You Need:
- 1 1/2 cups grated coconut
- 1/2 cup dry fish (shredded)
- 1 tbsp tamarind juice
- 1 tsp oil
- 4 dry red chillies
- 1/2 tsp cumin (jeera)
- 1/4 tsp turmeric (haldi)
Note: Instead of the above 3 ingredients (red chillies, jeera and haldi) you can use 2tbsp Bafat powder to which garam masala (cinnamon, cloves etc) has not been added.
1. Dry fish can be terribly salty – so soak it in lots of water for at least 6-8 hours (or more if you want your chutney less salty). Throw away the soaked water. Carefully slice off the skin (if present) and make thin slices (assuming you are using a chunky piece of fish)
2. Heat 1 tsp oil a tawa and gently fry the fish till it is lightly roasted. Remove & shred the roasted pieces.
3. Use a dry grinding jar of a mixer grinder to grind all the ingredients to a coarse paste – it must be coarse enough to feel the grated coconut – yet well blended so that all the ingredients get incorporated and release the flavours.
4. Serve with rice or ‘pez’ (konji made out of brown rice) – its the best meal ever!
Soma says
Being a Bengali of East bengal (Bangladesh origin), I love dried fish (not all though). We have a very similar thing made from dried bombay duck. It's delicious. I haven't cooked it but love to eat when my mom makes it. I carried it all the way from India to US and had it for few days…it was heaven. I have some very very small shrimp (barely shrimp)and I'll make something like your fish chutney with a little bit of a variation. Thanks for the recipe…it looks mouthwtering.
Shireen Sequeira says
Thanks so much for writing in Soma! It is interesting to know about your food culture and so many things are similar amongst seafood lovers isn't it? Well, in Mangalore we get different sizes of shrimp so I think you can go ahead and make this chutney and I'm sure you'll love it. Just make sure you don't pulse it for too long in the mixer grinder. You can check out my shrimp chutney recipe here https://www.ruchikrandhap.com/2011/08/dried-shrimp-chutney-galmbyachi-chetni.html
helen says
what about the curry recipe? would you mind sharing your culinary skills??
Shireen Sequeira says
Hi Helen,
Not unless I find a good recipe that is tried & tested first and I deem worthy to be posted on the blog. I have been sharing my culinary skills through my blog for the past 9 years 🙂 So yes of course! All in due course my friend 🙂 In the meanwhile please try the chutney recipe and let me know how you liked it.
Nelson D'Cruz says
Hi Shireen, I was under the impression that this was called “Kharen chi chutney”, indicating that it was made with salted dried shark which is called “kharen”. …… but I may be wrong.
Shireen Sequeira says
Hi Nelson,
You are right…when we talk abt salted fish we call it Kahren and when we talk about the chutney made of salted fish we call it ‘karyachi chutney’