Fish Cutlets... Baked

Many of us love to eat cutlets but find it difficult, messy, or simply time-consuming to prepare them individually, bread them, and fry them. Here is an easy solution to that. Simply place them as a whole in your flat baking dish, bake them, and enjoy. It can be cut into squares if you want to enjoy the leftovers as a sandwich. The only word of caution is the pungent smell of vinegar that may linger through the preparation time!

Unbaked fish cutlet, ready to be baked

Serves 6 to 8 

1 ¾ lb salmon fillets

2 tsp salt

water to just cover the fish

8 green chillies

4 tomatoes, seedless

2 cups fresh coriander leaves

2 slices crumbled bread

3 eggs

4 tbsp vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp sugar

salt to taste

1 1/2 cups onions, fried to a golden brown

Boil the fish with salt till just cooked. After removing from the liquid, allow to cool.

 

In a food processor, turn it on and drop in

8 green chillies

Stop the machine, open it and add the tomato pieces and coriander leaves.

Give it a pulse or two until it breaks down.

Add in and pulse again, till you have "just mixed" the bread pieces, eggs, vinegar, sugar, and salt to taste. Finally, add and pulse a couple of times until just mixed. Then finally, drop in the cooked fish flakes and the fried onions. Don't overprocess it to mush. It should be textured and not smooth. 

Preheat the oven to 170 C| 350 F. 

Pour the mixture into an ovenproof dish that has been greased with butter or oil. A 14-inch-by-10-inch-by-25-cm-square. Bake this till set and slightly browned, about 35 to 45 minutes.

Serve it warm with a crisp salad and warm crusty bread and butter.

Tips
Do not overbake as it will become very dry around the edges. Keeping it "moist" is very important. 
Keep it half cooked if you are preparing it ahead of time. 
It freezes well once half baked. Cool completely before you freeze. 
Kids love this with ketchup as a fish burger. 
It is better to have a slightly smaller dish to bake in than a larger one for this quantity.

My published cookbooks are available for sale through myself and on Amazon.

The World of Parsi Cooking: Food Across Borders is a 3 award winning book. It has been self published in July 2019 and will be going into its second print in 2022. 

The Art of Parsi Cooking; reviving an ancient cuisine was published in 2016 by Austin Macauley and continues to be available through amazon book depot book depository and from the publishers.