Crispy chilli fish with honey

This dish can be made as an appetiser or as a dry side dish to be eaten with rice or noodles prepared with Chinese spices. I used tilapia fish fillets, but you can use any other fleshy fish which doesn’t break easily when you fry them. Vegetarians can use cauliflower florets, potatoes, mushrooms, tofu or paneer instead of fish too. The rest of the recipe will remain same, I just reduced the amount of honey in the veg version so that the vegetables don’t become soggy.

Prep time: 15 min Cooking time: 20 min Serves: 4

Fish fillets: 2

All purpose flour/maida: 2 tbsp

Cornflour: 1 tbsp

Chopped spring onions: 2 tbsp

Chopped garlic: 1 tsp

Chopped ginger: 1 tsp

Red chillies or habanero pepper: 4

Red chilli paste: 1 tsp

Honey: 1 tbsp

Soy sauce: 2 tsp

Lemon juice: 1 tbsp

Oil for frying

Salt to taste

1) Clean and cut the boneless fish fillets into small slanting pieces.

2) Marinate the fish with salt, lemon juice, ½ tsp of red chilli paste, 1 tsp soya sauce, flour, ½ tbsp cornflour and a little water for 10 minutes.

3) Deep fry the fish pieces in hot vegetable oil till they become crispy and keep aside.

4) Meanwhile, sauté the garlic and ginger in 1-2 tbsp oil.

5) Mix the remaining ½ tbsp cornflour with 1/4^th cup water and keep aside.

6) Add chopped red chillies, rest of the soya sauce, chilli paste and lemon juice to the ginger and garlic. Fry for 2 minutes and add a little water to make a paste. You can also use vegetable stock instead of water.

7) Season with salt and add the honey. Mix it well and add the fried fish pieces. Toss it well so that the gravy coats the fish well. Add thecornflour mixture, chopped spring onions and toss for a few seconds.

8) Garnish with chopped spring onions and serve hot.

And like I mentioned earlier, vegetarians can just fry paneer, mushroom or chunky vegetable pieces and add them instead of the fish and follow the rest of the steps.