While it is a fish recipe, it’s also called a pickle recipe because you can make this and store it for a long time like a pickle, which you can’t normally do with most fish curries. This recipe is popularly made with nethili fish  and also known as a “salting pickle fish” but you can use other chunky fishes too.

So if  you manage to hook a large fish on your fishing rod or then get a big one at the fish markets, then this recipe is surely something you can consider.

This is similar to the salted fish pickle recipe and also sometimes called an dry fish east indian recipe.

Enough of  the banter! Here is the recipe.

East Indian Fish Pada Recipe by mum

Ingredients

2 kg of Mackerels Or suitable Fish like Mullet, Snapper, Barramundi,

10 to 15 tablespoon Vegetable Oil (adjust accordingly to how dry you want it)

Salt

1 tablespoon Chilli powder ( if hot chilli, put less)

3 tablespoon Turmeric powder

1 to 2 tablespoon Lime juice

4 tablespoon chopped Garlic

2 tablespoon Ginger

1 teaspoon crushed Peppercorn

2 teaspoon Cumin seeds

1 teaspoon Mustard seeds

2 teacups Vinegar

20 to 30 Curry Leaves

tp=tablespoon

Method

First you will need to prepare the fish

Its best to chop the fish to get small  eatable portions for the pickle

Smear fish or fish pieces  with paste of chilli powder (1/2 tp), turmeric powder (1 tp), salt (1/2 tp) and (1 to 2 tp) lime juice,

Let it marinate for an hour

NEXT:  Pre -Preparation of fish

Deep fry the marinated fish to a golden brown in oil (2 to 3 tp) on a pan and when done (golden brown) set aside for later when you need to add it to recipe.

NEXT:  Pre -preparation of dry gravy (masala) pickle

Grind Garlic (10 pods), ginger (2 tp), peppercorns (1/2 tp), jeera (cumin 1 tp), mustard seeds (1/2 tp), salt (1 to 2 tp), chilli powder (1 tp) and turmeric (2 tp) with vinegar (2 teacups) to a paste and keep

Pour oil in a pan, put some curry leaves and let it splutter (DO not let it burn). Add the dry gravy paste masala made just above and fry it on a low flame, until it becomes a thick consistency and cooked a bit.

Next, add the fried fish stir (previously fried) to it for a couple of minutes (occasionally stir gently) and its done

Bonus tips

• You can add a chopped onion to give the gravy some more substance and a bit of onion flavour.
• You can also use white fin tuna or kingfish as a fish substitute
• You can eat it with rice, bread, chapati or naan
• Use oil and salt in proportions as per your personal taste.