Netholi Varuthathu - Fried White Bait

I saw some fresh tiny whitebait that were so little you cannot really clean them.  Brought them home and washed them several times with water and rock salt. Usually the white bait I get is much bigger and it takes a while to clean them.  But since these were so little, the cleaning was quite easy.

Today I have just shallow fried them and served it for dinner with rice and dal.  They would go just on their own with a drink of cold beer too.

Ingredients:

1 cup tiny whitebait, cleaned.

1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste

1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder

1/2 teaspoon chilli powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 tablespoon white flour

1 green chilli, slit

1 sprig curry leaves

Method:

Gently mix all of the above to the whitebait and let it rest for about 15 minutes.

Shallow fry a few spoonfuls at a time - spread them out in the pan, so they do not clump up; and when crisp lay them on a paper towel to drain.

Finally in the same oil, fry some curry leaves and green chilli.

Spoon everything on to a serving plate and serve immediately.