Fish Manchurian | Fish In Manchurian Sauce | Indo Chinese Recipes

Fish Manchurian is a saucy delicacy from the most Favorited Indo-Chinese cuisine. Fish pieces are coated with batter, deep fried and cooked in manchurian sauce and served delectably  It is not at all spicy, but is sweet and has succulent and juicy soft fish pieces in it. Kids and grown ups equally love this recipe. Today am gonna discuss about a semi-dry version which has moderate amount of sauce. To get a gravy version you just have to increase the amount of stock water, it will make the difference. I have been a chicken lover but have restricted myself to chicken recently, though I have tried to forget chicken, I have been always day-dreaming about chicken moreover I get teased up when fellow bloggers post delicious chicken recipes. To help overcome this temptation I have been focusing on delicious fish recipes and have tried my hand on all Indian fish delicacies. Now my menu has been completely changed and my plates are covered with fishes now. But by now I have gradually started to dislike devouring the same kind of fish curries, so to come out of this boredom I made fish manchurian today to get my taste buds relieved from the caught up flavor. Ordering favorites from a hotel is an easy part and a short cut to health risks, but cooking the same delicacy with care and enjoying it at home is more fun and healthy. So I made fish manchurian and it was heaven for me, the fish pieces were so soft, juicy and succulent and each bite just melted in my mouth. Only at the end did I get some fish flavor, otherwise I myself would have believed that it was a chicken recipe. Yum, even as I type this intro I still drool. I used normal water here instead of stock and it did taste like the restaurant versions, but if you still prefer excellency you can add vegetable stock. Sometimes when I prepare this fish manchurian I run out of vinegar and I replace it with equal amounts of lemon juice, the substitution still does not make much difference. I used great barracuda (ooli meen) fish pieces here as it did not have much bones but remained fleshy and so suited the recipe well, similarly you can choose any kind of fish with few bones and more flesh, it will ease your work too. So now you can adjust the ingredients according to the availability of ingredients and with my experience it still yields a super delicious manchurian. Do try and let me know how much you loved it!!

INGREDIENTS

Serves 2 people
Total Preparation Time - 30 to 45 minutes

1. Fish - 4 pieces 
2. Big onion - 2 
3. Capsicum - 1 small 
4. Green chillies - 1 (or 2 if you want it bit spicy)
5. Garlic pods - 2 
6. Ginger - ½ inch piece 
7. Lemon Juice - 1½ spoons / Vinegar - 1½ spoons
8. Vegetable stock / Normal water - 200 ml (1 cup) 
9. Egg -1 
10. Maida / All purpose flour - 5 spoons 
11. Corn flour - 2½ spoons + 2 spoons 
12. Pepper powder - ½ spoon
13. Sugar - 1½ spoon 
14. Salt - As per taste 
15. Ajinomoto - 2 pinches 
16. Baking soda - ½ tsp (sodium bicarbonate) 
17. Tomato sauce - 2 spoons 
18. Soya sauce - 2 spoons 
19. Red food color - 2 pinches 
20. Oil - For deep frying and sauteing 

PREPARATION METHOD 

Preparation of fried fish cubes for manchurian:

• Take the fish pieces wash it well in water and set aside. 
• Make a batter with the following ingredients and set aside. It should not be too thick nor too watery. It should be slightly thinner than dosa batter. 

(Batter)

1. Maida - 5 spoons 

2. Corn flour - 2½ spoons

3. Pepper powder - ½ spoon

4. Salt - As per taste 

5. Baking soda - ½ tsp

6. Egg - 1 (beaten well) 

7. Water - As required

Note: First add egg to flours and mix well then add the required amount of water. because if you add water first it may become too watery. Just check and add the required quantity. Also beat the batter well using a fork. 

• Now steam the fish pieces using an idli pot. Do not boil nor pressure cook. Take a idli pan pour water into the pot, then place the idli plates on it. Close the pot with a lid and place on flame and preheat for 2 minutes on high flame. Then open the lid and place the fish pieces on the plate. Close the pot with the lid and steam for 2 minutes on high flame. Since fish gets cooked faster  and because some fish pieces requires different time to get cooked do check often. Fishes turn from pink to pale white color after it gets cooked. You can refer the pic below. After it gets cooked remove from flame and set aside until it cools down. 

• Then remove the center bone and skin from the fish pieces and chop the flesh gently into medium sized cubes. 

• Now take a frying pan pour oil generously for frying the fish pieces (no shallow frying here). Place on flame and wait until it heats up well. (not smoky hot)
• Then dip these cubes into the prepared batter, hold for a minute to drop excess batter and slide gently into hot oil and fry on medium flame. Fry in batches, do not crowd the pan. Once they turn slightly golden brown remove from flame and place on a tissue paper to absorb excess oil. 

Manchurian sauce preparation: 

• Take a bowl add 2 spoons of corn flour and 5 spoons of water and mix well. Make a paste out of it and set aside. 
• Dice (chop into cubic pieces) onions and capsicum. Chop green chillies, garlic pods and ginger into very fine pieces. 
• Now place a pan on flame and add 3 to 5 spoons of oil. After it heats up, add the finely chopped garlic pods, ginger, green chillies and saute for a few seconds.
• Then add the diced onions and saute until it becomes translucent then add the diced capsicum and saute for a minute. It should not be overcooked. 
• Then add salt and saute for a minute. 

• Now add soya sauce, tomato sauce, vinegar, Ajinomoto, sugar, vegetable stock/water and stir well. 
• Then add the corn flour paste, food color and mix well. Cook on low flame until the sauce slightly thickens. 
• Then add the fried fish pieces into the sauce and stir well. 

• Cook for few minutes until the sauce blends well with the fish pieces. Do not stir too much and do not overcook. 
• Remove from flame, garnish with chopped coriander leaves or chopped spring onions and serve!! 

TIP 1: You can avoid eggs while making the batter for coating fish pieces. See that the batter is not too thick nor watery. 

TIP 2: You can also avoid steaming the fish pieces if in case you have fish pieces with no bones. Just wash it well, chop into pieces and then use it directly without steaming. Since I have used fish with bones I had to steam it in order to remove the bones from it easily. But do not boil or pressure cook the fish pieces.

TIP 4: I did not use vegetable stock and it still tasted so good, so its not an issue of you don't have stock.

TIP 5: Never steam the fish pieces for a long time, this will make the fish pieces turn mushy and you wont be able to chop cubes out of it. So just steam on high flame for a minute or two, normally fishes gets cooked soon so keep checking. 

TIP 6: I have made a semi dry version, with moderate amount of sauce. If you need more sauce or the gravy version just add some more stock water and another half spoon of soya sauce accordingly.

TIP 7: If you do not wish to get much fish flavor, then marinate the fish pieces with lemon and salt initially for 10 minutes then wash the fish pieces well in water and seam them, this would get rid of the fish odor.

Yummilicious Fish Manchurian is now ready!! Serve with noodles or fried rice or any of your favorite dishes!!