Sunday, August 05, 2012

Ahona Gupta's Methi Machchi -- my style

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This is a recipe from Ahona who had said in a FaceBook comment two months back that she is in love with Methi and suggested her recipe of Sindhi Methi Machchi.

That "Methi Fish" remained in the subconscious strata of my brain. Now you might question the existence of "my brain" but we will not go there, we will just dwell on the subconscious where the "Methi Machchi" had sunk deep.

More than two months later, one hot, sunny morning in August I went on a quest to find that recipe. From my own FB page. It was a gargantuan task. Yes, "gargantuan". I have wanted to use that word for a while now and have never found the opportunity but this one fits, so we will stick with it. I searched high, low, through the timeline, through other people's vacation pics, through total stranger's family photos but could not find Ahona's recipe. There it was one fine day. Right there as a comment on one of the umpteen status messages I tend to post on my FB blog page. And then Boom, the next thing you know it was lost in the bottomless sink of FB status.

That kind of worried me. I mean here I am striving each day, spending precious time, trying to think up smart "Status Updates" and then couple months later ta-da there is no way to find them. My precious pearls of wisdom gone down the drain and without any copyright notice attached to them.

The very thought that there is some FB bin where my hard-worked on status is being messed around with someone's dumb updates like "Guess???" is totally freaking me out. Gawd, who ever wrote the code to this thing.

Anyway thank my stars that I finally found that recipe of Ahona's. By then it was almost lunch time and I had not moved a finger except on the scroll button. And then I realized that I did not have tomatoes or fresh methi which would have been good, errrm actually required ingredients for the dish. But I am an improvisation master and so I substituted tomatoes with yogurt, fresh green methi gave way to Kasoori methi and then I did a whole lot of other changes.By the time I was done and the house reeked of Kasoori Methi and the fish simmered in the beautiful gravy, I did not dare to call this dish "Sindhi". I have no clue on the "Sindhi"-ness of the dish, the "Methi" part is 100% fulfilled though.

This really is a beautiful dish with newer flavors to the same fish curry and was a hit at my home. Thank you Ahona and I am so glad you shared your recipe with me.




Methi Machchi -- Fish cooked in a Methi flavored Curry


I used Tilapia Fillet for this fish. You can use fillet of any other firm fish. You can also use steak pieces of Rohu or Katla. Pomfret too would be a good choice.



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I started off with two fillet which I cut in 3x2 pieces. Rubbed the fish pieces with
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder 
1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder 
1 tsp Coriander Powder 
1 tsp Ginger-garlic paste 
Salt 
Little Lime juice 

Heat 2tsp of Oil in a Fry pan.
Fry 3/4 cup of chopped red onion(half of a large one) and
about 8-10 clove of garlic(6 of the fat ones should be good) till onion is soft and browned.

Cool the onion-garlic. In a blender jar put
 fried onion-garlic 
1/4th cup thick yogurt
Blend to a thick paste with aid of little water.
Note: Alternately, instead of yogurt use 1/2 Cup of pureed tomato


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Next add 2 tbsp oil to the same pan and heat. Shallow fry the fish till they are golden brown on both sides. Remove and keep aside.

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Now we will make the gravy so if needed add 1tbsp more oil to the same pan.

Temper the oil with 1/4 tsp Methi(Fenugreek) Seeds.

Once the oil is flavored, lower the heat and add
the onion-garlic-yogurt paste
along with 1/2 tsp sugar
Also add 1 tbsp loosely packed Maida/AP Flour and fry the paste for couple of minutes.
Note: If you are using the tomato, then add the pureed tomato after the above step. Fry till raw smell of tomatoes is gone

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Next add the spices
1/2 tsp Red Chili Powder or 1 tsp Kashmiri Mirch(adjust the red chili to your taste) 
1/2 tsp Turmeric Powder 
1tsp Coriander Powder 
2tbsp Kasoori Methi crushed between your palm 
Note: Mix the spices with 2-3 tbsp of yogurt and then add
Raise heat to medium and with sprinkle of water fry the masala for 3-4 minutes till there is oil separating from the masala and the masala has no raw smell.

Add a fistful of chopped coriander and about a cup of warm water. Add salt to taste. Add couple of slit green chilies. Mix everything together and let the gravy simmer and come to boil.

Simmer till you feel the gravy has reached right thickness. It should not be too watery or soupy. 

Add 2 tbsp of heavy cream towards the end for a richer taste

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Slowly add the fried pieces of fish to the gravy. Let the gravy simmer for couple more minutes and then switch off heat.Wait for around 30-40 minutes for the flavors to blend in. Serve with rice.

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44 comments:

  1. And that's how a new recipe was born! FB really should have a search feature for status messages.

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    1. Not really new...I kinda followed hers but then we can never follow anything written down..right ?

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  2. but what if i want ahona's original recipe? can you put that up too? please ? :)))

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    1. Good question. Will put it up, have to diag agin

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  3. Curry looks delicious,..:) will try sometime,,:)

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    1. It is good..best part is it is great with eggs too

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  4. Hi ... I am reading your blogs for more than 6 months now... They r the greatest stress busters for me ... More than the recipe, I enjoy the stories behind each and every one of them. You bring a lot of smile and happiness to anyone reading your blog ... God bless you... Keep writing!

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    1. Thanks so much. That made my day. Totally

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  5. Replies
    1. And the smell...ahhhh the smell. You HAVE to try this. Do it with eggs if you don't want fish.

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  6. Love your post :) btw, seeing 'tilapia fillets' one fine day i asked our machwala in park circus market (i know this guy for donkey's years, so dared) - 'can u make the telapias into fillets' - u wud have seen his expressions! must thought this didi's brain has gone something wrong... I still insisted - cut the fish like this...that.. he politely refused, saying, na didi, telapia te fillet hay na, vetki te hay!!! :D

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    1. The Tilapia you get in USA and UK is different from the ones we get in Calcutta. The first time I saw in a market in London I was surpised as to how big the fillets are, tastes almost the same. The ones in London come from Israel, don't know about US.

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    2. Thank u! I saw them in pics! yummy :)

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    3. yeah, I don't remember eating Tilapia in India. Don't think it was a popular choice. Ekhon ki bhaloi bikri hoy ?
      But as Ranjan says, the ones in US are different, same family though

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    4. Yeah I once did get Tilapia back in India and my family raised eyebrows - "r kono mach pele na" ..and you know in abroad it's one of those popular fish..total contrats..

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    5. hi some times sellers don't help us with Tilapi's skin in places where we dont get fillets. We can take the skin off easily by putting them in freezer till very hard, may be a whole night. Take out , put glouse or something like that in your hands. Pierce a pointed knife to just under the skin of tilapia , grab that edge with paper and take off, can do some portions with knife itself by just moving on through a paper. It s really easy to take off skin like this when its really frozen, this can be applicable to all fishes like this. big or small..

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  7. Your love for methi never ceases! I want that fish now, now!!

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    Replies
    1. I really love Kasoori Methi. Pity it is not a Bong thing else I would have put it in all dishes :-D

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  8. Lovely methi machhi. Excellent. Never made in this way.

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  9. I dont use Methi much in my daily cooking (lazy to cut). But looking at your posts, Im tempted to use it more. lovely fish recipe...will try this and let you know.
    - Lakshmi

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    Replies
    1. This was the dried Kasori Methi that I used. So no cutting at all. The original recipe asks for fresh methi but this is very good too

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  10. I love Methi - and this fish looks so delicious. BTW, my mum does a microwave version without frying - comes out pretty nice. have to try!

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    1. Please, please share the recipe. Would love to try that

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  11. Slurp,fingerlicking dish..Makes me hungry..

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  12. Color ki darun hoeche! I love methi .. from seeds to dried leaves to fresh.

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  13. Tomar macher jholer chobi ki shundor lagche. Next time I buy tilapia totally trying this methi machhi.

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  14. Kasoori methi machi ..khub bhalo hoyeche..hugs

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  15. Yesterday I tried this recipe at my room, It was so spicey

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  16. would basa fish fillets be a good choice too? n i dont use methi much but wat is the difference between methi n kasuri methi can u plz tell me?!

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  17. I dont know how and when I developed a great liking for Bong food. And being a Maharashtrian, it comes as quite a surprise to most. Anyway, I have been quite a fan of your blog & have tried many a recipes over the last few months.
    And the best one so far was this one. I had huge cravings (I'm expecting my first baby) for something spicy & fishy and this did the trick. All I did was added a lil garam masala at the end and a green chilli to finish it off.
    Made my day :)
    Thanks a ton!

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  18. I tried this recipe and was absolutely blown away by it. Being a Keralite, we cook our fish curries quite differently and this has been a welcome addition. My in-laws loved it and borrowed the recipe off me. Thanks so much for sharing this with us!

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  19. Could you please mention the total weight of the fish you used? Can't wait to try out the recipe but in Calcutta, fillet is not exactly related to tilapia :) If I knew the weight I could try it out with other fish too. Thanks in advance.

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    1. Don't know the weight. But say about 4-5 pieces of rui

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  20. Love all your recipes. Among all your recipes my favorite is the pathar mangsho. Thanks for all the easy and delicious recipe.

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  21. It's looking really very tasty :)

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  22. I absolutely love ths one. Going to try it this weekend. Have never tried fish wit methi before. It looks drool worthy.

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  23. Just cant what to try this one out. I have never tried the fish methi combo before, but it looks absolutely drool worthy. Thank you for a great weekend recipe idea.

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  24. Hi,have you tried adding ginger also

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  25. Hi!
    Do you fry the fish with the onions?

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    Replies
    1. No. Fry onions separately to make the paste

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