Fish Pickle - Neimeen Achar

Ingrediants -

A) For marinating -
· King Fish - 2 lbs, cut into small cubes ( about 3/4 cm length pieces:-))
· Red chilly powder - 2 tsp
· Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
· Salt - According to taste

B) For shallow fry - Oil(any oil) for frying - As required

C) For sauting -
· Gingeley oil - 8 tsp
· Mustard - 1 tsp
· Garlic - 3 full bulbs,separated, peeled and each sliced into 2 or 3 pieces lengthwise
· Ginger - 4 tsp chopped finely
· Green chillies - 10 nos, Slit lengthwise
· Curry Leaves - 2 springs

D) For soaking -
Chilly powder - 1/4 cup. Mix this with enough vinegar to make a smooth paste.

Vinegar - 1 cup (Add more according to taste)

Preparation -
1) Cut the kingfish into cubes and marinate with ingrediants in A) for about 30 minutes.
2) Shallow fry the marinated fish in oil (as mentioned in B); till it is done.Keep the fried fish aside.
3) In a pan, use the ingrediants mentioned in C) as follows -
· Heat gingeley oil.
· Put mustard seeds .
· When it starts bursting, reduce the heat and add curry leaves.
· Do not burn the curry leaves.
· Add green chillies, garlic and ginger and saute on medium flame for about 5 minutes. You can smell roasted garlic or the garlic turns slighly golden.
4) Add the soaked chilly paste in D) to the saute ginger-garlic. Saute the mixture for 2-3 minutes and then add 1 cup vinegar.
5) Bring this to a boil and add the fish pieces which were fried in Step 2).
6) Lower the flame and cook for 5 minutes and remove from the stove.
7) Add salt according to taste.
8) Let the pickle cool down.
9) When cold, fill the pickle in an airtight bottle (rinse the bottle with Vinegar for better shelf life before adding pickle) and pour some gingeley oil on the top.
10) The pickle will be ready for use in 3-4 days. Doesn't matter; you can start eating it from the day one ;)