The Slightest Hint Of Fusion

Mom's Fish Fingers

Fish fingers, but a little more exciting than usual

Fish is an integral part of the Bangladeshi diet - probably something to do with the many rivers, lakes and ponds in the country. It's very common at our table too, but sometimes in surprising forms. I have no idea how actual fish fingers are made, but this is how mom makes them at home. She adds some spices to make the fish a little more exciting than your usual frozen supermarket fare, before . I have no amounts written down for this recipe unfortunately, as everything is to taste depending on how strong you want your marinade. 

Ingredients

• Hake fillets
• Garlic paste
• Ginger paste
• Vinegar, to taste
• Salt, to taste
• Pepper, to taste
• Egg(s)
• Flour
• Breadcrumbs

The ingredients, and in the bottom right the fish being marinated

Method

• Combine the pastes, vinegar, salt and pepper. Use whatever amounts you want, as long as it's enough to marinate all of your fillets. Mom also advises using twice the amount of garlic as you do ginger to get the right flavour. 
• Leave the fillets to marinate in a plastic dish for 45 minutes to an hour and prepare the other ingredients while the fish marinates.
• Lightly beat the egg(s) in a flat bottomed bowl. You'll need enough to cover all of your fish fillets, so estimate how many eggs you'll need based on that.
• Pour out some flour and breadcrumbs into two similar flat bottomed bowls. Again, you'll need enough of both to cover all of your fish fillets.
• Take one of your fillets, dip it in the flour and roll it around to ensure the entire fillet is covered in flour. Do this fast though, so that the spices don't rub off the fish into the flour.
• Immediately take the flour covered fillet and dip it into the egg, again rolling it around quickly to cover it entirely. 
• Finally, repeat the process with the breadcrumbs and set the fillet onto a tray.
• Repeat this process for all of the fillets until they're all covered in the three ingredients.
• Deep fry the fish fillets in oil for about 10 minutes, flipping them over halfway. 
• Serve like traditional fish fingers, although we served this as a side dish alongside our usual meal. 

Top most photo, covering in flour.
Middle left, covering in egg. Middle right, covered in breadcrumbs.
Bottom photo,  fish fingers being deep fried.

Additional Information

We deep fried the fish, but do bake them if you want to be healthier. Feel free to replace the fish or spices depending on whatever you like. Personally, this combination isn't exciting enough for me and I intend to experiment with it, perhaps by adding chilli or herbs.