Fish Maheqalya
Hyderabad does not boast of many seafood preparations. However come rainy season or the winter, we hyderabadis love to prepare a few very special close to heart dishes that are very specific to the Hyderabadi trpe of cooking. Today I am writing about one such fish curry. One of my most favorite fish curries, Machli ka Maheqalya, never fails to remind me of my grandmother. She used to prepare the most delicious Maheqalya ever.
Red Snapper Steaks
I usually prepare a mutton maheqalya or a fish maheqalya. Maheqalya is basically a sauce made with a range or aromatic spices and seasonings. It is a regional recipe from the city of Hyderabad usually prepared by Muslims. If you do not like fish or mutton, you can add add boiled eggs to the sauce to make it ando ka maheqalya, or you can also add sautéed bitter gourd rounds into the gravy for karelon ka maheqalya, or just opo squash pieces for kaddu ka maheqalia.
A perfect accompaniment to Maheqalya is Khadi dal and rice. My Ammi used to prepare and serve this for lunch or dinner usually on Jummah during my childhood.
Machli ka Maheqalya ~ Fish Maheqalya
Ingredients:
White/Yellow Onion – 2, large, sliced thick
Groundnut/Moomphalli – 3 tbsp, ground into a fine powder
Dry Desiccated Coconut – 3 tbsp
White poppy seeds/Khuskhus – 1 tbsp
Sesame seeds/Till – 3 tbsp
Tomatoes – 3, large, red and ripe, roughly chopped
Canola oil – 4 tbsp
Curry leaves – 1 or 2 fresh sprigs
Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds – 1/4 tsp
Dried red chillies/Baghaar ki mirch – 3, each broken into two
Dry Roasted Coriander seed powder – 1 tsp
Ginger-Garlic paste – 1 tbsp
Red chilli powder – 1 1/2 tsp
Salt – 2 tsp
Turmeric – 1/4 tsp
Tamarind paste – 2 tbsp
Red Snapper steaks – 5-6 steaks (I had a medium sized red snapper cut into steaks) (preferred fish are rohu and murrel which are easily available in India, or you can also use salmon (wild) or king fish or any that you like with or without bones)
Cilantro/Kothmir – 1 tbsp, chopped finely
Machli ka Maheqalya ~ Fish Maheqalya
Method:
1. Take a large heavy bottom non-stick skillet on medium heat, and pour a tablespoon of oil into it. As it gets warm, add the sliced onions and a teaspoon of salt. Mix well and half cover with the lid. After 2-3 minutes, give a good stir to the onions, add 1/4 cup of water, and again half cover it with lid. Keep repeating this until the onions are all soft and browned evenly. Remove the pan from heat, and let them cool down. Once cooled, add the chopped tomatoes and the caramelized onions into a blender container or food processor and blend till pureed smooth adding a few drops of water if necessary, just to aid in the process. Keep aside.
2. Put a small non-stick frying pan on medium heat and dry-roast the groundnuts, sesame seeds, coriander seeds, shredded coconut, khuskhus each individually without oil till they are golden brown in colour. Do not burn them. Remove them into a cup (you can dry roast a handful of almonds and cashewnuts and grind them together along if you want a richer gravy). Once cool, grind them all together or individually until very fine. Make sure the obtained spice powder is very fine.
3. Take a large non-stick heavy bottomed saucepan and add a tablespoon of oil to it and put it on medium heat, add oil and keep it on medium high heat. Add cumin seeds, dried red chillies, curry leaves and fenugreek seeds to the oil and let them splutter. Now add the onion+tomato paste to it and cover the lid immediately for 3-5 minutes and remove the saucepan from heat, so that the aroma of the tempered oil with spices gets absorbed by the onion mixture. Remove the lid, put the saucepan back on stove and add the ginger-garlic pastes to it and stir to mix it all completely. Add the spice powder which we prepared earlier, the red chilli powder, salt and turmeric and stir it well. Lower the heat to medium low and let cook until it starts leaving oil. Pour in about 3 cups of water, and add the tamarind paste and give it a stir. Close the lid and increase the heat and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat to medium and gently lower the fish steaks into the gravy. Let it cook half covered for 15 minutes until the fish is done. Garnish with chopped cilantro. Serve warm.
Luv,
Mona
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
January 22nd, 2010 at 6:24 pm
Oh gosh!!these looks so mouth-watering.Give me some lemon rice and I will finish that bowl in seconds:)
January 22nd, 2010 at 8:12 pm
This looks and sounds so delicious, Mona! I am always looking for fish recipes and, since I love Hyderabadi cuisine very much, I will try this soon- along with khadi masoor ki dal aur chaval- looks like a great combo!
I would like to ask a question though: what are the differences between the words “mahekhalya” and “salan”? Maybe “salan” is the general word for “gravy/sauce”, and mahekhalya is a special formula? Forgive my asking, but I am very curious about such things.
Pelicano, you can call Mahekhalya and Qorma are types of curries. In Mahekhalya, the gravy is made with masalas and tamarind, with no use of yogurt; whereas in the gravy of Qorma, masalas and yogurt is used. So because of these differences it is named differently. ~Mona
January 22nd, 2010 at 9:48 pm
scrumptious recipe! It looks and I think it tastes like fish pulusu, tamarind based gravy, we don’t add peanuts and poppy seeds to pulusu though. I tasted mehekhalya when I attend a cooking class in hyderabad…
January 23rd, 2010 at 12:56 am
wow looks so mouthwatering.
January 23rd, 2010 at 2:07 am
Dear Mona,
What luck! You’ve just posted another fish recipe! And this fish is available here….I had a question….Usually, Hyderabadi calls for the grinding of tiny seeds, like sesame, and coriander, etc, etc…What king of grinder best achieves this? I’ve heard of some people using coffee grinders…does that work?Here, in Japan, we have some sesame seed grinders too…
Since most of us are away from India, and lack the luxury of a stone grinder, if you can inform, I’ll be highly obliged.
best wishes for a great year…
Amarnath, I have heard some of my friends use coffee/spice grinders to achieve a fine powder of the spices. But I have used ‘Magic Bullet’ for this purpose since I came to Canada and I am always satisfied with the results. ~Mona
January 23rd, 2010 at 9:26 am
ASAK Mona,
Thats lovely!
May Allah reward you with His bounty…Ameen.
JazakAllahu khair!
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:13 pm
My all time fave fish dish!!! Jazakillah khair for posting.
January 23rd, 2010 at 3:33 pm
My hubby loves mahekhalya and I have yet to figure all the stuff that goes in the makings of mahekhalya.inshALlah will try your recipe.
January 23rd, 2010 at 11:32 pm
Mona, Thanks for visiting my blog. You have an amazing blog and a very huge recipe collection. Will be definitely coming here often.
January 24th, 2010 at 8:55 am
Mona
Thanks for sharing a wonderful recipe! As usual the ingredients that make up the curry as so poetic together.
January 24th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
Totally a new recipe to me. I have lived in Hyderabad for most pat of my life but never tasted them, probably they do not serve them at restaurants. In our parts fish curry is usually tamarind based.
January 24th, 2010 at 7:47 pm
Oh gosh Mona, I have to cook some fish curry soon! This is so tempting.
January 24th, 2010 at 9:07 pm
assk mona
very nice recipe.my moms usually makes fish curry like ur recipe. and my mother in law makes fish khatta saalan or fish meetha saalan . i like all 3 recipes, my fav fried fish.
i miss live freshwater marel fish we use to get in hyd.
i always prefer live fish, and we get live catfish at ur place.
i need to know if u want to cut fish big round pieces into half, how do i do it. like in ur pict . i try with knife but it gets messy.
i prefer eating this curry next day bcos all flavors get mixed well.
tc
rizruby
Rizruby, I usually ask the butcher to cut the fish into steaks or fillets. ~Mona
January 25th, 2010 at 5:07 am
Hi Mona,
The dish is very familiar to me and we usually call it as fish masala in hyderabad.sometimes we use the same ingredients for the mutton also.Good Luck.
Bye Mona.
January 25th, 2010 at 7:31 pm
I don’t cook or eat fish enough and it always looks so delicious, yummy recipe 🙂
February 2nd, 2010 at 4:58 pm
I can imagine how good it tastes just looking at the ingredients you have used..can’t wait to try it… I have a query Can I use fresh coconut instead of the dessicated ones..
Radhika, you can use fresh grated coconut, but I have always only used dessicated coconut, or powdered coconut cream, or coconut milk in my cooking. ~Mona
February 9th, 2010 at 5:17 am
thanks for the quick reply…
February 12th, 2010 at 11:38 am
Mona
After reading all the ingredients in this dish, I was convinced that I had to try it asap
April 7th, 2010 at 10:50 am
monaji,
thanks for sharing these wonderful recipes. i would like to share with you some of mine too. how do i do it? another thing is please try & get the recipe for telugu chicken, prawn or mutton pickle. they really used to make it wonderful. let me know where to upload the recipes please. i am a foodie like you. thanks
Arun, you can email me the recipes at zaiqa.mona@gmail.com ~Mona
September 15th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Thank you for this recipe. I made it tonight for some guests and it was wonderful and so balanced. I am very grateful.
May 14th, 2011 at 7:36 am
Dear Mona,
Can you tell me the fish quantity in weight please?
Thanks,
Aseem