Baked Macher Chop/ Fish Croquette

To cook the fish, generally, raw fish pieces are cooked in a pan of water, cooled and then mashed and once again cooked with spices. (My kids and husband don't like the smell of raw fishes, so I marinate the fish pieces with a pinch of salt and turmeric powder and lightly fry them.)

Let them cook, then debone them very carefully and make sure there are no bones left. Now mash them well.

To make the croquettes, take the mashed fish in a bowl, then add the mashed potatoes. Mix them well and keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp oil, add the finely chopped onions and green chillies. Once the onions are fried, add the ginger-garlic paste and chopped tomatoes. Cook till the tomatoes are mixed well with the onions, then add the mashed fish and potato mixture. Mix it well with the onion-tomato mixture.

Next, add turmeric powder, red chilli powder and roasted cumin seed powder. Mix well together by adding a little water. Add sugar and salt to taste. Cook for another 2-3 minutes. At lastl add the chopped coriander leaves and it's ready.

Let the cooked fish mixture cool down to make the croquettes. Once it has cooled, give it any shape you want, you can make round shapes like balls, round and flat, cylindrical, rectangular or any shape you want. I made them into round and flat shapes.

To coat the croquettes, take a well-beaten egg in a bowl, in another bowl take the bread crumbs. Now take one croquette, dip it first in the egg wash, then roll it in bread crumbs and keep aside. Do the same for other croquettes as well.

Dip each patty again in the egg wash, roll in bread crumbs and give them a definite shape this time. Keep aside and do the same for other croquettes.

To bake the croquettes, heat just 1 tsp oil in a flat frying pan, place each croquette in the frying pan and cook on a medium flame, keep them for 2-3 minutes or till they are lightly brown on each side. (If needed, add 1 more tsp of oil.)

Now preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Grease an oven proof dish with very little butter/oil. Place the lightly fried patties on the oven-proof dish. Bake for 7 minutes on each side or until the patties turn into a lightly brown shade colour.

Fish croquettes or Maacher Chops are ready to be served. Serve it with tomato ketchup, green chilli sauce or Bengali's Kasundi (mustard sauce).