Hey’s folks how are you? This yumy recipe is totally mine and mine alone. Instead of using yogurt in the curry part of the achari machli I used coconut milk because It goes better with the fish. Achar means pickle and machli means fish in Urdu. Actually It is called fish seasoned with pickling spices.
1 lb or 1 kg of any type of fish is used either fresh or frozen. If it fresh or even frozen and uncleaned be sure to scale and clean the fish by taking out the gills and the insides first. If it is a bigger fish be sure to cut it in to 4 to 5 pieces.
Heat up in a cast iron skillet 1/4 cup of corn, canola or peanut oil. Add 1 tsp of mustard oil. Make a batter by using 4 tbs of either rice flour, moon ki dal flour, urad ki dal flour or besan. Add 1/4 cup of water and add slowly and keep stirring until you have a lump free batter. Leave this unsesasoned for now. Dunk the pieces of fish in to the batter and coat them very nicely shake off the excess and fry until it is golden brown and nearly crunchy. This is on meduim to high heat.
I had some batter left over and instead of throwing it away I added 1 can of fish in brine at random. It can be tuna, sardines, salmon or even mackeral. Also if you want to make fish patties only and this is ok too. The fish I used was butterfish and because there wasn’t a lot is why I did it this way so it was perfectly normal. Even a can of crab would work and so would 1 lb or 1 kg of shrimp if you so desire.
Just cook these and set them aside then you can make the masala part of this achari machli. In mortar and pestle add 1 kokum phool, 1 broken small broken piece of star anise, 1 small broken piece of amchur and grind to a powder. In the oil add 1 pinch each of hing, black cumin seeds, cumin seeds, caraway seeds, fenugreek leaves, fennel seeds, dill seeds, kaloonji, mustard seeds, paprika, tumeric, red chili, turbinado sugar, pink salt and stir.
In 4 tbs of water add 1 small piece of tamarind pulp to make sure it gets nice and soft, add this and 1 tsp of either white or cider vinegar, the softened tamarind pulp in to the archari (pickling) mixture, 1 onion or shallot cut in to half moon slices to fry until it is a little brown, 5 cloves of garlic chopped, 1 tomato chopped and cooked down to a pulp.
Add 1 can of coconut milk, 1/2 cup of water right in to the spicy mixture. Turn down heat to low cover and let cook for 5 minutes to let the flavors mingle. Open the lid and add the fish back to the pot along with the fish patties if you made these too. Also you can add either or if you like and it depends on your tastebuds. Cover and let sit for 10 minutes before serving.
