Silver Carp in Yogurt Sauce (Doi Mach)

Doi Maach -I

Doi Maach tastes best when prepared from rahu or similar fish of the carp family. Choose a rich, meaty fish, like a full-grown 2 kg to 4 kg carp and pick slices from close to the upper fin, avoiding the softer flesh of the underbelly. Slice into 1 ½ inch to 2 inch pieces.

Ingredients:
Four slices of fish
Turmeric paste (enough to smear the fish with)
Salt
Half a teaspoon of cumin seeds
Three cloves
Three green cardamoms
Half an inch stick of cinnamon
Two or three green chillis split from the top
A couple of bay leaves
Half a tea cup of sour curd, whipped with a pinch of salt and half a teaspoon of sugar
Mustard Oil
A cup of water

Process: Spread about half a teaspoon of turmeric paste or powder and as much salt over the fish and rub in the marinade lightly. Heat about a tablespoon and a half of mustard oil in a pan and fry the fish slices lightly. Keep the fish aside. Put green chillis into the pan and before they begin to sputter, throw in the cummin seeds, cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves. When the spices begin to cook and the aroma begins to tickle your nostrils, pour in a cup of cold water and let it come to a boil. Dip the fish slices into the sauce. Turn off the burner and pour the whipped curd into the pan. Serve hot with steamed rice.

Ingredients:Doi Maach – 2 (Bibi’s version)

A teaspoon of turmeric power
Half a teaspoon of chilly powder
A teaspoon of flour (maida)
A cup of sour curd whipped with salt (and a little sugar if the curd is too sour)
Ghee (enough to cook the fish with)
A couple of bay leaves
Two or three green cardamoms
Two or three cloves
Half inch stick of cinnamon
Two or three red chilli
Four slices of fish

Process: Beat the curd with the turmeric, red chilli powder, a pinch of salt and a bit of flour. Marinate the fish slices in the mixture for a while (may be a quarter of an hour). Heat ghee or white oil in a pan and add the bay leaves, cardamom, cloves, cinnamon stick and the red chillis. Lower the marinated fish into the pan, when the spices begin to cook (and you can always tell from the nose tingling aroma). Cook over low heat, till the ghee begins to rise to the surface and the fish is cooked. Serve with hot, steamed rice.

Doi Mach-3

What You Need
Fish(Rohu or Rui) – 8 pieces large
Onion ~ grind to paste about 2 medium ~ about 5-7 tbsp heaped
Ginger ~ 2 - 3 tsp paste
Yogurt ~ 1/2 cup
Turmeric Powder ~ ½ tsp
Red Chilli Powder ~ ½ tsp
Green Chillies ~ 8 cut in slits

Whole Garam Masala
Elaichi or Cardamom~ 5/6
Laung or Cloves~ 5/6
TejPata or BayLeaves~ 3
Dalchini or Cinnamon Sticks ~ 1” stick

Salt
Oil
Sugar ~ 1tsp

How I Do It

Clean the fish pieces and lightly rub with salt and turmeric. Keep aside for half an hour
Grind the onion to a fine paste.
Heat Oil in Kadai/Frying Pan.
When the oil is sufficiently hot, add the fish and lightly fry till light golden. Take out the fish and keep aside. If you are a fastidious cook you would put them on a kitchen towel to drain the oil.
In a bowl add 1/2 cup of yogurt/curd and add about 1/3 cup of water and beat till its smooth in consistency. Add to this 1-2 tsp of ginger paste, 2 tbsp of onion paste, ½ tsp of red chilli powder, a little of turmeric powder for the color and beat.
Heat Oil now for cooking the gravy
Add the coarsely pounded whole garam masala
When they start sputtering add the remaining onion paste
Add about 1 tsp of sugar and fry the onion paste till the oil separates and the onion turns a light brown
Add about 1 tsp of ginger paste and the green chillies and sauté well
Now take the Kadai/Frying Pan off the heat and give it a couple of minutes to cool
Add the beaten yogurt/curd and mix with the masala. If you add the yogurt directly when the utensil is on heat the curd may curdle so you need to do this
Put back the Kadai/Frying Pan on heat.
Add salt as required .Add about 1/2 - 2/3 cup of water at this point. depending on how much gravy you need you might need more or less water.
Simmer on low heat till the gravy comes to a boil
Add the fried fish pieces, they should partially submerge in the gravy. Let it simmer till the excess water dries off and the gravy is thick, smooth and coats all the fish pieces. The texture of the gravy should be silky smooth because of all that yogurt.Note: the gravy will not dry off totally but will be thick and not watery
Garnish with raisins if you want
Add a tsp of Ghee if you are lean or your guests are and you don’t have to worry about mundane things like your blood lipid level or you just don’t care and want your doi maach to taste just right.