As the name suggests, this recipe originates from Goa. The locals love fresh fish and they love chilli. This simple Goan fried fish is the traditional bangda recheado. It uses mackerel, a strongly flavoured fish that works well with the chilli.
The recipe is simple. It is just fish, stuffed and marinated with recheado masala paste, then fried. Recheado dishes are distinctly from the Portuguese influence in this part of India. It is a hot and tangy preparation.
You can buy recheado paste from Indian grocers, but frankly, it doesn’t compare to making your own. Our recipe for recheado paste is straightforward and requires little effort. The spices and chillies need to soak overnight, so if you want to make this dish using your own masala, then you need to start this a day before.
This recipe calls for four whole mackerel fish. You should ask the fishmonger to scale and clean the fish for you. Each fish should weigh around 200g, including the head. If such fish cannot be obtained, then Spanish mackerel fillets can be substituted. You should allow for 4 fillets at 150g each.
Serve this with plain rice and kachumber.
the recipe
ingredients
- 4 mackerels
- 200 g recheado masala - see recipe
- 3 tbsp vegetable oil
to serve
- 1 lemon - cut into wedges
- 1 tbsp coriander leaves
instructions
- Rinse the fish, and make some incisions across the thick part of the fish.
- Stuff the paste into the body cavity and work some paste into the incisions. Make sure you have coated the entire fish with this paste. Cover, and set aside to marinate for one hour, refrigerating if necessary.
- After the marination period, allow fish to come up to room temperature before starting the next steps if you have refrigerated them.
- Place the oil in a shallow pan, and once oil is quite hot shallow fry the stuffed mackerels until they are golden brown on both sides. This will take around three minutes per side. Be very careful to not overcook the fish.
- Remove the fish from the pan, and place it onto absorbent paper for two minutes to allow excess oil to drain. The fish can be slightly underdone when you remove them from the pan. They will continue cooking from the residual heat whilst you drain the oil.
to serve
- Serve the recheado mackerels with the lemon wedges and coriander sprinkled over the top.
notes
- You should wear gloves while stuffing the fish. Not only will the paste stain your skin, but the chilli content will be hard to wash away.
- The times do not include making your own recheado masala.
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