Today i am back with a very popular and tasty Goan fish dish..."Sola Bangde" or "Kokum Mackerels"...'sola' means kokum in konkani and 'bangde' means mackerels...Mackerel is one of the famous and common fish in Goa.This dish is specially made only of mackerel fish,any other fish cannot be used as the taste will differ a lot...This dish is called kokum mackrels as kokum is the main ingredient here, as kokum gives this dish a nice tanginess and gives it very nice taste and flavour.Its one of my favourite mackerel dish...its been made at my place from many generations and even i learned it.
INGREDIENTS:
8-10 fresh Mackerels(medium size)
8-10 dry kokum kernels
2 cups freshly grated coconut
6 green chilllis
6 dry red chillis
1 tea spoon tamrind pulp
2 inch ginger pieces
14-20 garlic cloves
1 tea spoon turmeric powder
1 table spoon corainder leaves
2-3 table spoon oil
salt
METHOD:
Clean the mackerels properly.Do not make pieces of them, just cut head and tail part and clean inside stomach.Make 3-4 slits on each mackerel.Medium size mackerels are perfect for this dish.Clean them and keep them aside.
Grind together freshly grated coconut,green and dry red chillis,tamrind pulp,ginger,garlic cloves,turmeric powder and salt using very little water.Do not grind it very fine, but it should be coursely grinded to dry paste using very little water.
Now apply this paste to the cleaned mackerels and keep for marination for 1 hour.After the marination time is complete heat a wide pan, preferebly non stick.Add 2-3 table spoon of oil in it.Place marinated mackerels one by one in one layer in it.Pour the remaining marination paste over it.Make 2-3 pieces of each kokum kernel and place them evenly all over the mackerel layer.
Close and cook it on low flame for 15-20 mins.They should not be turned while cooking, so they should be cooked on low flame and cooking n low flame also enhances the flavour of kokum.When they are cooked garnish them with corainder leaves and serve them hot.
They taste best when served with rice and fish curry.
Preparation Time: 30 mins
NOTE: Use of fresh mackerels for this dish is very important, as it gives the right taste.
If you do not get dry kokum kernels you can sprinkle some amount of kokum extract on them while cooking.It wont give the same taste as kernels, but you can use it if you do not get kokum kernels.
Use amount of green and dry red chillis according to your taste,but add equal amount of green and dry red chillis.
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