Kerala Fish Curry (with coconut milk)

Kerala Fish Curry (with coconut milk)

A spicy Kerala style fish curry. Best with rice / appam / boiled tapioca … Recipe credit – Mrs Susan Edward, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala !!

Serves: 3 – 4

Ingredients

For the spice paste (masala):

5 shallots (chuvannulli / small onion / sambar onion), chopped

2 teaspoon red chilli powder (1 1 /2 teaspoon to 2 teaspoon)

1 teaspoon coriander powder (coriander powder should be less than red chilli powder)

½ teaspoon uluva podi (methi powder / fenugreek powder)

¼ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ to ¾ teaspoon thick tamarind (valan puli) or ½ teaspoon thick tamarind paste

Make a fine paste of above ingredients in a small mixer bowl. Sprinkle 1 tablespoon water when making the paste in a small mixer bowl.

Other ingredients

1 tablespoon oil

½ -inch piece ginger, finely chopped

6 curry leaves

Masala paste

100 ml / ½ cup water (Indian standard measuring cup of 100 ml / 4 oz capacity)

2 kudampuli (soak kudampuli in 2 tablespoon water for half an hour with 2 pinches of salt, remove kudampuli and strain soaked water and reserve water for later use)

¾ teaspoon salt (or to taste)

315 g fish pieces (net weight after cleaning and washing) pick any good quality fish (nemmeen, aavoli..)

50 – 75 ml (less than 1/2 cup) thick coconut milk

Method

Wash and clean fish pieces. Drain out water thoroughly. Cover and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Add chopped ginger and curry leaves. Saute on a low heat for 1 -2 minutes until fragrant and crisp.

Add masala / spice paste and stir well on a low heat for 2 – 3 minutes until the raw smell goes and well combined.

Add 100 ml / ½ cup water, soaked kudampuli, reserved strained water in which kudampuli soaked and salt to taste. Cover with a tight lid and boil on a medium heat for 5 – 7 minutes.

Now add fish pieces gently, cover again and cook on a medium to low heat for 8 – 10 minutes or until done / fish pieces well cooked and gravy thickens. Switch off the heat.

Finally, add thick coconut milk and gently stir well. Consume this curry after minimum one hour. Then the fish pieces will absorb all the flavours. Serve with rice / appam / boiled tapioca..