Cape Malay Pickled Fish

  4.5 – 10 reviews  • Seafood

The bones of this succulent smoked turkey will actually fall off. Keep it in the oven until it is completely done for deliciousness that will fall off the bone. Delicious!

Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 25 mins
Additional Time: 1 day 30 mins
Total Time: 1 day 1 hr 25 mins
Servings: 12

Ingredients

  1. ½ cup vegetable oil for frying
  2. 3 pounds cod fillets, cut into 2 to 3 ounce portions
  3. salt to taste
  4. 2 large onions, peeled and sliced into rings
  5. 2 cloves garlic, chopped
  6. 1 red chile pepper, seeded and sliced lengthwise
  7. 3 large bay leaves
  8. 8 whole black peppercorns
  9. 4 whole allspice berries
  10. 2 cups red wine vinegar
  11. ½ cup water
  12. ½ cup packed brown sugar, or to taste
  13. 2 tablespoons curry powder
  14. 2 teaspoons ground cumin
  15. 2 teaspoons ground coriander
  16. 1 teaspoon ground turmeric

Instructions

  1. Gather all ingredients.
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  3. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Season fish with salt and fry in the hot skillet until fish is browned and flakes easily with a fork, about 5 minutes per side. Transfer to a plate.
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  5. Add onions and garlic to the skillet and cook over medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add chile pepper, bay leaves, peppercorns, and allspice berries, then pour in vinegar and water and bring to a boil. Stir in brown sugar until dissolved. Season with curry powder, cumin, coriander, and turmeric. Taste and add brown sugar if desired.
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  7. Arrange layers of fish and pickling mixture in a serving dish. Pour in pickling liquid to cover the top layer. Let cool to room temperature, about 30 minutes. Cover and refrigerate for at least 24 hours before serving.
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Reviews

Sarah Koch
This reminded me of my Nans recipe and Easter weekends with her. I put a teeny bit less sugar and vinegar in, but that’s just to my taste. Otherwise it’s a GREAT recipe. Thank you! xx
Renee Lee
My family absolutely loves the recipe. I however added less white wine vinegar and added a bit more water. This time I split the vinegar between red whine and white wine vinegar and used less but added some plain white vinegar and water. I also used different kinds of fish. I used cod or canned tuna (my favourite) and the last 2 times I used yellowfish that we caught.
Judy Calderon
Thank you so much for the recipe, I have not eaten this for over 15 yrs. I finally did this on my own and my guest liked it too. To me it tasted leek home. I miss home & always thought I’ll ask my mom to make it but now I can make it.
Laurie Wright
My cod filets might have been a bit on the thin side, because during the cooking step they started to flake apart, so it wasn’t possible to “layer” exactly the way the recipe described, and I got a little confused on how to execute. It still turned out good though. My husband didn’t like it nearly as much as I did, so it could be a polarizing dish – if you like vinegary, tangy foods you will love it.
Albert Davis
I used less vinegar and more water, use fish Masala instead of curry
Larry Petersen
This recipe was so easy to follow, I made my very own pickle fish this year, I usually go to my parents house! This makes me a grown woman now
Sean Bailey
Excellent recipe. Tip: if you need it same day, fry the fish 2 minutes each side, set aside and pour the curry/pickle sauce* in the pan and bring to a light simmer and place the fish back in, spooning sauce over the fish. Let it all low poach for 5 minutes. * a dash or two of Peri Peri or Tabasco sauce works well if you don’t have a red chile pepper.
Maria Ferguson
I grew up in Cape Town and so Cape Malay Pickled Curry is a dish that I am well acquainted with and I expect it to be “just right”… this recipe did it! It tasted even better on the second day once the sugar and vinegar had a chance to work their pickling magic.
Christopher Lin
My husband is from Cape Town and loves pickled fish! Perfect lunch with bread and green salad. I’ve made this 2x — first time exactly as written and 2nd time with a few changes. It seems to me that in the Cape, pickled fish is lightly battered and fried. I wanted to cut down on the oil and fat so rather than frying the fish, I grilled it under the broiler until just cooked. I like the sauce as written, except I agree that the vinegar was a bit much. I used 1 1/2 cups and thought that was still a bit strong. I think I should have upped the brown sugar a bit to balance the flavor.
Emily Mendez
I really loved this recipe! I only made a couple of changes; added few extra bay leaves (dried), extra peppercorns and added a teaspoon of fennel seeds in place of the coriander. I changed the proportion of vinegar:sugar a little, cutting back on the vinegar – and thought it was a little too sweet at first, but found that the vinegar seemed more pronounced the next day. A friend made the same recipe & put in the whole amount of vinegar, finding it a little too acidic, so it might be an idea to just add 1 & 1/2 cups. On a whole, there was so much flavour in this! All you need is soft bread to soak up the marinade – it’s so good.

 

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