Indian Style Pan Fried Fish (Tawa Machi)

Sea bass steaks marinated in some common Indian spices and pan fried until crispy.  From With Love from Mom's Kitchen blog. 

When I came across this recipe for Tawa Machi I could not resist trying it. With Love from Mom's Kitchen is a great blog with easy to follow instructions and lots of pictures.  It is always my go to blog for any Indian food.  I had to substitute some ingredients because I did not have them.   The main one was Amchur, which is a dry raw mango powder.  It is supposed to add sourness so I just used some lime juice instead (I do have Amchur on my list to get from my next Amazon.com order).  I'm sure it isn't exactly the same, but it was all I had and the fish turned out great.  I also did not have garlic or ginger paste, so I used minced ginger and garlic (I tried to get them as close to paste as possible in my food processor).  My fish slices were too thick too, I tried to get them cut as thin as possible, but they were closer to an inch thick.  Even with all of these differences the fish turned out wonderful.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp garlic, minced
1 Tbsp ginger, minced
1/2 tsp tumeric
1 tsp chili powder (or to taste)
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 tsp coriander powder

Mix all of the spices together and smear onto both sides of fish slices (I also added salt and pepper to the fish).  Allow fish to sit at room temperature, with the marinade on, for about 30 minutes.  Pan fry over medium low-low heat, with about 2 tsp oil, for about 10 minutes per side.  Check out With Love from Mom's Kitchen for more in depth instructions, and better pictures.

My fish did not get as nice of a crust as I wanted, but my slices were so thick that there was a lot of liquid in the pan.  It  still tasted great and was plenty of food for two, I served the fish with a mixed vegetable salad, and orange wedges.  I had plenty of fish left over to make a delicious, Indian chowder the next day.  I will post that next.

This recipe would be good with any white fleshed fish and would also work with filets too (I think).

Enjoy.