Wash fish pieces multiple times to remove the fishy smell. Strain the fish pieces in a colander for 15 minutes to remove all the excess water. Grind ginger & garlic to a paste, don’t use water when grinding. The mixture can be coarse.

Take the fish pieces in a bowl, add salt, turmeric, pepper powder, red chilli powder and mix well. Set aside for 5 minutes.

Heat oil in a steel kadai. Once the oil is hot, add the fish pieces in batches, deep fry for 5 to 8 minutes till the fish is golden brown and crispy. Strain the fried fish using a slotted spoon in a bowl. Repeat this for the remaining fish pieces. Set aside in a bowl.

Now in the remaining fried oil. Add in fenugreek seeds, mustard seeds, dry red chillies, curry leaves and fry till curry leaves is crispy. Now add in ginger garlic paste and cook on low heat for 4 to 5 minutes till raw smell leaves and ginger garlic cooks. Add in turmeric powder and mix well. Lower the flame and add in kashmiri red chilli powder, salt, asafoetida and cook on low heat for 2 minutes.

Add in the fried fish and toss well in the pickle masala. Add in fenugreek seed powder, vinegar and mix well. Taste the fish and adjust the salt and vinegar level accordingly. Simmer the flame and cook on low heat for 5 more minutes. Turn off the heat and allow the fish pickle to cool completely.

Store the fish pickle in clean dry glass jar. I prefer to store my fish pickle in fridge for safety reason. But you can easily store it at room temperature for a month or more.