Fish Curry

மீன் குழம்பு (Fish Curry)

Fish Curry is a favorite gravy for everyone in my family. Preparing it with coconut in a traditional way gives fantastic taste to the gravy. In this method I prepared masala. The combination of coconut and tamarind’s tanginess gives nice taste to this gravy. I used cat fish for the recipe.

Ingredients for Fish Curry

Fish – 1/2 kg
Small onion chopped – 1/2 cup
Seasame oil – 1/4 cup + 1 tbsp
Tamarind – 1 medium lemon size
Coconut- 3/4 cup chopped
Turmeric – pinch
Salt as needed

Masala for Grinding

Pepper – 1.5 tbsp
Cumin – 1.5 tbsp
Kothamalli – 3 tbsp
Red chilli round – 10
Kashmiri chilli – 2

Directions

Pre-preparation

Dry roast all the masala items and let it cool.
Soak the tamarind with water.
Grind the roasted ingredients into fine paste with water.
Extract juice from soaked tamarind.
Grind coconut into fine paste.

Prepare Fish Curry

Take a pan which you going to cook the fish curry.
Pour the tamarind juice and add the masala paste.
Now add turmeric, coconut paste and salt.
Finally add oil and chopped onion.
Mix everything well with hand.
Check the sourness and salt level.
If needed add some more salt or tamarind juice.
Add water so that it can immerse the fish pieces.

Place the pan on the stove in full flame.
When you see bubbles in the gravy check the gravy quantity.
Here is the last chance to add water to the gravy.
Add the cleaned fish pieces.
Don’t cover the pan.
Cook for 10 minutes.
Now cover the pan and change the flame into very low for 5 minutes.
Switch off the flame and add 1 tbsp of oil.
Fish curry ready, serve with rice or Idly.

Notes

During cooking at least 1/2 cup of water will reduce, so according to that, add water while start cooking.
Don’t chop the onion very small, if you have grinding stone (அம்மி), smash the whole onions little bit with grinding stone.
Prepare the gravy mix in the pot before putting the pot in stove.