Mashed Fish salad

Mashed Fish salad 

I dedicate this recipe to my friend Surupa. Strange thing is you never know when you meet a beautiful human being.  This dear lady is someone who has encouraged me ever since I became an active member of a culinary group and to be fair there was something in the way she would write her sentences which made me look forward to her encouragement. After a while we quite obviously became friends and that is when I actually was glad to know someone as elegant as this lady. From the few photographs of hers I did see she was a lady who was gorgeously beautiful but behind that beautiful face and amazingly volumnious hair there is a witty, charming , compassionate person and one who sees beauty. I didn't ever tell her but those posts of Claude Monet's work always puts a smile on my face. So she posts a few pictures of some gorgeous dishes she has had from a newly opened cafe this morning and just by looking at them I suddenly was struck with my idea for lunch .

I knew it had to be something creamy and fishy but the only fish I had was the humble 'Pona' a fresh water fish with tiny needle like bones all over. I have always hated this fish with a passion because it neither has that exotic taste of some varieties of fish we get in this Eastern part of the country such as 'Tangra' 'Parshe' 'Gule' etc nor is it boneless but I suddenly knew what I wanted so begun the hanging, the chopping, the pounding, the boiling the mashing and I must say the result was quite nice. And the best part is it is 100% healthy and completely low calorie in nature.

So here is what you need for 2 servings :-

150gm to 200gm fish with bones or boneless
6 to 7 garlic cloves
 1 inch ginger
4 green chilies
1 large tomato and 1 small tomato
1 medium sized potato
1 onion
Chives 1 tsp
1 tsp xtra Virgin Olive Oil
1 tsp vinegar (any kind will do , I used Apple cider vinegar)
Juice of lemon (About 2 tsp)
200gm curd hung
Salt
1 tsp freshly ground pepper

Hand the curd in a muslin cloth. Boil the potato. Cool it down and dice it in small pieces. Dice the tomatoes and onion and then chill them  .

Meanwhile skin the garlic and ginger and make a smooth paste of ginger garlic and green chilies and then boil the fish with as little water as possible along with the ginger garlic paste and 1 tsp vinegar . Boil the fish till all the water evaporates and the ginger garlic and chili stick to the fish . Now spread it out , discard the fat and mash it well with a fork and when cool enough to handle pick out the bones carefully. It will take a bit of time owing to the fine bones . Once the bones are taken out chill this as well. before serving simply add a squeeze of lemon juice to the fish and mash again and add it to the diced salad  and add salt, freshly ground pepper, extra virgin olive oil , chives and the hung curd and mix well and serve. It does taste quite nice.