11-16: Indian Fried Fish

Another bit of real life distractions, but I refuse to let this die. Back to it, with an interesting dish: 11-16: Indian Fried Fish. ?

Um, okay. “Indian” is being used liberally here, as far as I can tell. It was an okay dish, but didn’t exactly conjure up images of India. This seems more like West Indies/Caribbean “Indian” than India “Indian”.


We definitely never made this one before–I had honestly never even noticed it in the book until I was scanning the recipes one by one. Let’s have an adventure. This one was in Book 2, Group 2 (Main Courses), Subgroup 11 (Fish & Seafood).


Ingredients. I used catfish filets as my fish, since that’s what the market had on sale. The bread crumbs were Italian-flavored, which might have added to the oddness of the dish. I only had one leek and one banana, but I’m not a huge leek or banana fan anyway. Subbed almonds for cashews and mayonnaise for sour cream. I see now why this got weird.


Man your dipping/breading stations.


Dipped fish pieces.


Leek yield. The pictured leek in the recipe card was very different than the one I had picked up from the market that day. I wonder if it was just that leek, or if they look different than they did 30 years ago when those recipe pictures were taken. And if they do look different, why? Region? Climate? Differences in stock or how they’re grown now? Food for thought. 🙂


Leeks in their lightly salted water.


Sliced banana. I thought because I only had one banana that it may go further if I chopped it up.


My attempt at their curry sauce. I have actual Indian seasonings like tandoori mix and masala, but I held back in favor of trying to at least preserve some essence of the original recipe, if for nothing else than science. And the internet.


Banana/almond sauté. It ended up as more of a glue-like topping, which worked somewhat. I have no idea, I don’t really eat bananas anyway.


Frying the fish pieces. Again, I wanted to add some real Indian spices to this, but I kept it as simple as possible.


The final product. Looks nice, and we did actually eat it, but I don’t think I’d make it again.

Grade: C