Cyrus Todiwala’s Dahi Machha

Serves: 4

Prep time: 20 minutes, plus marinating.

Cooking time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

• 250g beaten think yoghurt
• 5 or 6 garlic cloves
• 2 pieces of ginger
• 2 medium onions
• 1 tsp ground red chilli
• 500g rohu or river perch
• 1tsp ground turmeric
• 1 medium onion, finely chopped
• 4 tbsp mustard oil
• Ghee/ cooking oil
• Salt
• 2 tsp sugar

Spices:

• 2 bay leaves
• 2 green cardamom pods
• 1 clove
• 1 or 2 inch piece of cassia bark
• 4 or 5 black pepper corns

Method

1. Rub salt and turmeric into the fish and set aside for a few minutes
2. Puree together yogurt, onion, red chilli, ginger and garlic. Mix well and add to fish
3. Then cover and leave to rest for a couple of hours
4. Now remove the pieces of fish from marinade and wipe off as much of the marinate as possible and set aside
5. Heat the ghee and mustard oil in a frying pan, when nearly smoking add all the spices. Fry until the cardamom have changed colour and the clove has swollen. Remember, do not over heat the oil and always crack the cardamom seeds before cooking as they can explode in hot oil.
6. Now return the oil to medium heat and fry the fish to seal. Do not let the pieces brown. Remove fish from pan and set aside
7. Sauté the onion until soft and pale
8. Now return the fish to the pan, add the yoghurt and fried spices and bring slowly to bubbling point. Season to taste.
9. Simmer for 2-3 minutes then turn off the heat. Let the fish cook in latent heat by covering the pan.
10. Remove and serve with plain steamed rice