Bolanjir Ghassi - Silver Fish Curry

If you notice, the base for almost all Mangalorean curries are the same, its just that what is added into the curry which makes all the difference. Bolanjir ghassi/and  yeti ghassi/prawn/shrimp curry has the same curry ..but still there is lot of difference in taste.

I personally am not a big fan of Silver fish, remember having a bad experience long back....Mom used to fry Silver fish and my dad and brother are used to eating the whole fish along with the bones and I tried doing that (I was in that phase of life where....if my brother can do it....so can I)...and I think you can guess what happened after that.......

I still don't eat bolanjir meen/ silver fish ...but I thoroughly enjoy the gravy, and my mom likes bolanjir meen a lot.

Ingredients
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• 1 kg bolanjir meen / silver fish
• 2 onions(finely chopped)
• 2 tomatoes(finely chopped)
• 2 tsp roasted coriander
• 1/4 roasted cumin
• 15 roasted peppercorns
• 1/4roasted methi
• 1 tsp turmeric powder
• tamarind (little bigger than marble)
• 5 garlic (with skin)
• 1/2 inch ginger (optional)
• 1 cup coconut
• 10 roasted red chilli(long)
• 5 roasted red chilli (small)
• salt to taste
• 3 tbsp oil

Method

1. Clean bolanjir meen/ Silver fish. Keep aside.
2. Grind coconut,red chillies,coriander seeds, cumin seeds,peppercorn,methi seeds,tamarind,garlic,ginger and turmeric powder into a very fine and thick paste (add little water)
3. Place a vessel on medium high flame and add oil,when oil is hot add the chopped onion and fry till onion turns golden brown,now add chopped tomatoes and stir,add salt (its helps in melting the tomatoes).Cook till the tomatoes melt and resembles a puree.
4. Now add the ground masala and cook till the oil seperates, stir often.
5. Throw in the cleaned bolanjir meen/silver fish  and stir till well combined.Add 1 cup water or to required consistency and bring the gravy to boil.
6. Adjust salt and cook till the fish is done.
7. Serve with rice,dosa or chappati

Here ,in Bangalore..the fish mongers clean any fish you want except bolanjir. Maybe because its very small ans cleaning it consumes a lot of time. I have put up a video of my mom cleaning the fish.