In konkani cuisine,the staple food is rice and fish.We mostly east fish like pomfret,mackerel,king fish ,sardines,prawns crabs and most delicate lady fish.Today i am here with a typical GSB fish curry called "Piyyav panna ghashi or Ambat" ,We Mangalorean GSB's love to eat fish almost on daily basis .make this ambat with only fresh water fish or white meat fish,they are lady fish/nogli in konkani/kane in tulu,silver fish/mothyale in konkani/bolanjeer in tulu,pomfret/sungruti in konkani /maanji in tulu and sometimes i do make this with king fish or mackerels or crabs but i prefer to make it little spicy by adding 3-4 more chillies.Vegetarians can try this ambat with mixed vegetable or with the fresh peas or gherkin and potatoes too.
Ingredients- 500 gms Lady fish/kane/nogli
- 4-5 Whole dried red chillies,roasted
- 1 small marble sized tamarind
- 5-6 Shallots/sambar onion/red onions,finely chopped
- 1tbsp Coconut oil
- 3 cups Freshly grated coconut
- Clean and cut each Fish into 2-3 pieces depending on the size.
- Apply salt to taste and sprinkle some turmeric and keep aside.
- Roast the dry red chillies in a tsp of coconut oil till they turn crisp.
- Now grind coconut,roasted red chillies and tamarind to smooth paste with 2 cups of water and our masala paste is ready.
- Take a wide vessel to cook the fish.Add all the ground masala paste and add some more water to adjust the consistency of the gravy.The gravy should be nice creamy and thick.Then add salt and bring it to a boil.
- Lastly, add the fish pieces. Cook until fish is cooked. It takes hardly 5 minutes to cook this fish. Stir carefully so that the fish pieces remain intact because this lady fish is very delicate. so just one or two boil is more than enough to cook.
- Now prepare the tempering.Take a small panna/tempering pan,heat coconut oil and add chopped shallots and saute till they turn to nice and brown colour.
- Pour this over the fish and serve hot with steaming hot rice.