This is not your regular karahi recipe. This one has a slight twist to the traditional version. I know all of us have that “special” karahi recipe that was taught to us by our mothers. A recipe that has been passed on from our great grand-mothers to their children and so on. A family secret recipe that people don’t like to share or talk about, if you ever make a mistake of asking them “what’s in there”, they would simply shrug and blabber. So here’s to all those who don’t share their awesome recipes, “You can keep your secret recipe, we don’t need it anymore because this baby is better than yours, damn right, it’s better than yours” :p
Fish – More than Just Delicious
It has been scientifically proven that eating fish once a week can help improve your immune system. It is good for your heart, skin and overall well-being. Fish contains Omega-3 fatty acids that contain nutrients that help with learning and concentration. It’s good for your body as well as your brain (how small it may be), helps in weight loss, helps regulate blood sugar hence a good choice for diabetics.
“The vitamin D in fish helps absorb calcium keeping your bones strong. Additionally fish is full of calcium and phosphorus and is a fantastic source of minerals like zinc, iron, iodine, magnesium and potassium. Potassium is needed for your muscle, nerves and balanced fluids in your body. Eating fish has also been shown to reduce the risk of heart disease, stroke, depression and mental decline due to ageing.” Courtesy: Benefits of eating fishIt has also been reported that people with asthmatic and skin problems or sensitive skin issues experienced lesser allergies when they consumed fish twice a week. So, serving fish can be a delicious way of improving your family’s overall health.
All the mores reasons to eat fish more and more.
Make Friends with ‘Change’
We could all use some change every now and then. Make a habit of changing, re-arranging and shifting things from one place to another for a little change, in your house and in your mind. Change can help you breath, show the true value of things. More importantly change will either make you feel better or go back to the original position and appreciate things even more. And this fish karahi recipe will definitely be an edition to your weekly menu planner, guaranteed. I just realized that I have used the word “things” so many times in this short paragraph, hehehehehe let’s say it again, “things”. :p
Anatomy of Karahi
There are a couple of things that define the “main” ingredients or flavors in a particular dish. For example, the biryani masala for chicken Biryani or fish biryani would be the same, how to handle chicken pieces or fish pieces may vary but the basic spices will be the same. Because they can not change, they define and differentiate biryani in a particular way from the others. Likewise there are a couple of Karahi spices all well. They define a Karahi and if you add those spices to any meat, you will still get that karahi feel to it. And without further ado those spices are dry roasted whole coriander (sabat dhania) and whole cumin seeds (zeera, black or white). These spices combined with a little bit of fresh coriander, tomatoes, slitted green chillies julian ginger and finely chopped garlic gives any dish ‘Karahi’ feel.
You can use the same recipe with minor tweaks for chicken karahi as well. All thanks to Homemade Karahi Masala.
- Fish---------------------------------- 1 kg, 1 inch fillet pieces or
- chicken------------------------------ 16 pieces Karahi cut
- Corn flour---------------------------- ¼ th cup
- Flour---------------------------------- ½ cup
- Chilled water------------------------- as needed to make paste
- Tomatoes----------------------------- 6 roughly chopped
- Whole Cumin (zeera)--- ------------2 tsp
- Whole coriander (dhania) --------- 2 tsp
- Salt------------------------------------- ½ tsp or to taste
- Red chilie powder-------------------- 2 tsp
- Turmeric powder (haldi)------------ ½ tsp
- Green chillies------------------------- 2 slitted, de-seeded
- Lemon juice--------------------------- 5 tbsp
- Fresh coriander (dhania)----------- 3 tbsp finely chopped
- Ginger---------------------------------- 1 inch piece julian
- Garlic paste--------------------------- 2 tsp
- Ginger paste-------------------------- 1 tsp
- Oil--------------------------------------- 1 cup (you can take out some of the oil when the fish karahi is done)
- Dry roast (bhoonofy) whole coriander and cumin seeds on your skillet or tawa. Set aside.
- Make a medium consistency batter with all-purpose flour, corn-flour and chilled water, season with salt to taste.
- Gently lift fish pieces, coat in this floury batter and deep fry on medium flame. Set aside.
- Gently heat oil in a pot, sautee ginger and garlic paste and throw in dry roasted whole coriander and cumin seeds.
- Give everything a good mix, cook for a further 30 seconds, pop in roughly chopped tomatoes, give it a good mix and cook till tomatoes are a wee bit tender, still chunky.
- Now add red chilli powder and salt to taste at this stage. Bhoonofy. You can add 2-3 tablespoons of water at this stage if the paste feels too dry.
- It's time to throw in slitted green chillies, julian ginger and fresh coriander, stir to mix.
- Oil will start to come on top and around the sides of the pot now, keep the flame low, and stir after a quick while to avoid that awful burnt taste.
- Once the masla is done, oil comes out, throw in the fried fish chunks, give everything a good-gentle mix, add 2-3 tsp of water and cook on low flame for 5-10 minutes.
- Lastly.stir in lemon juice.
- Garnish with julian ginger and fresh coriander.
- Your fish karahi is ready to served alive with naan or tandoori roti. 🙂
- For Chicken karahi
- For chicken karahi all the steps are the same, except the batter coating and deep frying one.
- Once you gently heat oil in a pot, sautee ginger and garlic paste and throw in dry roasted whole coriander and cumin seeds - add the chicken pieces, bhoonofy it, till chicken turn slight golden color and then throw in the roughly chopped tomatoes and so on.
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hi , what type of fish would u recommend for this recipe? i think cod is probably most easily accessible for me (i live in london)
I made this for dinner tonight & it was great. So much delicious and yummy.
( https://pakistanirecipesinurdu.wordpress.com/ ).
Thanks for sharing such a recipe.