This post draws a huge inspiration from the famous Barbecue Nation.
I would always wonder as to which fish they use for preparing fish tikkas and one fine day I asked and he said, “madam, ye basa machli hai, India me nai milta, Vietnam se mangvaatein hai” and that is when I first got introduced to Basa fish and as far as I know, it is called the same in Hindi too. You do not find it at local sea food markets but you can surely pick them up from frozen non veg section in big stores.
Most restaurants serving fish tikkas use this fish and the only reason is lots of meat and less bones. Go and grab basa fish fillets to prepare some yummy tikkas.
Cooking fillets is so easy and quick that it gives you ample time to try out lot of varieties at the same time.
I prepared three different marinades – green, tandoori and pepper and grilled the tikkas in oven.
This fish has a lot of oil within, so you don’t even have to apply extra oil for grilling. Just grease the base you are using.
Quantity mentioned in each of the marinade will make 6 regular size tikkas of each type.
2 Basa fillets
Ingredients for Green marinade
1 cup coriander
1/2 cup mint
Juice of half lemon
Salt to taste
Ingredients for Tandoori marinade
1/2 tsp tandoori masala
[I use Shaan’s]
1/4 cup hung curd
[Pour curd in a muslin cloth and hang it for an hour, all the water will drain out]
1/4 tsp Dijon mustard
[You may use any mustard sauce]
1/4 tsp chaat masala
Salt to taste
Ingredients for Pepper marinade
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 onion
1 tbsp nuts (any, I used dried watermelon seeds)
Juice of half lemon
Salt to taste
Grind the ingredients separately.
Carefully cut the fillet into 18 pieces, the size should be as big as you find in restaurants because any smaller than that would be very difficult to handle as it becomes very soft after cooking.
Marinade 6 pieces in each masala for at least half an hour.
You may either use a rotisserie or a wired rack for grilling.
I had used a rack. Grease the rack using oil/butter and place the tikkas over it.
Set the oven in grill mode and cook for 20 minutes or until the fish gets fried on top.
Carefully remove the tikkas from rack and serve with sliced onions and lime.
Enjoy these mouth watering melt in mouth tikkas and please do leave a comment. 🙂
If you have a secret masala for marinade, please do share!
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