Fish Cutlet

Cutlets have been consistently on our menu for special occasions. Every Christmas and Easter also calls in for its preparation. This Easter we were in the middle of relocating and settling down that we hardly got a chance to cook at home - oh wait we didn't have an apartment then :). Well, since one chance of having cutlets had been dropped, we made it for tea yesterday.

These crispy little cutlets have always been a guest pleaser. Well, it has to be. Served with onion salad during meals or tomato sauce for snacks or as an appetizer these perfectly blend in and can be had any time of the day. Unlike meat cutlets, fish cutlet is easy to make, due to less cook time for fish. That is another reason why you should try it :).

Without much delay, lets get down to business - yes the recipe part. So here it is. Hope you like it as much as we do.

Ingredients

1. 1 lb of Tilapia fillets
2. 1 tbsp of chopped ginger
3. 1 tbsp of chopped garlic
4. 5 tbsp of chopped onion
5. 1-2 green chilly finely chopped
6. 2 strands of curry leaves chopped
7. 1/2 tsp of garam masala
8. 1/8 tsp of turmeric powder
9. 1 large potato
10. 1 egg
11. Breadcrumbs as needed
12. Salt to taste
13. Oil for frying

Method

• In a vessel, boil the boneless fish with turmeric powder and salt to taste.
• Once cooked, drain out excess water and shred the fish with a fork to make small pieces. Remove fish bones if any.
• Boil the potato, peel the skin off and mash it.
• In a bowl mix the shredded fish and mashed potato. Keep it aside.
• In a skillet, drop in 1-2 tbsp of oil. Once hot, drop in the chopped onion, ginger, garlic,curry leaves and green chilly. Saute it. 
• Once the onions turn light brown, add the garam masala and give it a mix. Add the fish and potato mixture and mix it well such that everything gets incorporated well. Let it cook for another couple of minutes. 
• Remove it from the heat and let it cool. 
• Form desired shape of cutlets out of the mixture and keep it aside.
• Heat up oil to shallow fry the cutlets.
• Beat the egg well. Dip the cutlet in the egg and roll it in the bread crumbs. Drop it into the oil and let it fry till it gets a dark brown texture. Remove it onto a plate lined with paper towel.
• Serve it hot with tomato sauce or onion salad.

Tips

1. I used Tilapia, but you could use any other fish that would be either easier to have their bones removed/ have fewer bones.
2. Keep the bread crumb in a bowl and not in a plate. This would help prevent wastage of bread crumbs and at the same time help the bread crumbs spread evenly over the cutlet.
3. Since the cutlet mixture is already cooked, its just the bread crumb coating that needs to be cooked. Hence, fry it just untill the cutlet surface turns dark brown in colour.