Having our origins back in the costal district of southern India, Sardine (മത്തി) is almost daily part of our dining table, even after we migrated to America. Thanks to the local Farmer’s market! ..Multiple sardines recipes [1] [2] can be tracked on my blogs from the past. Recipe here was more customized from my cooking experiments and I can happily add it to the healthy dish category.
Ingredients
For marination
- Sardines (matthi) : 10
- Chilly powder : 2 T -Sp. (adjust)
- Turmeric Powder : ¼ T-Sp.
- Salt for taste
For masala
- Onion : 2 (medium)
- Ginger : 1-inch piece
- Garlic : 5-6 cloves
- Green chilly : 6 (adjust)
- Pepper powder : 1 T- Sp. (adjust)
- Turmeric powder : ¼ T – Sp
- Malabar Tamarind (kudam puli) : 4 pieces
- Curry leaves
- Coconut oil : 2 Tbl- Sp. (adjust)
Method
- Clean the fish and make gashes, so masala will penetrate easily.
- Marinate the fish with all the ingredients mentioned for marination and keep it for about 15 minutes.
- Soak the tamarind in small quantity of water for about 20 minutes.
- Thinly slice onion, ginger, garlic and green chilly.
- In a bowl, add all the ingredients mentioned for masala (use half the oil this time) using hand knead well. Main purpose of this mixing is to make the onions soft.
- Keep it aside for about 30 minutes. After 30 minutes you can see some water oozing from the onion.
- Grease a pan / earthen pot, add the onion masala, and keep the marinated fish on top of onion masala along with some curry leaves. ( Do not over crowd the fish )
- Keep it in the stove and let it cook for 5 minutes in medium heat.
- Then close the lid and cook it for another 10 minutes in low medium heat.
- Carefully flip the fish without disturbing the onion masala layer.
- Sprinkle some oil on top of the fish and close it again, cook again for another ~10 minutes.( low medium heat)
- Switch off the stove and sprinkle some oil on top of the fish and close it for another 30 minutes before serving.
