Coated with a flavoursome masala and fried in coconut oil, this Kerala fish fry is the best! Crispy on the outside, with a succulent flesh inside, this fried fish will make your lunch a gratifying experience!
Pour some sambhar or fish curry on a bed of rice, with some avial and thoran on the side, crush some poppadum, and flakes of a fish fry to complete a mouthful of food! This, my friends, is the ultimate Kerala lunch!
If there is a heaven, I would imagine the lunch service to have this fish fry every day!
For Kerala style fish fries, we use two marinades at home. This fish fry is one of them. This is inspired by how my mom fries fish at home.
Preparing the marinade is quite simple – grind together a handful of shallots with some garlic, ginger, and curry leaves. Add chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and salt to complete the paste. Score the fish and rub in the marinade. Fry in coconut oil with a dash of pepper powder.
You could use more oil and deep fry the fish. Alternatively, you could use just enough oil to cover the base and use a spoon to scoop some hot oil on the top every now and then.
I used pomfret fish for this post. It was a small one, the size of my palm, weighing about 250 grams. You can use any fish of your choice. It doesn’t have to be a whole fish either. Cutting to steaks will make it easy to fry them. It’ll also get the marinade to cover more surface. For best results, let the fish marinate for a couple of hours before you fry them.
Check out this Kerala fish fry recipe and give a try. Do you love fish fries? Which fish do you prefer, and how do you fry them?
| Prep Time | 15 minutes |
| Cook Time | 30 minutes |
| Passive Time | 30 minutes |
| Servings | portions |
- 500 grams fish I used two pomfrets
- 1/2 cup shallots a handful
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 1 inch ginger
- 4 pods garlic
- 1 tablespoon kashmiri chilli powder
- 1/2 tablespoon coriander powder
- 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
- salt
- 1/2 tablespoon vinegar optional
Ingredients
For marinade
| |
- Blitz the shallots, garlic, ginger, and curry leaves with some water in a blender. I use some vinegar as well, but that's optional.
- Add the chilli powder, coriander powder, turmeric powder, and salt, and grind again to get a fine paste.
- NOTE: This marinade is sufficient for at least 500 grams of fish. I used it for two whole pomfrets.
- Score the fish making deep gashes 1/2 inch apart. Rub in the marinade to fully coat the fish.
- Heat some oil in a pan. We don't want to deep fry the fish, but we need enough oil to cover the base! 🙂
- When the oil reaches the smoking point, lower the flame to medium, and place two sprigs on curry leaves in the pan.
- Now gently place the marinated fish in the pan. Fry on a high flame for a couple of minutes. Lower the flame and continue cooking closed with a lid.
- Open the lid after 10 minutes, sprinkle some black pepper powder, and let it fry for some more time.
- Our goal is to get the skin to a crispy consistency. Turn around the fish and fry the other side as well. Sprinkle a dash of pepper powder on this side as well.
- Fry on a high flame again for a minute before taking out the fish using a slotted spoon. If you like you fish fry crispier, keep frying for a few more minutes. Drain all the excess oil using a kitchen towel.
- Serve hot with a wedge of lime.
Super cool recipe, my favorite, thanks for sharing,Arun.
Thank you very much Deepu. 🙂 🙂
I tried this on chicken…added a dash of lemon, a little sugar and ta da..it was great!
That’s quite interesting! I have never tried adding sugar to fried chicken or fish. I am delighted to hear that it came out well. And intrigued to try it myself. Thank you! 🙂
Hello Chef,
Do you recommend using a cast iron skillet for frying the fish or can I use a normal non-stick fry pan?
Hi Niyathi,
Thank you for visiting my blog. 🙂
Non-stick frying pan will work fine.
In fact, cast iron skillets will need some getting used to – the weight, seasoning before you use it for the first time, etc.
It’s just that I am trying to use more traditional cooking devices like cast iron skillets and stoneware.
Thanks.i happened to have all the ingredients and fish at home and tried out your recepie. Uummhah. It was delicious.
A week ago I was in Kerala where I ate avial and kapa biryani. That was delicious too. May I request you for the recepies of these dishes too
Thank you very much Tushar! That’s a great comment too! 🙂 🙂
Great to read about avial and kappa biriyani. I do have an Avial recipe on the blog already. Please have a look. Hope you’ll love cooking it!!