Hot and Sour Fish Pickle

Hot & Sour Fish Pickle

Being brought up by a mother who always gave us hot and fresh food all the time, I guess am a little spoilt and my taste buds do not allow me to keep fried fish in the fridge. I mean I only fry how much I need .I am unable to have it for the next meal. However, I am constantly faced with the situation when the family has forgotten to inform if they're not coming home for their meals and hate to thrash my precious fish.    

So, fresh from a visit to see my mum, and after tasting her lovely fresh fish pickle, came up with the idea to do the same, but with left over fried fish. As basically, the ingredients are the same, only I'll be utilising what I don't wanna waste. This pickle keeps for a long time, but I doubt it'll stay that long as you will want to have it with every meal. It's so yummy when you don't have a side dish or with just plain pulao or Khichdi or daal and rice.

Ingredients:

Fried fish - Any variety you may have. Deboned and shredded or keep uneven pieces

You can also use fresh fish - no need to fry then. Just de - bone and use.

Chopped Ingredients:

garlic - 1 whole pod

ginger - 2"

green chillies - 3

Wet Paste:

Red chillies - 20

garlic pods (peeled ) - 1 cup

cumin seeds - 1 tbsp

vinegar to grind - 1/4 cup

water - as required

salt to taste

Other Ingredients:

mustard seeds - 1 tsp

fenugreek seeds - a pinch ( optional) 

curry leaves - 2 sprigs

coriander leaves - 2 tbsp.'s ( optional & if you have at home )

Method:

1) Take about 2 tbsp. of oil in a skillet. Add mustard seeds followed by fenugreek seeds. Let them splutter. Next add in the chopped ingredients and curry leaves. Fry till it leaves a lovely aroma in your kitchen. Don't get carried away and check that you don't burn the ingredients. Don't brown the garlic.

2) Add in your wet paste and a little water , about 1/2 a cup. Give it a boil. Bubbles must show right to the centre of your mix.

3) Add the shredded fish and let it simmer covered for about 2 minutes as you need to soften the fish.

4) Garnish with coriander leaves.   

Variation:

• Add the coriander leaves together with the chopped ingredients and the aroma is crazy.
• If adding fresh fish no need to fry, just add it directly. 
• Fresh Bombay ducks taste excellent with this recipe!
• the wet ingredients do not have to be ground on the same day, also not necessary to make it using whole chillies, you can just make it with chilli powder, cumin powder, vinegar, water and add garlic paste.