RECIPE | Hot cross buns and pickled fish

The combination of hot cross buns and pickled fish is said to have originated in the Cape. Unusual as it may sound, we South Africans have a penchant for combining sweet/sour flavours and Cape Malay-style pickled fish, which is layered fillets of fish in a spicy blend of onions in a yellow vinegary sauce, is said to symbolise the vinegar given to Christ at his crucifixion.

Pickled fish reminds me of my maternal grandmother, an excellent cook of traditional South African food. I have vivid memories of delicious Sunday lunches in my grandparents' Pretoria home, where one could pick up the evocative aromas from her kitchen as we drove down the driveway.

Her ritual, undertaken a week before Easter, was to prepare a large batch of pickled fish. I’d watch as she’d carefully cut the fish, her choice hake, into serving pieces. Her hands stained with curry, she would carefully slice a mountain of onions into thick rings, saying they must be thick so they were still crisp and crunchy when cooked.

The kitchen would fill with a vinegary haze that overpowered the smell of fried fish and when done, she would carefully arrange the fish and vinegary onions in the curry sauce in  layers in her large glass Pyrex dish, which she’d cover so nobody could touch it till the Easter weekend.

A real treat, her recipe is one of my treasures.

OUMA'S PICKLED FISH

Serves: 8

125ml (½ cup) cake wheat flour

Salt and white pepper

2kg fresh hake, sliced into serving portions

Shallow oil for frying

Sauce:

1kg onions, sliced into thick rings

375ml (1½ cups) water

30ml (2 tbsp) curry powder

125ml (½ cup) soft brown sugar

A knob of fresh finger, peeled and finely grated

3-4 bay leaves

5ml (1 tsp) ground coriander

6 black peppercorns

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 chilli, seeded and sliced, optional

500ml (2 cups) good quality white vinegar, not spirit vinegar

15ml (1 tbsp) cornflour

Method:

1. Season the flour with salt and pepper and dip the fish fillets into the seasoned flour, coating both sides. Preheat a non-stick pan filled with 1cm of oil and fry the fish on both sides until golden brown and cooked through. Drain on absorbent paper to cool.
2. Boil the onion rings in the water for two minutes before adding all the remaining sauce ingredients, except the cornflour, and bring to the boil and simmer for five minutes.
3. Mix the corn flour with 30ml (2 tbsp) water till smooth before adding to the curry mixture. Simmer uncovered for a further five minutes.
4. Arrange the fried fish in layers in a large glass dish (don’t use plastic) and marinate covered in the fridge for five days before serving with chunky slices of brown bread or hot cross buns.