What’s Cooking with Caxton – Di Beeton’s pickled fish

YOU know that recipe that is always a hit with the family? The one that’s guaranteed to leave clean plates all around? The one that’s not too detailed, just simple and fast? Yes, that one … We want to share it in our newest feature, What’s Cooking with Caxton? Local residents tell us about their favourite recipes, from the easy to the inspiring, all in an effort to help you make every day delicious. You’ll never run out of great recipe ideas again.

RETIRED teacher, conservationist and author Diana Beeton treasures a pickled fish recipe, passed down within the family.

Her husband, Frank, fondly remembers fishing in the Durban Bay in the 1950s, with his father who had Provincial colours for light tackle angling and uncle when he visited from Zambia. Fishing from a small boat around the edges of the navigation channels in the harbour, dodging the ships and tugboats, and using crackers or ginger shrimp as bait, would lead to a glut of fish in the family’s kitchen. After feasting on fried fish and chips for several days, Granny Vera Beeton’s busy hands would move on to producing jars of pickled fish.

The current Mrs Beeton has included the recipe in her book on sustainable practices for South African households, which she wrote as a modern version of the famous Mrs Beeton’s Book of Household Management. Written by Isabella Beeton (no relation) in 1861, the book was designed to help women manage households in England, at the time of the Industrial Revolution.

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Beeton says, “Fruit and vegetables were coming into England from around the world, which people had never seen before, so they were experimenting with them. Beeton was responding to women who were managing households for the first time as they moved into cities due to the Industrial Revolution and were encountering new ways of doing things. She included many things considered archaic today. What I’ve written in my book is what is relevant now, such as how to use water and electricity sparingly.”

Beeton says that when she was introduced to her husband’s family, Granny Vera mentioned the original Mrs Beeton’s book to her, and she was intrigued.

A long career in various aspects of education began with a geography teaching position in a Durban North school and ended with an executive officer role in a Johannesburg conservation NGO. The chairman of the Board at Beeton’s previous company was from England, and he encouraged her to write a modern version of the famous cookery book. On returning to KZN following her retirement, the Hillcrest resident began working on the project. Anecdotes and recipes from friends, family and past colleagues have been included with acknowledgements.

As Beeton says, “No one is an island. You are a composite of everyone who is around you.”

The Beeton Family Pickled Fish Recipe

Ingredients

12 portions of deep-fried hake, cooled
Sauce:
2 or 3 large onions, sliced into rings
3 cups water
3 cups vinegar
1 tbsp curry powder (or more for a stronger flavour)
1 tsp sugar
1 tbsp flour, blended with water to form a thin paste
¼ tsp salt

Method

In a saucepan, parboil onions in water, then add vinegar.
Mix curry powder with a little vinegar and add to water/vinegar.
Boil for a few minutes, then add sugar. Thicken with the flour/water paste and add salt while continuing to stir.
Pour this hot sauce over the cooked fish portions.
Allow to stand until cool and then refrigerate for at least 1 day before eating.