There's nothing like buying fresh catch of the day from a local fisherman. In a place like Cochin in Kerala, right beside the Chinese Fishing Nets you can buy fresh fish every day. For a fish or a seafood lover, this place is sheer delight. From squids, scampies, prawns, lobsters, crabs, tuna, pearl spotted fish, red or white snapper you name it, its all there.
But most people usually prefer buying frozen fish fillet as they despise the fishy smell and the entire process of cleaning. If you buy fish from a fish store, the person at the counter will clean the fish for you and give you the peices as required. All you have to do is, bring it home and give it a second round of cleaning.
Once you bring home the fresh cut pieces of fish, place the pieces in a big wok or bowl filled with water, 2 teaspoon full of turmeric powder and 2 teaspoon full of salt. Set aside for a couple of minutes.
Step2
Gently rub the fish with your hands while the pieces are in this mixtured water. You can wear gloves while cleaning if you wish to.
Step3
After gently rubbing these pieces in this turmeric-salt water, throw the water away and retain the pieces.
Step4
Now, fill the wok with fresh water and place all the fish pieces in them.
Step5
Clean each fish piece one by one, placing them in a clean bowl. Remove the unwanted parts, scales etc.
Step6
Using a sharp pair of butcher scissors is the best thing in such cases. It helps you to clean the fish with ease.
Step7
Once all the pieces are cleaned individually, wash them in a bowl with clean water for a couple of times.
Step8
Drain the water and now sprinkle 1-2 teaspoon full of turmeric powder and 1-2 teaspoonfull of salt (depending upon the quantity of fish) in the large bowl containing the fish pieces and rub properly so that this masala smears on each piece.
Step9
Now, take food grade boxes and place portions of fish pieces in them. Add only that much amount that you think will be needed for a meal.
Step10
Now before a meal, you can take out one box containing 4-6 pieces of fish. You can thaw the fish in the microwen or keep it in the box near the sink for about an hour.
Step11
Before cooking the fish, you can dip these pieces in a fresh bowl of water, in order to ward off any fishy-refrigerator smell. Or use directly into the curry or fry as you wish.
Tips & Warnings
This turmeric-salt combination used the second time acts as a preservative to store fish for a longer time in the deep freezer.
You can also add a teaspoon full of chilli powder in the preservative.
In stead of putting them in the water after thawing, you can directly place these thawed pieces in a large non-stick pan and shallow fry them crisp.
The preservative also flavours the fish. So you dont need to add any extra spices again.
Don't add extra salt, as the salt in the preservative would have already flavoured the fish pieces.
Use your judgement - add salt for the preservative as much as you think will be needed. Be careful to not make the fish too salty for preservation.
Enthusiast 
