We ate fish at home after a very long time. Sig’s beautiful fish curry recipes and pictures had started fish cravings in me. Thanks to Asha’s links of Sumeet mixer , I have a very good mixer which makes very smooth paste. So I wanted to try some fish dishes that require real smooth paste. My hubby being a great fish fan, I thought he would enjoy aayi’s fish dishes.
So we went to Chinese market here to buy some fish. To our disappointment, we didn’t find many familiar fishes. Then I saw a piece of shark ( mori ) which looked very fresh. There was one more fish which looked familiar and we bought those two. The guys who were cleaning the fish didn’t agree to de-skin mori – this is one of the toughest fishes to clean. Removing the thick skin off the fish takes forever if you don’t know how to do it. Luckily they had cleaned the fish(it smells real bad if the insides are not removed) but had only the skin on.
At my native, mori is one of the most loved fishes. The day people get this, they have a big feast. At my home, this was not very frequent since removing the skin of this fish is very hard. Aayi used to ask the maid or someone else to clean it. As I said, this fish has a very peculiar smell which is not loved by many. So when we bought it here, my parents were very skeptic about cleaning the skin – the fish cannot be eaten with skin on since it is very hard and thick. I took about 30mins to clean it well (everyone was surprised that I could clean it, considering I have never attempted to clean it anytime before). Aayi made this delicious gravy. Everyone liked it very much.
Things to remember: – The skin is real hard and thick, so it has to be removed before cooking this fish. – The fish has only one hard bone in the center, it does not have any other bones. So usually it is cut into small 1″ by 1″ square pieces. They slightly increase in size after cooking. – Wash them very well in water. – Do not cook them for a long time.
Ingredients: 15 pieces of shark( mori ) 1 cup fresh/frozen coconut 6-7 red chilies 1/2 tea spn chopped ginger 1/4 tea spn turmeric powder 4-5 sichuan pepper( teppal ) 2-3 kokum pieces 2 green chilies Salt
Method: Grind together red chilies, coconut, ginger, turmeric powder into a very smooth paste. Cook the paste with enough water, slightly crushed teppal , slitted green chilies, kokum, salt and cook. When the gravy starts boiling, add fish pieces and cook for about 3-4mins (when it comes to a rapid boil. Do not boil for long after adding pieces, they become paste if cooked more). Serve hot with rice. Top with few drops of coconut oil while eating, this increases taste.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 15mins
Ambe – mango, saTh (pronounced as saaTh ) in Konkani or mambaLa in Kannada is one of the most popular ways of preserving mango pulp during season at our native. There are two types of people, one absolutely love this and the other can’t stand it. I belong to first type. I can go on eating these forever without stopping.
We have many mango trees in our garden. Some of them have a very thick layer of pulp in them. These types are very suitable for this. I still remember my grandfather used to follow a very painful process of manually grinding the pulp and then taking to the field which is near our home to sun dry this. Now my parents do it but, they use the mixer to grind it and dry them on our house terrace which is newly built. So I have been eating this home made saTh throughout my life. I have tasted the ready made ones few times and absolutely hated them.
Jackfruit pulp is also preserved in a similar way, but I never developed a taste for it. My parents bought me batch of these which were prepared during this mango season. Its been a great help for me in office in between meals when I feel hungry. I just start eating one and go on till I finish the whole bunch I have taken that day :).
Ingredients: Mango pulp Pepper powder
Method: Take out pulp from sweet and juicy mangoes. Slightly grind it to remove any lumps. On a clean piece of cloth, spread a thin layer of this pulp and keep this cloth on a flat surface under the sun. (Do not attempt this on a cloudy day, it needs very bright and hot sun to dry this). On day two, spread another layer of pulp on top of the first (on day 1, the pulp would have dried a bit). Repeat this for around 4 days. Now carefully pull out the pulp off the cloth and put it upside down. Now start putting the pulp on top for 2 days. On the 7th day, mix pepper powder with the pulp and spread it. On 8th day, spread a layer of only pulp on top. Let it dry for 4-5 days then again turn it upside down. Let it dry for 4-5 more days. By now, it would have become totally dry and look like the one in picture. Store in airtight container. Cut it into desired sized and shaped pieces. Eat it as it is, or some people also use it to make some dishes. I have never tried cooking it. I love it as it is. It remains good for about a year.
