Ingredients
- Any Fleshy fish pieces – ½ Kg
- Kashmiri Chilli – 2 Cups (Soak in little water for an hour and make paste)
- Coriander powder – 1 tea-spoon
- Pepper Powder – 2 Tea-spoon
- Turmeric Powder – 1 Tea-spoon
- Fenugreek powder – ¼ Tea-spoon
- Asafetida – 2 pinches
- Mustard seeds – 1 teaspoon
- Garlic – 3 big pods (Clean and chop into long pieces)
- Ginger – 1- 3 inch piece (Clean and chop into fine bits)
- Curry Leaves – 20 leaves
- Vinegar (not synthetic) – 4 Table Spoons
- Gingerly Oil (Nallenna/Ellenna) – 4 Table spoons
- Coconut Oil – For frying
- Salt – To taste
Preparation
Wash fish pieces and drain off all the water. Apply salt, turmeric, coriander powder and pepper powder, keep aside for 15 minutes so that the fish will absorb all the masala and salt.
In the meantime make a smooth paste of the chillies. Add oil in a pan and fry the fish till dry and firm. I always use tuna fish for pickle because it becomes firm when frying and will not break off easily while stirring. If you need to keep the pickle for a long time, fry it in gingerly oil and not coconut oil.
In another pan add gingerly oil and splutter mustard seeds and add garlic, ginger, curry leaves and season for few minutes till all the water dries fully.
Drop the chili paste, asafetida, fenugreek powder and saute till oil shows up stirring continuously. Remove bones from the fried fish and make small pieces. Add fish pieces into the prepared masala then pour vinegar and sprinkle salt. Stir continuously till all the water in vinegar dries up and oil shows on top. Flame should be very slow otherwise there is a tendency to burn and spoil the whole taste. Off the stove and keep for cooling. When cooled, empty into containers. You could either refrigerate or keep it outside in a dry place in air tight containers. This looks very spicy but its not; the Kashmiri chilli gives the color.
I have emptied the pickle in a glass bottle. Please don’t use plastic or Aluminium containers. If you need to keep it without refrigeration for a long time could follow my grandmas and mother‘s tips below, which were used in olden days when refrigerator was not even in dreams.
Take a piece of clean white cotton cloth. Place it in a bowl and soak it in vinegar, boil it and keep for cooling. When cooled, squeeze off all the vinegar and spread it on top of the pickle inside the jar as shown in picture, make sure that all the pickle is well covered.
This is to protect the pickle from fungus attack. When you want to use the pickle, lift the cloth on one side and take the quantity you want with a dry spoon. If you will finish the whole pickle in few days, could remove the cloth from the jar permanently and use it.
Hope this is a useful tip for you. If yes, would mind in letting me know it in the comment box ?
Would you mind preparing this delicious fish pickle for your family and friends? I am pretty sure that they would love and cherish it for a long time.
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