These little balls of joy contain half an egg and half spicy fish, wrapped up in a crispy golden batter and breadcrumb crust. Cutlets are eaten in abundance in Sri Lanka as snacks. There are many different variations, but these are my favourite. The Sri Lankan’s know how to snack!
The spicy fish mixture is pretty quick to knock up and it is quite sticky so there is no issue in getting it to stick to half an egg.
It is common to coat food in breadcrumbs by dipping in beaten egg first. You can do that with these, but dipping in batter, produces a much crispier finish.
Egg and spicy fish balls
These little balls of joy contain half an egg and half spicy fish, wrapped up in a crispy golden batter and breadcrumb crust. Cutlets are eaten in abundance in Sri Lanka as snacks. There are many different variations, but these are my favourite. The Sri Lankan's know how to snack!
Ingredients
- 6 eggs
- 250 g potatoes, peeled
- 400 g tinned fish I used salmon, but tuna and mackeral work well too.
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 4 fresh chillies, finely chopped
- 3-4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
- 1 tbsp ginger, finely grated
- 1 tsp curry powder
- 2 tsp black pepper, freahly ground
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 3 tbsp coriander, chopped
- 100 g flour
- 100 ml water
- 100 g breadcrumbs
- vegetable or sunflower oil for deep frying
Instructions
- Cover the eggs in water in a saucepan and heat. Once boiling turn the heat off and leave the eggs to rest in the hot water for 10 minutes. Immediately place the eggs in ice cold water. This not only stops the eggs cooking, but prevents a reaction between the iron in yolk and sulphur in the white that results in a green/grey ring around the outside of the yolk.
- Boil the potatoes for 12- 15 minutes and mash.
- In a frying pan, heat the oil on a medium/high heat and add the onion until soft, usually about 8 – 10 minutes.
- Add the garlic, chillies and ginger, and stir for 2 minutes.
- Add the curry powder and stir for one minute.
- Place the onion mixture in a bowl with tinned fish, black pepper, salt, sugar, lemon juice and coriander and give a good stir. Taste and adjust seasoning as necessary.
- Cut the boiled eggs in half and make a ball of fish mixture of the same size. Stick them together and continue until all the eggs are complete.
- Heat the oil to 180 degrees Celsius for deep frying.
- Meanwhile, make the batter. Mix the flour and water together and whisk until smooth.
- Dip a ball in the flour and water mixture and immediately dip in breadcrumbs and place in hot oil. Cook until golden brown.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
