Konkani Style Surmai /Kingfish Fry

Fried Kingfish or Surmai is a popular Konkani recipe. This fish is available in huge quantity and good quality in Konkan belt. It has very good taste and texture. This fish is used for curry also.

Ingredients:

• King fish- 3 big sized pieces
• Salt- to taste
• Turmeric powder- ½ tsp
• Asafetida (hing)- ¼ tsp (optional)
• Garlic paste- 2 tsp (approx 8 to 12 cloves)
• Kokum paste or Kokum extract (Aagal) or Tamarind pulp- 2 tsp (Kokum gives an authentic Konkani taste.)
• Homemade masala or Malwani masala or Sunday masala- 3 to 4 tsp 
• Fine semolina / barik rava- 3 to 5 tsp
• Oil for shallow fry- as required

Method:

• Wash fish fillets with soft hand for 2 times and drain, because this fish is delicate.
• Apply salt, masala, turmeric powder, hing, rava, kokam- garlic paste. Mix well and rub gently this marinate on fish. 
• Marinate for minimum half an hour. 
• Heat 2 tbsp oil in the grill pan or griddle, shallow fry the fish from both sides on low-med. flame. Pour some oil if required. Do not overcook. 
  
• Serve hot with bhakari or in a meal with fish curry and rice.

Tips:

• Don't use ginger for this recipe, you can't get authentic taste.
• Use iron or aluminium tava for fish fry. It gives better result than non-stick tava. 
• I used big sized surmai, however you can use whatever size is available .The procedure remains the same .
• You can grind garlic and kokam together with minimum water into smooth paste.
• I make usually garlic-kokum paste in a huge quantity and store in freezer. Because two reasons......first is, it is difficult to grind smooth paste in small quantity in the grinder. My mom uses "Pata-varavanta/silbatta" to make smooth paste. Second is, it saves time. (Grind together ½ cup garlic and ½ cup kokam with minimum water.) 2-3 tsp paste is required for med sized fish.
• Kokum extract (Aagal) is available in the market.
• You may use rice flour instead of semolina. It works also good. But I prefer rava.
• I dont like to use lots of rava, too many rava make fish mild in taste.
• Malwani masala is easily available in the market. You can use also aagari-koli masala. All masalas from Konkan region are quite similar in taste. But store bought masala can not give proper taste.