Dive into Sindhi cooking with a recipe for fried fish
In an excerpt from her new book, Sindh, author Sapna Ajwani writes about the significance of fish in her community's cuisine
Fish is the most common and recurring symbol in the Indus valley seals, which were used for trade purposes. Many of these seals have also been found at other contemporaneous sites in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and Iran. The occurrence of fish on these seals is probably because dried fish was one of their chief export items. These exports, including shark fin and maw to China, continued until the time of the British. We call the bounty of the Indus, as ‘fruits of the sea’ or samdh ja mewa since the Indus is referred to as the sea not a river.
Through the ages, almost every traveller or historian has made a reference to the abundance of fish in Sindh’s markets, especially the pallah (hilsa/shad in English, and is related to the herring) has an exalted status in Sindhi cuisine – it’s not just a fish or meat, it’s a pallah or a unique being. It’s the mount of our patron saint Uderolal or Jhulelal, and the God of water, Varuna, whose temple and shrine are both adjacent to each other, and can be found in the village of Uderolal near Nasarpur, Sindh. The pallah is treated as meat in Sindhi cooking, because of its oily texture, and so is never cooked with garlic or much oil. It can be substituted with salmon or sea trout, or shad – if you live in the USA.
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Besides pallah, our other favourite fish is also a gift of the Indus, which is referred to as rohita in the Charaka Samhita and recommended because of its ease of digestion and high nutritive value. In Sindhi, we call it Sindhi macchi (fish of Sindh) or by its other name, dumbro. It’s from the same family as carp, and its generic name in northwest India is rohu. My friend Munir’s mum (who was my host in Sindh) told me that her husband is always amused with this description of the fish, and asks if the fish agreed to be branded as ‘Sindhi’.
Sindh is also blessed with a wide coastline along the Arabian sea, so there has always been an abundance of sea fish in our diet. The favoured sea fish are pomfrets (paplet in Sindhi), surmai or king fish/seer fish, rawas or Indian salmon, kurari or Indian mackerel, besides local prawns and crabs. If you are in the UK, the best fish to substitute in all the recipes is sea or rainbow trout, sea bass, and sea bream, which are all-rounders for stews, for stuffing, and frying.
Tips for buying and cooking fish
All fish is cooked on the bone. The only fish I would recommend eating filletted is the pallah, due to its zillions of bones.
Of course, you can also choose to eat filleted fish, but remember to make a rich fish stock. If you live in the West, you can buy salmon/ other fish heads, usually available at a throwaway price. A 500g fish head costs about £1-2 generally, and it makes for a perfect base to make fish stock. Alternatively, use ready made fish stock or cube for making the sauce. Fry the fillets and add to the sauce just before serving. Check the recipe for fried fish for tips on frying.
Taryal macchi
Fried fish
When we were young, our mum used to sing, ‘aj maachi mani thayee aye kair khayee wiyo (today there’s fish with flatbread who ate it)’, to lure us into eating food. She would separate the bones of the pomfret from its flesh and place the latter into a flatbread, roll, and give it to us to munch on. By the time I was 5-6, I’d eat the whole pomfret, including bones. This fish used to be a regular during ‘plain meals’ (that’s what I would call meals if there was no other meat or fish). I would come home from school and ask ‘is there something nice to eat?’ Just a piece of fried fish would make me happy. If there was a fish head, the most prized piece in our family, I’d be ecstatic. When I visited Sindh, I ate Sindhi macchi (or carp) fried, for all meals. Macchi mani (fried fish with flatbreads) is a standard meal combination for us.
Ingredients
150-200g per fish steak (2-3 cm thick)/whole fish
One-fourth tsp salt
One-eighth tsp turmeric powder
Enough oil for shallow frying
Garnish (per portion)
Half tsp tamarind pulp diluted with 1 tsp water/juice of a one-fourth lime/lemon
Half tsp coriander powder
One-fourth to half tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
Half tsp coarse black pepper
Prep
Apply salt and turmeric and leave for at least 30 minutes. Bring to room temperature before frying.
Cook
Use a shallow, heavy-based (preferably) non-stick pan. Choose a pan as per the size and the thickness of the fish so that the oil comes up halfway, and it doesn’t bend the fish.
Heat the oil and test with a piece of bread. Wipe the fish dry with thick kitchen paper. Then slip the fish, skin side down, onto the pan. Now don’t disturb the fish – it will take at least 2-3 minutes before the skin crisps. The inside will start to cook after.
Press the fish down with a spatula to ensure that it’s crisping evenly. Lower the temperature slightly. When the skin cooks through, you will notice that it shrinks and starts coming off the pan. Lift the fish slightly from the edge first to see if comes off easily and then slip the spatula underneath to lift and flip. Use two spatulas for large fish. Fry the other side in the same way, then drain onto grease-proof paper.
Serve
Sprinkle tamarind water or lime/lemon juice, plus the spices on top. Serve with dal and mani.
Notes
Pierce next to the bone and flake – if it comes off easily, the fish is cooked through.
If you have a poorly ventilated kitchen, sprinkle rice flour or fine semolina on the fish and then fry. This will help contain any residual odours that sometimes remain after frying.
Excerpted from the book ‘Sindh’ by Sapna Ajwani with permission from Harper Collins India.
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