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Andhra Fish Pulusu (Fish cooked in tamarind pulp)
Ingredient List
For marinade:
- Fish pieces - 1.5 kg
- Salt - 1 teaspoon (small spoon)
- Turmeric powder - a little
- Red chilli powder - 2 teaspoon
- Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tablespoon (huge spoon ;) )
- Curry leaves (optional)
For cooking:
- Onions - 3
- Green chillies - 3 or more
- Tamarind pulp - 2 tablespoons
- Jeera - a pinch
- Methi seeds - 2 pinches
- Ginger garlic paste - 1tablespoon
- Red chilli powder
- Jeera powder - 1 teaspoon
- Kasuri methi (dried fenugreek leaves, this is the real flavor enhancer of the dish) - 1 teaspoon
- Sunflower oil - 3 tablespoons
Procedure:
- Marinade: Into a bowl, take the cut and cleaned fish pieces and apply salt, turmeric, red chilli powder, ginger-garlic paste to them. Set aside until used.
- In a wide pan, heat 3 tablespoons oil, add jeera and methi seeds. After a minute, add slit green chillies and finely chopped onions. On medium flame, fry onions until light brown.
- Add turmeric powder, jeera powder, red chilli powder and ginger-garlic paste. Fry for a couple of minutes until the raw smell of ginger-garlic is gone.
- Now lay the fish chunks on the bed of fried onions, in a single layer if possible. Let them fry on a medium heat, after a few minutes turn each piece to the other side and fry.
- Add the tamarind pulp and one or two cups of water until the pieces are barely covered in water. Add salt and let it boil on high heat for a few minutes.
- Take the dried methi leaves between two palms and rub it into the boiling soup. Reduce the heat and let it boil for a good few minutes, this is the time to adjust salt and red chilli if more spice level is desired.
Done!!
Tips:
- This same procedure can be followed with the fish filet as well. But the taste varies from fish to fish! :-)
- Step 4 is a bit tricky, the fish chunks need to be cooked on both sides until they don't look raw/transparent any more. When done, immediately add tamarind pulp. Tamarind helps in keeping fish chunks intact and prevents further breaking into pieces.