Hilsa Huggi

Pushpa Prabhu

I can remember eating Hilsa Huggi as a kid. I enjoyed the masala a whole bunch but though the Hilsa tasted delicious I didnt enjoy it so much because of the zillion bones that each morsel had. But the masala, the flavour was outstanding. It's one of my mum's top 10 recipes.

This has been a recent attempt of mine and even though I havent used Hilsa the dish has been enjoyed by the friends we've served it too. Ramesh has liked it both the times that I've made it but then he hasnt had the original. I need to get him to try it at home so that he has good benchmark to judge my efforts against. I havent been satisfied so far. Will see mama make it this time when I go home and shall add any tips that I pick up.

I used a kilo of King Fish (Surmai) instead of Hilsa. Apparently it is a sea fish. As it was a large fish, I could easily get it deboned.

Ingredients
1kg fish, 1 coconut grated, 12-15 whole red chillies, one tspn of imli, 10-15pcs of Tirphal (must have ingredient), 2 tspns of salt

Method
Put the Tirphals in some water in a small bowl and set aside, cut the fish into approx 1 and 1/2" cubes, apply haldi and salt liberally and set aside, grind the coconut, red chillis, imli, salt into a rough paste, add the water in the tirphal bowl while grinding, pound the wet tirphal seeds and add to the masala, wash the salt and haldi off the fish pieces and mix in with the masala in a bowl.

Set the oven to 200deg or cake baking strength :P, take a oven proof dish and spread a thin layer of oil to prevent the huggi from sticking to its surface, spread the fish and masala evenly in a single layer, add in the remaining masala into the gaps, put in oven for half an hour, check after 20 mins to see that the top is not getting too dark, if it is and the fish is cooked (feel with fork) shut oven and leave inside.

Serve Hot.