Everybody in my closest circle would know how much I love fish 😀  I stayed with my eldest cousin  and her family during my graduation days , and all three(nephew was so small to count him 😉 )  of us were fond of fish , although bil turned to a vegetarian later!
I was enjoying my single child tag until then , getting my hands on first batch of  fried fish , feeding as much as I want! 😛 Then I landed in Tiruvannamali, where we got only dam fish :'(  and to top it, the owner of our house strictly warned us not to cook non veg inside.Alas!! I couldn’t survive much, obviously. 😀 that’s when my amma and ammayi started sending us Pickels 😀 ,Fish Pickles as our savior. We were lucky that we had our families visiting us often, each time carrying pickles for us 😀 .We later moved to another house, were we could cook non -veg ,thus giving an end to our pickle saga. 😉
Fish pickle can be done in various ways, the procedure remains the same.Except that you can either grind ginger garlic or thinly slice them, its your wish.You could also use a powder made out of  roasted fenugreek seed+ mustard seed , but I have followed the simplest method in making this.
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Ingredients:
To marinate the fish:
Fish                                         – 250 gm, any fleshy fish * refer notes
Turmeric Powder                             – 1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder                             – 1/2- 1 tsp
salt                                          – 1/4 tsp
Vinegar                                      – 1 tsp
To make pickle:
Ginger                                      –  2 medium big piece
Garlic                                        – 2 pods
Red chilli powder                             – 2- 3 tsp
Mustard seed                                 – 3/4 tsp
Fenugreek seeds                               -1/4 tsp
Asafetodia                                    – 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek powder/uluva podi                  -1/4 tsp
Gingely Oil  *                                   – 1/4-1/2 cup
Vinegar                                       – 1/4-1/2 cup
water                                         – 1/4 cup
salt                                            – as needed
curry leaves                                    –  1 spring
Method:
Marinate the wash and drained fish pieces with ingredients under marinade and set aside for 1/2 hr
In a mixer grind together ginger and garlic leaving , 1″ ginger piece and 5-6 garlic cloves aside.
Cut the remaining  1″ ginger  and  5-6 garlic cloves into thin slices.
In a heavy bottom pan, add gingely oil/sunflower oil and fry the fish pieces in batch.
Drain and set aside.
In another pan , add the same gingely /sunflower oil and once hot add the mustard seeds and let it pop.
To which add the fenugreek seeds and curry leaves.Add the sliced ginger and garlic let that brown well.
Add the ground ginger garlic paste and saute that well, to leave its raw smell and let it brown.
Once golden brown, bring down the flame and add the red chilli powder and mix well.
Saute for few seconds, to which add water and bring to boil.
Add the fried fish pieces and combine everything.
Finally add the vinegar and mix well. Sprinkle  kayam/Asafetodiea and fenugreek /uluva powder and swtich off
Let the pickle cool completely , to transfer into a air tight container and refrigerate.
Notes:
For the pickle gravy, you could grind the ginger garlic without leaving any bit for slicing.
You could also slice , instead of grinding. Choose whichever works for you.
I recommend to use gingely oil/nallenna for pickling. That gives the real taste.But if you are on budget, you could forward with vegetable oil too.
For frying fish pieces you could use vegetable oil. Make sure sure fry well.
Pickles need to have oil floating on top( that’s the general thing 😉 ) but why not have a bit healthy version 🙂 .
You could use any fleshy fish, like king fish/seer fish/motha or cobia/ or even prawns.
