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Have you tried our pickled fish yet? Bursting with flavors that will ignite your palate.
Savoring Tradition: a Guide to Making Delicious Pickled Fish
Exploring Pickled Fish Traditions
Pickled fish is a delightful blend of taste and tradition, paramount in South African cuisine. It marries delicious flavors with age-old food preservation techniques. This seafood recipe, rich in history, finds its essence in a savory curry sauce, transforming simple ingredients into a memorable dish.
Fish Selection For Your Pickled Delight
In making delicious pickled fish, choosing your fish carefully becomes crucial. For those aiming to keep their savory dish for months, selecting sturdy options like cod or yellowtail will be best. These fish not only last longer, but also enrich the flavor with their firm textures. On the flip side, Hake might be your go-to for a softer, quicker bite. This selection greatly shapes the taste and shelf-life of your traditional recipe.
How to Prepare and Cook the Fish
Carefully clean the fish, then cut it into portions. Liberally season with salt and pepper and lightly coat in flour for a crunchy finish. Frying in moderately hot oil is key to prevent burning. Remember, avoiding crowding in the pan ensures each piece cooks perfectly, setting the stage for a flavorful pickling journey.
How to Make the Curry Sauce
To create the curry sauce for your pickled fish, start mixing the sugar, vinegar, and spices in a pan. This blend must be just right to avoid flavors that are overly sweet, sour, or spicy. Heat the mixture gently, ensuring everything combines well for a delicious fish curry. This step is crucial for achieving the savory dish characteristic of South African cuisine.
Storing the Pickled Fish
Once you have prepared the savory dish, layers of fish and onions find their way into a jar, getting a generous topping of hot curry sauce. This step ensures flavors merge into a delightful blend, characteristic of traditional South African cuisine. Cooling before sealing is essential for preserving its taste. Your homemade pickles will be ready to savor after three days and remain a delicious choice for months ahead.
Enjoying Your Homemade Pickled Fish
The time has finally come to relish the pickled fish you’ve painstakingly prepared. This seafood recipe, rich in flavor and rooted in South African cuisine, promises a memorable dining experience. For the perfect meal, pair your fish curry with a light salad or warm, fluffy bread. The blend of savory dishes and fresh sides offers a balanced taste, showcasing your effort and the culinary guide you’ve followed. As you serve this traditional recipe, reflect on the process, from selecting cod or hake to mastering the pickling method. Homemade pickles, especially of the seafood variety, transform an ordinary meal into an extraordinary one, celebrating both tradition and your flavorful cooking.
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Delicious Pickled Fish
- Prep Time: 20 minutes
- Resting Time: 3 days
- Cook Time: 30 minutes
- Total Time: 72 hours 50 minutes
- Yield: 4 x bottles Depending on size 1x
- Category: Seafood Recipes
- Method: Moderate
- Cuisine: South African
Description
This Delicious Pickled Fish is perfect for those who love a tangy twist. Made with fresh fish and marinated in a blend of spices, this pickled fish is a taste sensation you should not miss.
Ingredients
Fish
- 2 kg of Hake Fish
- Salt and Pepper to taste
- flour
- cooking oil
Curry sauce for pickled fish
- 4 – 6 Onions, cut into rings
- 375 ml (1 1/2 cups) Sugar
- 30 ml (2 tbsp) Curry
- 15 ml (1 tbsp) Turmeric
- 10 ml (2 tsp) table salt
- 2.5 ml (1/2 tsp) Coriander Seeds
- 8 star Anise Seeds
- 2 pieces of Cassia/Cinnamon Stick
- 30 ml (2 tbsp) Green Ginger, pounded
- 750 ml (3 cups) Brown Grape Vinegar
- 250 ml (1 cup) Apple Cider Vinegar or wine vinegar
- 250 ml (1 cup) water (optional) mixed with 1 tbsp Corn Flour (optional)
- 5 fresh lemon or Bay Leaves
Instructions
Fish
- You can’t make pickled fish just like that, because if your curry sauce is too sweet, sour, or hot, the whole dish is spoiled and all the effort is wasted.
- It is better to use firm fish if it is stored in glass jars for a long time because it does not break easily. Use Cod, Garrick, Cape Salmon, or Yellowtail.
- If the fish is going to be stored in the fridge and will be eaten soon, you can put Hake in cheaper.
- Cook the fish first.
- Cut the fish into motes and salt and pepper it.
- Lightly sprinkle with flour or roll in flour and shake off the excess flour.
- Unpack on a plate in the fridge and let it rest for half an hour.
- Heat a little cooking oil in the pan, about 3 cm deep.
- Once the oil starts to stir, it’s ready. If it smokes, it’s too hot.
- Bake the fish motes, but don’t put too many in the pan at once, then they will absorb water.
- Bake the skin side down first and then turn it over.
- That way the fish motes will not warp.
- Scoop out, keep it on the spatula so it can drain the oil, blot it on kitchen paper, and then leave it in a large dish to cool.
- Pack only one layer, so that the fish does not absorb water.
Curry sauce for pickled fish
- Put all the ingredients in a saucepan and cook for 20 minutes.
- Pack layers of fish and onions in a wide-mouth jar and pour the curry sauce hot over it, spices, and all.
- Let it cool well and seal. First, cover the jar with plastic wrap to prevent the vinegar from rusting the metal lid.
- The pickled fish will be ready to eat within three days, but it will keep for months.
- Bottle at 20 minutes
Notes
Created, Prepared, tried, and tested by Edward from The Recipe Hunter: Tried and Tested Recipes from Home Chefs and SA Tasty Recipes – Saffas Daily Recipes
Nutritional calculation reflected for all as not possible to work out per serving.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 4 bottles
- Calories: 5095
- Sugar: 454.1 g
- Sodium: 8281.3 mg
- Fat: 122 g
- Saturated Fat: 19.1 g
- Trans Fat: 0 g
- Carbohydrates: 554.2 g
- Fiber: 34.6 g
- Protein: 400.8 g
- Cholesterol: 1200 mg
The nutrition facts provided are automatically calculated. They might change depending on the specific ingredients you use or any adjustments you make to the recipe. If these numbers are significant to you, it’s best to calculate them yourself.
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Not tried anything like this before, it looks so tasty.
Hi Claire, Hope you will give it a try, as it’s a very SA type of dish and well loved.