The Versatile Pomfret
Finally, I had a chance to write a story for this ‘experience cooking’ storyline that I intended to start soon. I say ‘finally’ as there were so many things that happened after I wrote my first blog almost 8months back (oops…). I was in India then for a short vacation but now I am very much back to Philadelphia; living, learning and growing. These 8 months have been quite exhausting, to say the least. Working as a user experience researcher and studying a unique solution to defend my thesis on, I rarely find time to make elaborate recipes. But, I have archives of some that did turn out to be pretty delectable. So I thought if I can’t cook so much right now — why not just write about it? ;)
Here’s a story of the ‘Versatile Pomfret’. I say versatile since it can be cooked in so many mouth-watering ways. You can steam it, make a curry with it, grill it, make a fillet and my most favorite — shallow or deep fry it! Now that’s versatile. Too bad that lovely fish doesn’t know how much of a variety it offers to people’s food palette.
(quick note: for those who do not know Pomfret, try searching for White Pompano)
I have had some experience with cooking Pomfret; fried and curried mostly. But this is the one recipe that I’d love to share in this blog. I tried this recipe for the very first time back in January, and to my surprise, it turned out to be really good! What we call it in Marathi (my mother tongue) is ‘Bharlela Masala Pomfret’ — To break it down in English I’d say it is ‘Masala Stuffed Pomfret’.
I personally enjoy cooking and consuming seafood. It was my third week in India and I wanted to make something delicious for my parents to have for dinner. But I didn’t want to cook the usual, so I settled for a new recipe.
Enter: Masala Stuffed Pomfret.
I looked up the recipe and watched a few videos for some inspiration. I call it ‘inspiration’ only cause I didn’t really follow the recipes as they were exactly told. I tweaked them a little, added a few extra spices (cause we Indians love that) and it tasted pretty good!
In the UX lingo, I was the sole researcher, designer AND consumer of this delicacy. Prior to actually prepping for this recipe, I personally visited the fish market, researched and compared various sizes, portions, and quality of the Fish and finally bought one beautiful wild-caught Pomfret a.k.a White Pompano.
For this recipe, you would need the pomfret to be cut in a specific way. Many people like to consume it with the head on as well as gills, I personally prefer it to be cut off.
You would need the fish to be cut across its length, not completely but carved about 3/4th of its width; something pretty similar to how fish loins is made. Think of it as making a ‘pocket’ for your stuffing. If you are still unsure of how this is done, scroll down to check out some photos :)
Also, make sure to give a few deep cuts on either side of the fish just so the spices go deep inside when you marinade it.
Once you have the pomfret cut, clean and ready to go — apply some turmeric powder, chili powder, salt, and half a lemon squeezed on it. While chili powder is mainly for the taste, turmeric is actually used to kill any contaminants residing on that piece of meat.
Set it aside for a while till you prepare the key ingredient — Masala Stuffing.
Masala Stuffing:
This is the most essential element of the recipe, that can either make it an irresistible one or an inedible one. From the moderate experience that I have had so far in cooking, I can assure you that the key to making a good masala is nothing but ‘patience’.
It is not just adding the perfect amount of ingredients but actually devoting the accurate amount of time for the spices to blend, cook and mix with the oil. If you’re an Indian home cook reading this (hopefully), you would agree — waiting for the masala to cook is the most boring job. There have been so many instances where I have finished other chores while my masala cooked for any recipe that I was preparing. So, patience guys. We can get through this — the end is going to be ‘hella tasty’ ;)
Having said that, here are the ingredients that you would need for this masala:
- 4–5 Green chilies (depending on the level of acidity and heat that you can take)
- Freshly cut cilantro
- 5 Cloves of Garlic
- A 3/4th bowl of dried coconut shavings
- Salt to taste
Add some water and grind all of these together to a fine paste.
And now comes the main part, cooking the masala. In a pan, pour about 3 tablespoons of oil and wait for it to heat up. Add the masala and mix it gently. Back when I knew nothing about cooking, my grandmother showed me how ‘lovingly’ one needs to toss the masala and help it blend well.
What she really meant was to actually fall in love with the food you’re preparing. May it be your masala, or a vegetable or a soup! Stir it and mix it well in the most loving and gentle way, it will turn out to be the yummiest food you’ve cooked. I believed her, cause it really is true.
So, that's what we will follow here. Gently stir your masala and help it cook. After about 3–4 minutes add 1 spoon of Chilli powder and 1 spoon of ‘Garam Masala’. This will give it the needed taste, tanginess and acidity.
You will notice that the light green masala will start to turn into a shade of dark green. The masala will be fully cooked once it starts shedding some oil around its periphery. After it is done, set it aside to cool down before you start stuffing it in your fish.
Once the masala has cooled down, gently stuff it inside of the Fish. You could use a spoon for this, but I would recommend using your hand and evenly spreading it out inside of the fish. Here’s a video of how you need to push it in:
Make sure to keep the stuffing as clean and neat as possible, so it does not come out when you begin to shallow fry the fish. Being a designer, I am pretty weird about making sure everything’s aligned, including this stuffing! :P Take a look:
It’s the last stretch guys, home run! It is time to fry this beautiful piece of masala stuffed pomfret. For this, all you need is:
- ‘Rawa’ a.k.a ‘Sooji’ a.k.a ‘Semolina Seeds’
- Salt
- Half a teaspoon of Chilli powder (cause why not, LOL)
In a plate, take one bowl of Semolina seeds, add a tiny bit of salt to taste (so the coating of your fish also has some salt in it) and add half a teaspoon of Chilli powder. Mix well!
Apply this dry mix on either side of your fish:
Once you’re done coating your fish, take 3 tablespoons of oil in a pan, heat it well and shallow fry this Fish.
After it is cooked, place it on the fancies plate that you have; add some finely chopped coriander for garnishing and quickly take a photo while it still looks pretty. Do it for the gram, fam! Isn’t that what most of us do? I know I did when I cooked this, it looked too pretty!
The food turned out to be delicious that night. My parents enjoyed thoroughly and were pretty surprised that I could pull this off! So was I.
We had an amazing dinner, with an awesome conversation and the night ended with me weeping as it was almost my last week in India. Well, that’s Life ;)
My biggest takeaway from this recipe? Involve your heart and soul in any food item that you’re preparing and it will turn into something delicious. Unless you mistake sugar for salt and enjoy a desert fish!…..or make any such blunder ;)
I knew nothing about this recipe, my motivation was basically switching everything off and cooking some good food. I am not sure how it helps me de-stress but it is just the sense of being with yourself, following what you know and cooking, fearlessly. ;)
I believe the important thing to do while cooking is tasting. At every single step. The marinade for your fish, the masala, the semolina seeds coating…. taste it! Make it as perfect as possible, it really helps.
Every time that I cook something elaborate, it reminds me of my grandmother who left us almost two years back. She was an amazing home cook, and she could probably even make mud taste good. :P Exaggeration, but true!
I am trying to follow her footsteps by following her cooking tips, to come as close to her as I can by making food that could taste like hers. By doing so, I feel more connected to her every day.
If you’re reading this, I really do hope you try this recipe. It looks like a lot of work, but honestly, it isn’t. I mean, it doesn’t really involve cutting onions and tomatoes and potatoes….. can it get better than that?! I don’t think so.
Jokes apart, I’d love to connect if you have any questions, comments, tips or messages on how much you hated or loved reading this.
I’ll be sure to post something a little simpler than this, next time. Definitely leave comments, I love interacting!
Ciao ;)
