Pre-processing of fish

* Evisceration or remove gut, behead, descale, cut fins and belly flaps.

* Skin fillets.

* Keep the fillets in chilled condition till processing.

Method of Batter Preparation .

* Ingredients serially numbered from 2 to 8 are required for batter mix.

* The ingredients like American flour (maida), corn flour, bengal gram, salt, guar gum and turmeric powder should mix well.

* Add potable water to the dry batter mix in the 1:2 ratio to get batter mix.

Processing of Fish Fingers .

* Fish fingers are prepared from the skinless fillets of fish.

* The fillets are cut to uniform sized pieces (fingers) of 8×2×3/4 cm and then the fingers are cold blanched in 3% salt solution for 10-15 minutes and drained.

* The fingers are pre-dusted with an adhesive type quick setting batter.

* The pre-dusted fingers are then coated in liquid batter (one part of dry batter was mixed with two parts of potable water to get the required consistency of the batter) and coated with bread crumbs.

* The coated fingers are then flash fried for 30 seconds,then freeze in IQF machine and store in frozen condition (-18^oC) until used by the consumer.

Note: If fish mince is used the procedure is slightly different

* Mix fish mince with salt (0.6 % of mince weight) and potable water to get consistent mix.

* This mix is then spread in aluminium trays of ¾ c.m thick and freezes it.

* The frozen mix is then cut into uniform sized pieces (fingers) of 8×2×3/4 cm and keeps in the freezer.

* The fingers are pre-dusted with an adhesive type quick setting batter .

* The pre-dusted fingers are then coated in liquid batter (one part of dry batter was mixed with two parts of potable water to get the required consistency of the batter) and coated with bread crumbs using a bamboo stick.

* The coated fingers are then flash fried for 30 seconds, then freeze in IQF machine and store in frozen condition (-18^oC) until used by the consumer.