Whole Fish Masala ( Gilt Head Bream Indian Style)
Whole Fish Masala is a perfectly spiced and slow cooked fish recipe. The fish is so tender and finger-licking delicious. Whole Fish marinated in aromatic Indian spices and cooked into a flavorful, spicy and scrumptious fish masala. This recipe makes a great meal for seafood lovers. Spicy and packed with wonderful exotic flavors.
Gilt-head bream fish marinated in Indian spices, shallow pan fried in less oil and slow cooked with onion, tomato, green chillies, basic masala powders, flavored with curry leaves and mild tartness with lemon juice. Serve the fish as a starter or a side dish with your meals.
I love to serve this whole fish masala as a starter or as an accompaniment with our favourite drink. I also serve this as a side dish with rice dal or rice rasam. These combinations are just heavenly!
Masala whole fish is a quick and simple recipe which can be prepared using a handful of Indian spice masala powders and your favorite fish. I have used gilt-head bream fish to prepare this insanely delicious recipe. The ingredients used are readily available in every household. The fish is incredibly flavorful and nicely coated with masala and the spices are penetrated well inside the fish.
WHY YOU WILL LOVE THIS WHOLE FISH MASALA
● Its spicy, succulent and flavorful.
● Its tender and the is fish is spiced well and coater in masala.
● Its super easy and quick to prepare.
● Prepared with readily available ingredients or pantry staples.
● Its ready under 20 minutes.
● Its insanely delicious and finger-licking good.
● Great as a starter, accompaniment or as a side dish.
INGREDIENTS FOR WHOLE FISH MASALA
All the ingredients used for this recipe are very basic Indian spices which are readily available in the pantry of any Indian household. People who love Indian food will definitely have this staples in their pantry. These spices creates wonderful and flavorful dishes. Even if these spices are not readily available in your pantry, you can easily find them at any Indian grocery store or supermarkets.
Whole Fish – Gilt-Head Bream fish is used for making the whole fish masala.
Marination ingredients – The fish is first rub with some ingredients. The ingredients are used are turmeric powder, red chilly powder, salt and lemon juice.
Oil – Sunflower refined oil is used for the recipe. You may use mustard oil or vegetable oil.
Whole Spices – Mustard seeds and cumin seeds is used.
Onion – I used the regular onions. You can use shallots (small onions).
Curry leaves – Few curry leaves for the flavor and taste.
Chilly – I have used slit green chillies. You can finely chopped them and add. You can also use fresh red chilly if available.
Ginger garlic – I have used ginger garlic paste. You can use finely chopped ginger and garlic
Tomato – I used the normal tomato. You can also use cherry tomatoes.
Salt – Normal salt for seasoning. You can use rock salt or sea salt.
Spice masala powder -The spice powders used for the making the masala are turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and pepper powder.
Lemon juice
Water – Very little water is used. Adding water is totally optional.
WHAT OTHER FISHES CAN BE USED?
The recipe uses gilt-head bream fish. This fish doesn’t have tiny bones in the flesh unlike catla, rohu fish (Indian carp) etc. For this recipe you can use fish like sea bream, pomfret, tilapia, pearl spot (karimeen), mackerel, trevally, red snapper (Sankara meen) etc.
VARIATIONS
This is a versatile recipe. I used whole fishes to make this recipe but it can also be made using your favourite fish pieces, fillets, cubes, fingers etc both boneless and with bones fishes.
Also I made it a dry version. You can make it in curry form, by adding water as required.
I hope you enjoyed going through the recipe. Please do share your thoughts about the recipe with me here in the comments below.
HOW TO MAKE WHOLE FISH MASALA
I made a simple recipe video of this amazing whole fish masala recipe for my readers which I have shared below. Please do watch and SUBSCRIBE to my channel if you haven’t yet. It will mean a lot to me and motivate me to come up with more videos for my readers. As always looking forward to your feedbacks!
WHOLE FISH MASALA VIDEO TUTORIAL
Here’s a step by step pictorial instructions to make whole fish masala.
Wash the fish and pat dry with clean kitchen towel. Make slashes onto the fish and place them in a plate or bowl.
Now add in the marination ingredients one after the other. Rub the masalas nicely all over the fish. Keep aside while you ready the other ingredients or keep it marination for few minutes.
Add 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and allow to heat it. Add in the marinated fish in single layers and slightly fry them for 1-2 minutes. Flip over and again fry for 1-2 minutes. Remove them in a plate and keep aside.
Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Add in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and allow to splutter.
Add in onion, curry leaves, slit green chillies and saute for a minute.
Add in the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.
Add in the tomatoes and saute until tomatoes turns soft and mushy.
Add in salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and pepper powder. Mix well and saute for a minute.
Add in the whole fried fishes. Put on the lid and cook on low flame for about 2 minutes. Flip over and cook for about 1-2 minutes.
Splash some water and cook further on low flame with lid on for about 2 minutes. Flip and cook for about 1 minutes and turn off the flame.
Squeeze lemon juice over the fish. You can sprinkle some chopped coriander. Serve hot!
NOTES:
● I recommend to marinate the fish for atleast 30 minutes.
● You can use mustard oil or other refine oil.
● You can use finely chopped ginger and garlic instead of paste.
● You can use shallots instead of regular onion.
● You can use cherry tomatoes instead of normal tomato.
● Adjust the red chilly powder and green chillies as per your heat preference.
● Do not deep fry and brown the fish.
● You can use other fish like pomfret, tilapia, red snapper, pearl spot, mackerel, trevally, sea bream etc.
RECIPE CARD
Whole Fish Masala
Equipment
- frying pan
Ingredients
- 3 whole fish (gilt-head bream fish)
- 3 tablespoon oil
- ¼ teaspoon mustard seeds
- ¼ teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
- 2 onion chopped
- 1 sprig curry leaves
- 5 large green chilly slit
- 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
- 2 tomato chopped
- salt to taste
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chilly powder
- 1 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- ½ teaspoon pepper powder
- 2-3 tablespoon water
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice or juice of half lemon
- Few coriander leaves chopped
For Marination:
- ½ teaspoon turmeric powder
- 1 teaspoon red chilly powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon lemon juice
Instructions
- Wash the fish and pat dry with clean kitchen towel.
- Make slashes onto the fish and place them in a plate or bowl.
- Now add in the marination ingredients one after the other.
- Rub the masalas nicely all over the fish. Keep aside while you ready the other ingredients or keep it marination for few minutes.
- Add 1 tablespoon oil in a pan and allow to heat it.
- Add in the marinated fish in single layers and slightly fry them for 1-2 minutes.
- Flip over and again fry for 1-2 minutes. Remove them in a plate and keep aside.
- Heat the remaining oil in the same pan. Add in the mustard seeds and cumin seeds and allow to splutter.
- Add in onion, curry leaves, slit green chillies and saute for a minute.
- Add in the ginger garlic paste and saute for a minute.
- Add in the tomatoes and saute until tomatoes turns soft and mushy.
- Add in salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder, garam masala powder and pepper powder. Mix well and saute for a minute.
- Add in the whole fried fishes. Put on the lid and cook on low flame for about 2 minutes. Flip over and cook for about 1-2 minutes.
- Splash some water and cook further on low flame with lid on for about 2 minutes. Flip and cook for about 1 minutes and turn off the flame.
- Squeeze lemon juice over the fish. You can sprinkle some chopped coriander. Serve hot!
Video
Notes
- I recommend to marinate the fish for atleast 30 minutes.
- You can use mustard oil or other refine oil.
- You can use finely chopped ginger and garlic instead of paste.
- You can use shallots instead of regular onion.
- You can use cherry tomatoes instead of normal tomato.
- Adjust the red chilly powder and green chillies as per your heat preference.
- Do not deep fry and brown the fish.
- You can use other fish like pomfret, tilapia, red snapper, pearl spot, mackerel, trevally, sea bream etc.
If you love this whole fish masala then you might like to check out my other fish dishes.
MORE FISH RECIPES YOU’LL LOVE
Lemony Fish Stew
Prawn Pulao
Nethili Fish Fry ( Anchovies Fry)
Rohu Fish Curry
Masor Tenga
Fish Head With Cauliflower & Potato
Shallow Fried King Fish
Fish With Fermented Bamboo Shoot
Pan Grilled Green Masala Fish
Fish With Spinach (Zero Oil)
Fish Fingers
Pan Seared Pepper Fish
Green Chilly Masala Fish
Karimeen Pollichathu (Pearl Spot Fish )
All of the above recipes are super easy to prepare, ready in no time, and will never disappoint you.
Well, if you make this whole fish masala, please do leave a feedback in the comments box below or snap a photo and tag Akum Raj Jamir on Facebook and akumrajjamir on Instagram with hashtag #atmykitchen. I would love to see your creations.
Thank you so much for stopping by my blog. I hope you liked the recipe. Your valuable feedbacks are always welcome, I love hearing from you guys and always do my best to respond to each and every one of you.
Happy Cooking!
Love Akum
Nice recipe