Fried Fish (Mach Vaja)

Very popular Bengali dish. Any fish will do, only difference will be the cooking time depending on the type and thickness of the fish. Here I used 2 whole Plaice, it's a close cousin of Pomfret (Roopchanda). For large fish use the pieces of the fish and follow the recipe the same way.

Clean and scale the fish, if necessary. Slash the fish on both side.

• Mix 1 tsp Turmeric (Haldi), 1 tsp Chilli powder, 1 tsp Salt and 1 tbsp Oil. 
• Coat the fish with the spice mix. 
• Heat a thick bottomed nonstick pan, add 3 tbsp oil in the pan, 
• Place the fish in the pan
• Reduce the heat to medium
• After 2 minutes turn the fish over carefully 
• Cover the pan
• Reduce the heat to minimum and cook for 8-10 minutes
• Heat off > Done

Garnish with fried onion, spring onion, chillis and lemon.

* goes very well with Daal (Click)

Some delicate fish like Salmon need very little frying, 4-6 minutes will be enough, a lot of us fry Salmon far too long and it gets hard and rubbery.