The Joy of Cleaning Fish

Disclaimer: If seeing fish guts and blood bother you, skip this post.

Remember how, in one of my earlier posts, I insisted that my life here was not all glitz and traveling? Well, I am going to prove this today.

Keralites love their fish, and I can totally understand why – IT’S ALL FRESH. And, considering we have fish stands right down the road from us, we eat fish a lot. Which, in turn, means I clean fish. A lot. And I like to think I have become quite an expert at it. I have de-faced and de-gutted both big and small fish. I feel the small fish, like sardines and kora, are the most difficult to clean because there are so many of them. Unfortunately, for me, the small fish are my favorites – they taste the best and are generally the healthiest. Especially sardines. They’re like WonderFish.

One great thing about the giant, empty house we live in is that there is a work area off of the kitchen. It’s almost open air, so I can clean the fish without the kitchen stinking up too bad. A downside – sometimes, if I take too long cleaning, ants will start to creep in the windows because they smell braaaiiins (like zombies. I really hate ants). Anyway, here’s my work area:

I used to use newspaper when cleaning, but I found out that using aluminum foil holds the fish “yuck” much better, and that means I don’t have to clean as much when it’s over. So, this is my process: cut off fins, scrape off scales (if any), rip off the face, remove the gills, cut it open, remove the entrails, plunk it in the salt water. Repeat until done. Believe it or not, I find cleaning fish to be a great stress reliever, and it’s pretty good exercise for my arms.

And that’s the process. It completely grossed me out the first 10 times I did it, but now I don’t think twice. The only time I still get the willies is when I find a foreign object lodged in a fish’s mouth. Freaks me out, especially when it’s another fish. This last time I cleaned, however, I found something a little more pleasant.

After the fish are cleaned, Zac takes over most of the time, makes a masala paste, and marinates the fish in the paste. Then, we fry it. We have that, along with moru or tomato curry, and beans mehrukkupuratti. Other times, I make fish curry or meen peera. If it’s a really big fish, like a black pomfret, Zac will slather it in spices, wrap it in aluminum foil, and grill it on our tabletop electric grill.

Whenever I clean sardines or cook with them, I remember how I used to get excited whenever Walgreens would have canned sardines on sale. You know the ones I’m talking about – the canned sardines with the peel back lid, loaded with salt. I even thought it was exotic when I noticed they packaged them in hot sauce and mustard, and now I’m making complex Indian dishes out of them. IN INDIA. Awesome, right? I know I think it’s pretty awesome. 🙂