Hello!
How have you been? I am bracing myself for the summer, but it has been nice to have a few extra days of nice weather here in Bangalore. Last evening, the sky looked overcast and grey and it made me so excited for the rains. I know, I know, there’s a few more months to go and a giant pool of sweat to wade through before we get there, but it’s something to look forward to.
Sajjad’s parents were visiting for a few days, and it was lovely to have them around. The house was full of the smells of cooking, and my plants look happier thanks to some loving attention from Umma.
One of the dishes that Umma cooked for us is a fish curry that is now my new favourite fish curry. Move over meen molakite, there’s a new fish in the pond (sorry 😬), I am absolutely smitten with this curry, and I say this as someone who doesn’t even like fish.
Umma learned the recipe from her mother, and I am so excited to have another set of family recipes to learn and cook from. One of the perks of marriage I hadn’t thought of.
I think the key to this curry is roasting the chilli powder and coriander powder patiently, until they take on a complex, smoky, almost caramel-y aroma. The other important step is grinding the paste fine enough so that you don’t end up with a grainy gravy. Umma says the curry will be delicious with prawns and I think that’s the version I’m going to try next.
Recipe: Umma’s Easy Fish Curry
Ingredients
250 grams seer fish (or a similarly fleshy fish), cut into slices
1/4 cup chilli powder
1 scant tablespoon coriander power
1 cup fresh coconut, grated
2 pieces of kodam puli (Malabar tamarind)
3 green chillies
Handful of curry leaves
For the tempering
2 tablespoon coconut oil
5 shallots, thinly sliced into rounds
1/4 tsp fenugreek
7-10 curry leaves
Method
Wash and soak the kodam puli in water for 10 minutes.
In a small pan, on low heat, dry roast the chilli powder and coriander powder for 5-7 minutes, until fragrant and slightly darker in colour. Keep stirring the powders as you dry roast so that it doesn’t burn.
When the powders have cooled, grind this with the coconut, adding water as needed to get a finely ground, thick paste.
To a pot, add the kodam puli, the coconut and spice paste along with 1.5 cups water and bring to a boil. Add salt, green chillies, curry leaves and the fish and gently simmer for another 10 minutes. Add a little more water if you’d like a thinner gravy.
In a small kadai, heat 2 tablespoons of coconut oil. When hot, add the shallots and allow it to turn light golden. Add the curry leaves and fenugreek and fry for another 2 minutes, stirring constantly. Take off the heat and pour into the fish curry. Serve hot.