Bengali Macher Chop is a popular street food of Kolkata. Crisp coated croquettes with a spicy fish filling inside, Macher Chop is an addictive snack to eat.
Take a deep bottomed pan. Add water, fish pieces and all the ingredients mentioned for boiling the fish pieces. Cover and give this a quick boil over high heat. Once boiled, lower the heat and boil for 15 minutes. Remove from the heat, with a slotted spoon gently take out the fish pieces from the stock.
You can use this stock later for cooking soups or fish curry. For easy handling let the fish pieces cooled a little bit. Now discard the skin and bones. Mash the fish flesh using a fork keep aside.
Mash the boiled potatoes and keep aside.
Heat oil in a frying pan (nonstick preferably). Add chopped onion, fry over medium heat until light brown in colour. Add ginger-garlic paste, cumin powder, coriander powder, kashmiri mirch powder, turmeric powder, and salt. Mix well and fry for a minute or until oil separates from the masala.
Add mashed fish and chopped green chilies. Mix well and cook for 5-6 minutes over medium heat. Keep stirring in between. Now add the mashed potatoes, garam masala powder, chopped coriander leaves, and sugar. Mix well, cook this for 2-3 minutes over low heat. Remove from the heat.
Meanwhile, in a bowl whisk 2 eggs.
Now start making chop from the warm mixture by using your fingers and palms. You can give the chop any shape. I made mine cylinder-shaped just like the way I used to get them from the local snacks shop in Kolkata.
Dip the chop in whisked egg and then coat them with breadcrumbs. Do this for all the chop and repeat the process of dipping in egg & then rolling onto breadcrumbs once again. This two round of coating is a very important part of chop making. A perfect coating gives chop a crispy outer surface and a neat look after frying.
Heat vegetable oil in a deep frying pan/kadai. Over medium heat start frying the chop until golden brown in colour. Drain over paper napkin. Serve Macher Chop immediately with tomato ketchup or kasundi, Enjoy!