Dal with Dry Fish

Today I am posting a recipe for a dish I had after many years. My mother would make this when I was little. I remember back then, everyone who visited us from my native place bought a gift of dry fish. But as the concerns over high salt content grew, the use of dry fish at home diminished and it became a rarity. Since dry fish was made so rarely it would always be made either plain fried with a little oil or in a spicy masala, this version in dal was not made, so much so that my younger sister doesn’t have any memory of this dish.

This dish uses dried shark which is a common dry fish in the coastal belt.

Ingredients

1 cup arhar dal,

1 cup dry fish pieces (boneless),

1 ½ cup grated coconut,

2 tsp red chilli powder,

2 tsp powdered coriander seeds,

½ tsp powdered turmeric,

Salt to taste

Ingredients

Cook the dal with salt and turmeric.

Grind the coconut with red chilli powder and coriander powder into a fine paste. Add this to the cooked dal.

Wash the dry fish pieces well and add it to the dal-paste mixture. Bring to a boil and cook for another 5 minutes till a nice smell (this is really subjective I know many people who find the smell of dry fish abhorring) emanates.

Goes well with plain rice. I teamed it up with Kerala red rice.