Pink Perch or Rani fish fry - healthy and yummy

This Diwali, we went to our friend’s house to celebrate a green Diwali, no crackers or fireworks 💥, only lights, diyas, good food, and lots and lots of adda… simple fun, food, and masti 😊

Dinner was simple rice and mutton gravy.... we had lots of starters, roasted peanut masala, and grilled charcoal chicken. Of course, the kids had ice cream too 😊

Next day, lunch was even simpler, rice, dal, chicken liver curry, and Pink perch or Rani fish fry. It was really yumm…this was the first time we ate pink perch, and instantly fell in love with it. I had seen this fish a lot of time in fish shop, but I was not sure about the taste, so never tried it. Thanks to Remya for introducing us to this fish and thanks to her wonderful cooking, we loved it. So, I had to try it myself but with less oil, instead of deep frying, I tried air frying it, and it turned out to be equally tasty 😋

Pink Perch or Rani is a common freshwater fish in India. It is high in protein and low on mercury, moderate in terms of Omega 3 supply. You can definitely have Rani fish at least twice to thrice a week. If you are on a weight loss journey this can be a good companion as it is a very lean fish with less fat.

Ingredients

• 6 medium-sized pink perch or rani fish, cleaned and sliced on both sides
• Oil as needed to fry, you can shallow fry in non-stick pan (I air fried, so I needed only 2 tbsp oil just to brush them on both sides)

For marination

• 2 tbsp onion paste
• 2 tbsp ginger, garlic, and green chili paste
• 2 tbsp turmeric powder
• 1 tbsp red chili powder
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tbsp black pepper powder
• Salt as per taste

Method

• Marinate the fishes with all the ingredients and keep aside for minimum of 1 hour, I left them overnight in fridge
• Next day, before lunch I air-fried them. You can shallow fry them in a non-stick pan or deep fry them in a heavy bottom pan, just be little careful while flipping the fishes as the skin is very soft it sticks to the pan very easily
• Fry both sides till golden brown

Take them out in serving plate and sprinkle some lemon juice and serve them hot with warm rice and dal.

On a side note, Baby S thought the air fried fish looked like a dinosaur  and I agree with her 😂. What do you think? Do try this recipe and let me know...