I am thrilled as I share this recipe. Recently, we had been to Mangalore for our food excursion and we got the firsthand experience of the local food culture. We went around different parts of Mangalore and Udupi trying out the local cuisine at different food joints. You would want to read about our Mangalore experience at Mangalore food excursion-Day 1 and Day 2. As we came back from our vacation to Pune we begin making all these recipes in our kitchen, trying and retrying several times to recreate the taste that we had experienced.
Over the course of next one month, we will be sharing all these recipes under Mangalore recipes category on our blog and its videos on our YouTube Channel. We are beginning this month with a seafood recipe of Bangude PuliMunchi (also known as Bangda in Maharashtra or Indian Mackerel).
Puli means tangy/sour and munchi means spicy. This amply explains that the gravy is sour and spicy. We make use of tamarind to impart sourness and red chilies to make it spicy. We got a packet of tamarind from Mangalore and it felt it is significantly sourer from the one that we get in Pune imparting a great taste and color to the curry.
The recipe is a bit rustic and does not require any elaborate preparations and as it is said the best things in life are simple. A masala paste of red chilies and other dry spices are made and fish is cooked in this masala paste with tamarind pulp and water. Finally the dish is tempered with hot oil and curry leaves.
If you like sea-food than you would love to try this Mangalorean delight. Prepare this recipe and share your feedback with us in the comment section below.
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Rating
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Cook time:
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Serves: 3-4

- 500 grams Bangda/Bangude (Indian Mackerel)
- 12 dried red chilies (6 guntur chilies, 6 byadagi chilies).
- 1 inch diameter tamarind ball
- 2 medium sized onion chopped
- 2 green chilies
- 10-12 cloves of garlic
- 1 inch ginger root
- ½ tsp black peppercorn
- ½ tsp cumin seeds
- ⅛th tsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 and ½ tsp coriander seeds
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 10-12 curry leaves
- Cooking Oil
- Salt
- Put ¼th tsp turmeric powder and ½ tsp salt.Smear the fish with turmeric powder and salt and let it rest.
- Meanwhile we will make a masala paste. Put red chilies in grinder jar.Add green chilies,chopped onions, fenugreek seeds,Add black peppercorn, ginger, cumin seeds,Coriander seeds, garlic, turmeric powder.Grind all ingredients into a thick and fine paste.
- Soak tamarind ball in ¼th cup warm water. Later we will extract pulp from it.
- In a pan, put Masala paste, tamarind pulp,salt to taste. Add 1 cup water and allow it to boil on medium heat
- As the gravy begins to simmer, add 1 cup water. Reduce the heat and simmer.
- After 3-4 minutes of simmering, add Bangda fish. Cover and cook.
- Fish gets cooked in 7-8 minutes. Turn off the flame and prepare for tempering.
- Heat 2 tbsp oil and add curry leaves. Pour this on top of the curry.
- Bangude PuliMunchi can be relished with Steamed rice or Neer Dosa.

Click here to watch recipe video
The masala is not grinded properly , the requirement for any fish curry is Masala need to grinded nicely . also the colour is yellowish, for pulimuchi it should be red , I think u have used second quality chillis or more tuermeric
Thanks Vinodji for your feedback!