14 June

The monsoon is here and so is the craving for garma garam fritters with chai. Another good news is that the un-lockdown process has started. Fingers crossed that we do not have to see a third wave.

This time since mom is here with me, I have been trying out different kind of fritters which I always wanted to make - vegetable chop, daler bora, macher chop, chicken popcorn, beguni and the list goes on. It is so much fun to experiment with fritters because they don't usually go wrong even if you miss on a few ingredients. 

Before lockdown I used to buy fresh fish from a place enroute to my home form office. There was a fixed fish vendor from which I usually got my fishes. From the time lockdown started I have been getting my fish supply either from Fresh2Home or from Licious. While I left Licious provides more quality products, Fresh2Home has better variety. And due to which I had tried out all different varieties of fish which I probably had not tried in past decade. Some of the fishes like Koi was really amazing. Having Koi mach sitting in Pune was like an impossible dream before. 

For a couple of days I was seeing Kachki fish on the Fresh2Home seafood section. I deliberated whether I should get them but then parked the idea as I didn't know what to make with them. Then one day I came across this recipe on Sandeepa's (Bong Mom's Cookbook)  Instagram post. She had posted about Kachki Macher bora and I was really piqued. The immediate next step was to order the fishes ( which miraculously I got the very next day in their listing) and gather the ingredients.

These tiny  silver fishes are really delicate. I mean I have never worked with such delicate fishes in my life before. It was a breeze to clean them unlike other fishes. The boras itself got made within 30 minutes and I couldn't stop eating them right off the wok, they turned out that delicious!

While making bora or fritters at times we face a challenge that the ingredients don't bind well. Here is a quick tip for it, if it is a fish fritter especially, add an egg to it. Egg is a wonderful binder and also enhances the taste. This was the main difference in me and Sandeepa's recipe. 

You can also try the other fritter recipes

• Moringa Pakoda|| Drumstick Leaves Fritter
• Macher Dimer Bora || Fish Roe Fritters
• Bok Ful Bhaja || Hummingbird Flower Fritters

Check out a few of the dal recipes you can try this with

• Lau Data Diye Motor Daal
• Moong Daal Kalo Jire Diye
• Tetor Daal
• Aam Daal
• Kolai Daal 
• Masoor Daal
  

Ingredients :

• Wok
• Skillet
• Mixing Bowl

Procedure: 

1.  Clean the fish well in water. Keep in mind that these fishes are very delicate. Keep it in a strainer for all the water to drain off. Or you can also pat them dry gently with a kitchen towel. 

2. In a wok take the cleaned fish, 1 tsp of ginger paste, 1 tsp of garlic paste, 1 tsp of coriander powder and 1 tsp of red chili powder. Add about 1-2 cups of water, enough for the fish to get cooked. The fish will take about 10 minutes to cook covered. Open the lid and dry off any excess water. Now let the fish cool down a bit. 

Note: Do not add too much water. We only need to add enough water for the fish to get cooked in 10 minutes and dry off excess. 

3. Boil 1 potato and keep aside.

4. Take a mixing bowl. Take the boiled potato and mash it up completely. To the mashed potato add the minced garlic, chopped onion, spring onion, coriander, chopped green chili, red chili powder and give it a mix. 

5. Now add the cooked fish. Add rice flour, salt and break in one egg. Now with gently hands bring everything together. These fishes are very tender hence they would break easily so do not knead with force. Just press with the tip of your fingers to break them up while there are still some big pieces.

Tip: The rice flour would give it a crunch and the egg acts as a wonderful binder as well as taste enhancer. 

Note: Spring onions is optional here but very much recommended. I have seen Spring onion goes nicely with any kind of fish bhortas ( fish mash) or fish pakodas. 

6. Now with your hands make small balls or flat discs.

7. Heat Oil in a skillet and shallow fry the discs for about 3-4 minutes on each side or until they are done.

Serve it with rice and daal or have it like snacks with tea.