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Recipe-1 › Curries of the world › Shark ambot tik

Goa, India

Shark ambot tik

Goa’s hot and sour curry, made with shark: a paste of red chillies, garlic, cumin and vinegar, soured with tamarind.

Shark ambot tik
Same steps, different flavour base Hot

Too hot for you? Use half the chilli (powder, paste or fresh chillies) and leave out the green chillies.

New here? How this page works

Recipe-1 is one simple curry recipe in nine steps: fry onions and green chillies, add your vegetables or meat, add chilli powder and turmeric, then water and salt, and boil. With small changes the same nine steps make curries from all over the world.

This page takes those nine steps and shows what to change to make Shark ambot tik. You don’t need to read anything else first: every base step is written out below. The changes are worked out on paper from what is typical for this dish; not yet kitchen-tested. Cooked it? Tell others how it went.

Green: the base recipe step (crossed out = do not use it for this dish)Red: what to do instead for Shark ambot tik

See the full base recipe (with timers and tips) · See all curries on the world map

You’ll need

How many people?4

The amounts change with the number of people; cooking times stay about the same (use a bigger pot for more). Taste as you go: you can always add more chilli or salt, but you cannot take it out.

Main ingredient: 500 g Small shark (mori) steaks, skinned.

From the base recipe

  • 1 Onions
  • Green chillies not used
  • 3 tbsp Cooking oil
  • Red chilli powder not used
  • ½ tsp Turmeric
  • 1 tsp · 300 ml Salt and water
  • Ginger garlic paste not used
  • Cloves, cardamom and cinnamon not used
  • Garam masala (optional) not used

Add for Shark ambot tik

  • 8–10 Dried Kashmiri chillies
  • 2 tbsp Tamarind
  • 1 tbsp Vinegar
  • 6 · 2 cm · 1 tsp Garlic, ginger and cumin
  • ½ tsp Black peppercorns

Leave out

  • Garam masala
  • Whole spices

The nine steps, with the changes

Where a step has a red line, do the red line and not the crossed-out green base step. Steps with only green are done just as in the base recipe.

  1. Base step: do not useCut onions and chillies.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisChop one onion; skip the green chillies.

  2. Base step: do not useFry in some oil for around 4 minutes on medium-high heat.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisFry until golden.

  3. Base step: do not useCut the vegetable(s) of your choice.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisUse the shark, rubbed with salt and turmeric.

  4. Base step: do not useAdd them and fry for around 4 minutes on medium-high heat.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisAdd the ground paste of chillies, garlic, ginger, cumin and pepper and fry until oil separates.

  5. Base step: do not useAdd red chilli powder and turmeric.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisSkip the chilli powder: the dried chillies give the heat.

  6. Keep frying until just before they start browning.

  7. Base step: do not useAdd some water.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisAdd water and tamarind.

  8. Add salt.

  9. Base step: do not useBoil until the gravy is as thick as you like.

    Shark ambot tik: do thisSimmer 5 minutes, add the shark and cook 8–10 minutes. Add a splash of vinegar.

Serve: With rice.

For meat and seafood, make sure it is cooked through: chicken until no pink remains inside; mutton, goat and beef need long, slow cooking.

← Venison stewAll curries on the mapJaffna crab curry →

Food marks, as on packaged food in India: vegetarian · non-vegetarian (meat, fish or egg). Dishes with both marks can be made either way.

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