Passport & Plate - Fried Bombay Duck (And it's a fish!)
India | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 4 photos
Ingredients
- 6 Bombay ducks cut into two pieces each (total 12 pieces; serves two people)
- ½ teaspoon Turmeric Powder ("haldi")
- 1 ½ teaspoon "Malwani Masala" Powder (Maharashtrian based powder; Core ingredients* : a mixture of red chilly powder, coriander powder, black pepper powder, mustard seeds, poppy seeds, cassia seeds, cloves and sichuan pepper)
- 1 teaspoon "Rava" or Rice Flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoon of salt
- Few drops of lemon
- 2 ½ to 3 ½ teaspoons of oil for shallow frying
- 3-4 sliced pieces of cucumber, tomato, carrot and roughly chopped coriander leaves for garnishing
How to prepare this recipeStep 1: Wash and devein the Bombay duck. Rinse well with water. Cut each fish into two pieces. Throw away the head and tail of each fish. Wash and drain all the water by putting the pieces in a large strainer. The pieces should be made as dry as possible. Water can also be drained by pressing the pieces under a small grinding stone.
Step 2: Take a vessel large enough to contain the pieces. Put a little bit of turmeric powder, the Malwani masala powder and salt. Make a paste of this with few drops of lime and little water.
Step 3: Mix the Bombay duck pieces well in this paste. Let this mixture marinate for half an hour.
Step 4: After marinating, again drain excess water using the large strainer.
Step 5: Slowly add some rice flour to the marinated mixture. Mix well.
Step 6: Take a pan and add few teaspoons of oil for shallow frying. Let the pan heat for about 3-4 minutes. Now, shallow fry the fish until one side turns reddish brown. Change sides and let the other side of the fish fry until it becomes reddish brown too. Do not allow the fish to stick to the pan. Fry for about five minutes.
Step 7: Serve the fried fish with a dash of lemon and sprinkle it with freshly cut coriander leaves. This dish can also be served with a salad of chopped slices of cucumber, tomato and carrot as a side dish. The dish usually acts like a seafood appetizer.
NOTE: The Malwani Masala is available only in Maharashtra, India. This powder can be prepared at home after grinding the above mentioned core ingredients* together in a mixer.
The story behind this recipeIn 1980 Mumbai, India, the idea of romance was very simple. “I didn't need roses to be wooed,” my mother would always quip reminiscing moments of how she met my dad. Their idea of a date was a walk by the crowded local beach - holding hands all along.
They got married a year later, much to the quiet hesitance of their families. And they had their reasons. She was a physiotherapist and he, an aspiring cinematographer. She grew up in a nuclear family and he had six siblings. She was vegetarian and he was not! The plot seemed straight out of a Bollywood movie.
In my mother’s new household, her mother-in-law aka Amma tossed a ham omelet for her new daughter-in-law. My mother politely declined, for she had never seen a dead animal on her breakfast table! Amma did not express her disapproval but she gave her famous cold stare. And many more followed.
The Sunday lunch was the only opportunity left for my mother to shine - a time when 13 members got together in the living room of the matchbox-sized apartment to have a nice meal. ‘Bombay duck’ was the staple food; the sole reason being it was affordable and utterly delicious.
My mother volunteered to cook the Naidu family’s famous recipe: Fried ‘Bombay duck’. “You could make something vegetarian,” my grandma said.
“She packed my lunch every day and never refrained me from working. It was my turn,” mother told me.
They woke up at 6am. And as it marinated, they got talking. “She is most talkative while cooking but all this while, she never had a listener,” mother said, adding, “While preparing the masala, she lamented how she hated the term ‘housewife’. We are homemakers, aren't we? Underpaid, overworked but deeply content.”
It was lunch time. And fried fish was served. What's the secret ingredient, someone asked. “Love,” Amma said, as she looked at my mother and winked. My mom had found her new family.
34 years later, though we are geographically dispersed, the recipe gets four generations to Mumbai on one dinner table.
