East Indian
Macha Ambila (Odia Sour Fish Curry)
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Macha Ambila (Odia Sour Fish Curry) is East Indian home cooking, eaten at lunch and dinner. On the plate it is the dish at the centre. Below is what usually sits beside it, what it does and does not contain, and what else to cook once you have made it.
Ingredients
The quantities follow this count.
How to cook it
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Rub the fish with turmeric and a little salt and set aside.
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Heat the mustard oil in a pot and temper with the mustard seeds, panch phoron and dried red chilies until they crackle.
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Add the chopped tomato and cook 5 minutes until it softens and starts to break down.
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Whisk the tamarind paste into the water and pour it in, along with the remaining turmeric, jaggery and salt, and bring to a boil.
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Simmer 8 minutes so the tomato and tamarind cook down into a thin, tangy broth.
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Slide in the fish and slit green chilies, cover and simmer gently 8 minutes until the fish is just cooked through; this curry stays thin and watery by design, closer to a broth than a gravy.
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Serve hot with steamed rice, as the first course of an Odia meal.
Serve it with
A East Indian dinner is a plate rather than a single dish. These are the courses that normally sit beside Macha Ambila (Odia Sour Fish Curry), read from the same composition Dinejot builds a real meal from.
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The cooked vegetable
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The protein alongside
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What it is eaten with
A course labelled with another kitchen's name comes from a cuisine in the same family, which is where this plate usually borrows it from.
Safe at your table
Dinejot tracks ten allergens and tags every one of them by hand, so the absences below are as deliberate as the presences. Macha Ambila (Odia Sour Fish Curry) carries fish. It is free of the remaining 9 allergens on that list.
| Allergen | In this dish | Cook this instead |
|---|---|---|
| Peanuts | No | |
| Tree nuts | No | |
| Dairy | No | |
| Gluten | No | |
| Shellfish | No | |
| Eggs | No | |
| Soy | No | |
| Fish | Yes | Aloo Posto (Potato in Poppy Seed Paste) |
| Sesame | No | |
| Coconut | No |
These tags are set by a person rather than inferred from an ingredient list, and they describe the recipe as written here. Read the labels on whatever you actually buy.
What it brings to the plate
Estimated, per serving
- Calories
- 240 kcal
- Protein
- 24 g
- Carbs
- 10 g
- Fat
- 12 g
- Fiber
- 2 g
- Sugar
- 4 g
- Sodium
- 480 mg
- Saturated fat
- 1 g
Estimated values. Actual nutrition varies with ingredients, brands, and how you cook.
When to cook it
Macha Ambila (Odia Sour Fish Curry) takes about 30 minutes from a cold stove to the table, and the cooking itself is easy going. It is eaten at lunch and dinner. It is at its best in summer, which is when what goes into it is worth buying.
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Cook this with your whole family
Dinejot plans breakfast, lunch and dinner as whole plates, built around the cooking you call home and filtered for the allergies at your table.
Meal suggestions support your goals. They are not medical advice. Please ask your doctor about your family's health needs.