Banting Pickled Fish

Easter is coming up soon, and what's Good Friday with no pickled fish?

The smell, to me, brings back memories of my childhood - and what better recipe to use than my grandmother's pickled fish recipe - just changing adapting it to make it banting friendly.

This is the final product:






This is a step by step guide on how it's made:


First, cut your fish into manageable pieces.



Mix your spices, garlic, lemon juice and water together.



Throw your fish in the spicy paste, and coat all over. Leave fish in mixture for 20 minutes.



Coat spicy fish in heba pap.



Let stand in fridge for 5 minutes.



Fry in batches until cooked through.



While fish is frying, slice onions as thin as you can.



Add whole spices to pot.



Add remaining ingredients and boil for 5 minutes.






Add onions and tumeric and cook for a further 5 minutes - make sure not to overcook the onions!



Remove the fish from the pain and place in a dish - ready for the pickling sauce.


.
At the end, add 2 tbsp heba pap to the pickling sauce - mix well, then spoon over the fish. Cover with clingwrap and allow to cool before refrigerating for a minimum of 24 hours.


Ingredients:

For the Fish Paste:

900g fish pieces (hake, snoek, yellow tail, dorado - any relatively firm fish)
4 tsp ground Coriander
1 tbs Turmeric
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp Paprika
1/4 tsp Chilli Powder (this is where your heat comes from. Change it as you see fit)
1.5 tsp Cumin ground
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Ground Fennel
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
3 tbs Lemon Juice
1 tbs Crushed Garlic or Garlic paste
Water to thin mixture into a paste

Oil for frying (I used holsum)
Heba Pap for coating

Method:

Mix all the above ingredients together and coat fish well.
Allow fish to stand for 20 minutes before coating with heba pap and frying in holsum until done.
Set aside.


For the pickling mixture:

Ingredients:

2 Cinnamon sticks
2 Bay Leaves
2 tbs Black Peppercorns
2 tbs Allspice/Pimento
1 tbs Cloves
3 tbs Coriander Whole
2 cups white spirit vinegar
1 cup water
1/2 cup sweetener (sweetness is really up to you. original recipe calls for 1 cup sugar)
3 large onions
2 tbs Heba pap
1 tbs turmeric

Method:

Mix spices, water, vinegar and sweetener in pot.
Boil for 5 minutes.
Add sliced onion and cook for 5 minutes.
Add heba pap.
Throw mixture over fried fish.

Allow mixture to cool before covering and refrigerating for a minimum of 24 hours.

Enjoy!