next add the mashed fish, potato, and all the powders. After every addition saute for a minute or two.
- Add the lemon juice also and saute the mix till all the water completely dries out. Finally, add the chopped coriander leaves. Let cool.
- While its cooling whisk the egg and keep the bread crumbs ready.
- Once it cools down shape it into patties or croquettes, dip in egg and then breadcrumbs and deep fry.
- Serve with tomato ketchup.
Hema’s P.S
- Any firm fish can be used. Just ensure that you remove the bones completely, before mashing it up. I have used red snapper meat.
- I usually steam cook the fish pieces in a vessel, without water for 10 minutes using my idli cooker. The water that gets collected can be used as fish stock.
- You can either opt to steam cook like me, or pan fry the fish with the lid on, so that the fish gets cooked in the water that is released. A bit of water can be added if it seems to dry out.
- Do a taste test before shaping the patties and adjust spices, salt and lemon juice as needed.
- Have enough oil to deep fry. If you tend to shallow fry, the bread crumbs that fall off from the patty while frying will stick to the subsequent ones as black specks.
- You can always opt to tawa fry or air fry. When air frying add a bit of oil to the breadcrumbs before coating the cutlets. Else they tend to dry out when air fried.
My other starter recipes
This was really yummy. Good job!
Thank you, Mahi.