Saas Ni Macchi: Parsi Wedding Speciality Made With Rawas Fish

White sauce-based dishes are a different world altogether, they are not so racy and lively in appearance and taste, but are still extremely special for their creamy and thick texture and savoury and soothing taste. Saas Ni Macchi, a Parsi wedding speciality is a delicious fish stew cooked with selective spices like garlic-ginger paste, black pepper, cumin and salt. An exciting part of the recipe is the incorporation of egg, vinegar and sugar mix into the cooked curry, which thickens, and gives body to the curry instantly. The subtle rawness and tender flavour make Saas Ni Macchi surely different.

Knowing Parsi Delicacy

Saas Ni Macchi is a favourite wedding delicacy in the Parsi community, where Saas means sauce. This dish is an integral part of the Parsi festive occasions. The dish is loosely inspired by the inclusion of vinegar as in Portuguese dishes, British white sauce-based meat stews and Indian spiciness. The dish is cooked in a creamy white sauce. Typically Pomfret fish are used for cooking this dish.

Pomfret fish on the other hand is widely found in the Indian Ocean and entire South Asia and is rich in proteins and omega-3 fatty acids. The fish curry and fish fry of Pomfret are popularly made and enjoyed throughout our country.

Cooking: 10-12 minutes

Servings: For 2 persons

Ingredients

• 2 onions (chopped)
• 2 green chillies (chopped)
• 1 tbsp garlic (minced)
• 1 tbsp ginger (minced)
• 4 Indian Rawas Fillets 
• 3 - 4 tbsp oil
• 1 tbsp cumin seeds 
• 2 tbsp rice flour
• Water (as required)
• ½  cup cherry tomatoes (cut into half)
• Coriander leaves (chopped)
• Mint leaves (chopped)
• Salt
• 1 egg 
• 1 tsp sugar
• 1 tsp vinegar
• Salt
• ⅛  tsp sugar

Method:

• Grind onions, chillies, ginger and garlic to a fine paste without water
• Marinate the fish pieces with lemon juice, pepper and salt and keep aside
• Heat oil in a pan and add cumin seeds and let it sputter
• Then add ginger garlic and chilli paste and let it cook until the raw aroma goes away
• Add rice flour to it and cook it with the paste 
• Add little water to it, to just form a thick curry and whisk it 
• Then add cherry tomatoes and coriander leaves and whisk it
• At this stage add salt to taste and then add pieces of fish one by one to the curry
• Bring the curry to a boil and then let it simmer for 5-7 minutes
• Turn off the flame and let it cool
• In a bowl, whisk an egg with sugar and vinegar and keep it aside
• Take out the fish pieces from the pan containing curry and keep them on the plate
• In the curry add the egg mixture and whisk and then add salt and sugar and whisk again
• Now put back the pieces of fish in the curry and plate it for eating

The egg mixture is added to the cooked curry to thicken it and make it richer. The egg mixture will get nicely emulsified by whisking vigorously and will be gelled with the just-cooked curry even in the residual heat. If the Rawas fish is unavailable, then Pomfret and Surmai fish can be used in place of that.