Shark Fish Scramble / Sura Puttu

Shark fish scramble is a mildy spiced fish recipe. Both kids and aged people can have this dish as it does not have any bone pieces. Its a very popular South Indian recipe made with shark fish which is Sura Meen in Tamil. This recipe can also made with King fish or any other variety which has less bones. This is my favourite non-vegetarian dish.

Ingredients:

Shark fish – 1/2 kg

Onion – 2 nos

Ginger – 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Garlic – 2 tbsp (finely chopped)

Green chilli – 3 or 4 nos (finely chopped)

Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves – 1 sprig

Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp

Uradh dhal – 1/2 tsp

Oil – 2 tbsp

Salt – to taste

Method:

Steaming the fish:

1. Rinse and Clean the shark fish well with turmeric powder and salt.
2. In a steamer plate, arrange the shark fish slices and steam it for about 10 mins ( I used idli steamer)
3. Once the shark fish gets well cooked, remove it from the plate. (You can see the color and texture of the fish gets changed once cooked)
4. Now peel the skin of the fish and also remove the centre bone of the fish. Discard both.
5. Now take of the excess water from the steamed fish by squeezing the fish with your hand. Removing excess water gives a perfect consistency to the dish.
6. Take the deskinned and deboned steamed fish in a bowl. Add little salt and turmeric powder.
7. Mix them well by shredding the fish with you hand. (The consistency at this stage resembles the rice puttu we prepare normaly)

Preparation:

1. In a heavy bottomed kadai, heat oil and let the mustard seeds splutter.Then add the urad dhal and wait till it turns golden.
2. Now add in the chopped onions, chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies. Saute them till the onion turns slightly transparent.
3. Mix in the steamed and shredded fish mixture to the kadai and mix well.
4. In a medium flame allow the scrambled fish to get roasted. The right consistency is that, the fish puttu should be so light and dry. Check for salt and add if needed.
5. Add the curry leaves finally and give them a quick stir in a low flame.
6. Tasty Shark fish scramble is ready to be served.

Note:

• Instead of steaming the fish in idli steamer, you can add the shark fish pieces in a pan of boiling water and cook for about 5 to 6 mins until you notice the change in color and texture of the fish. After that follow steps 4 and 5 in the ‘Steaming the fish’  and the remaining procedure.
• Cooking fish in boiling water makes the fish absorb more water. So that we have to squeeze the excess water and we lose the flavor of the fish. So I recommend to follow cooking of fish in idli steamer as the fish has less water content in it which leads to a perfect fluffy fish scramble.
• Especially for this dish, chopped ginger, garlic and green chillies gives a great flavor. So try to avoid ginger-garlic paste.