Se Vir Jou Ma Daar's Vis

My Ma se daar's Vis is actually more appropriate seen as this is my Mom's recipe for Pickled Fish. I'm going to post it word for word from her hand written note - those who knew my Mom will have a quiet chuckle at how she tried to simplify it for person attempting to make this dish. I will make comments after regarding changes I've made (sorry Mom!).

This quantity of sauce is enough for a rice colander full of sliced onions and about 2-3 kg of fish (Do Not Ever try to make more sauce at a time as it usually comes out a flop)

1. Wash fish, dry on kitchen towel, sprinkle with salt. dip fish in plain flour and fry. Leave to cool.



2. Bring onions to the boil, drain in colander and leave to cool.

Sauce

Bring to the boil –
1 bottle Vinegar
2 Cups water

Dry Ingredients

2 heaped dessertspoons Curry
1 heaped teaspoon Turmeric
2 dessert spoons Sugar
1 teaspoon Salt
8 Peppercorns
2 Bay Leaves
1 teaspoon Pickled Fish Spice

Mix together in a small dish. When vinegar and water mixture boils add the dry ingredients and turn down the heat then simmer for about ten minutes (stirring often). Add the onions and simmer for a further five minutes.

Layer the fish in the dishes and cover each layer with onions. Pour the remaining sauce over the fish and onions. (There sauce and onions should be almost boiling hot when covering the fish).

Sorry Jean but I think my colander is perhaps a little bigger than yours was as I had WAY too many onions and I had to make on extra sauce (I ended up making 1 and a half portions of sauce). Oh, and it didn't flop ;-) .

Personally, I can't stand to fry anything in oil (besides of course onions when making most foods) - I think it's the Virgo in me - I hate the fat splashing everywhere and it's just so unhealthy. When I made this last year (my first attempt), I left buying this fish a little late so the only fish I could get was frozen hake which is already in a batter (Sea Harvest County Fry) & it worked really well so this year I just decided to go the same route - it may take longer as it needs to go in the oven and it is, of course, a more expensive but hey - it suites me better! I used 6 boxes which are 400g.

Mom used to use Cartwright's Medium Curry Powder but I like a stronger sauce and was given a hint my a Malay woman in Pick 'n Pay who suggested a combination of Mother-In-Law and 11 in 1. I used 2 heaped dessertspoons of Mother-In-Law and 1 heaped dessert spoon of 11 in 1. I could not for the life of me find Pickled Fish Spice so used Pickling Spice instead. I doubled up on that too and used 2 teaspoons. I also used more bay leaves & didn't bother to count the pepper corns.

As with all recipes, it's all about our own tastes so you need to decide for yourself how strong you'd like it to be. I tried a little piece this morning and I think it's even better than last years batch. Can't wait for Friday!!