Tilapia Fish Curry: Tilapia cutlets in a Bengali Style Curry

We love eating fish. I use fish in different ways, like grilled, baked, steamed, pan fried, fish soup but the most favorite is Fish Curry. Again, there are so many ways we can make fish curry; Indian, Sri Lankan, Malaysian, Thai or Japanese sometimes.

But close to the heart is a Bengali style fish curry. The marinated fish pieces fried in pungent mustard oil, tempered with nigella seeds (kalo jeera in Bengali), fresh green chili and tomatoes.

Other day a friend gave us a few fresh water Tilapias. I cleaned the fish and made cutlets from one fish. Remaining two was cleaned and vacuum packed in freezer for later use. The size of the fish was quite big and I got 5 cutlets.

Tilapia is an oily fish, not as good as salmon but still tasty and quite healthy. It has Omega 3 and it is quite reasonable in price as compared to salmon.

We love to have our fish curry with plain steamed basmati rice, a mash of roasted eggplant and tomatoes along with burnt garlic, chopped onion, nigella seeds , fried green chili and of course some mustard oil.

You can make this fish curry with fishes like salmon, snapper, sea bass or cat fish.

Now, get ready for this simple yet amazingly tasty curry to create in your own kitchen!!

Recipe:                                                            Serves: 2

• 4 fish cutlets (depending upon the size of the fish)
• 1 medium sized onion – fine chopped
• 2 tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 tsp ginger garlic mince ( 1/2 tsp each of ginger and garlic)
• 2 green chili , slit through the center (optional)
• 3 Tbsps. Mustard Oil ( You may use some other oil but Mustard oil gives the flavor to the curry)
• 1.5 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp red chili powder
• 1.5 tsp Garam Masala
• 1 tsp. Nigella Seeds ( Kalo jeera or kalonji)
• Salt to taste
• 1 cup water
• 1/4 cup, fresh coriander leaves.

Method

Marinating the fish cutlets:

• In a bowl, place the fish cutlets and sprinkle 1 tsp of turmeric and keep aside.

Curry Base:

• In a thick base skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of mustard oil; heat till you see smoke just coming out from the oil.
• Fry the fish cutlets, till they turn golden brown in color.
• In a sauce pan, heat 1 tablespoon of mustard oil, add the nigella seeds and onions. Cook till translucent on a medium high heat. Add ginger garlic mince, green chili and fry for 30 seconds.
• Add the chopped tomatoes, turmeric, chili powder and garam masala. Cook till the oil leaves the sides of pan. Add water and boil the mixture.
• Add the fried fish cutlets and cook for 2-3 minutes and add salt as per taste.Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve with warm basmati rice.

 Happy Cooking

Nidz Kitchen