India is a huge country with many styles of cooking and to call any food Indian style would simply be a little too presumptuous. It would be proper to call this a South Indian style fish curry and from deep down South.
This fish curry is something I enjoy. I don't eat fish too often since my husband is vegetarian by design, yet once in a while I give in to my desires and cook up something fishy. A simple king fish fry goes well with this curry and rice.
I usually source my fish supposedly fresh from an online store. This comes cleaned, sliced and ready to cook. Makes my job all that much easier.
Time to prep
Rinse the fish , dry on paper towels. Mix one teaspoon
red chili powder, 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, juice of one lemon/lime and one teaspoon salt, coat the fish slices with this paste and marinate it for half an hour.
Grate fresh coconuts. 3/4 cup would be needed for this curry. I always use fresh coconut.
Add the spices 1/2 tsp of cumin and one tsp turmeric powder to the grated coconut.
Cumin is great for digestion, we use a lot of cumin in our cooking.
Run this through a blender until you get a fine paste. Set aside.
Wash and chop half an onion, half a raw mango ( you could leave this out if its not available), two small tomatoes. Slit a couple of green chilies, wash a sprig or two of curry leaves.
Soak tamarind pulp in warm water. you could also add tamarind paste if available. Now we are done with the prep and can get started with the cooking per say.
In a pan add a tablespoon of coconut oil or any other vegetable oil, let the oil heat up add half tsp of fenugreek seeds. This adds flavor to the curry. Once the fenugreek starts to change color add the curry leaves saute each ingredient as you add them in.
Add chopped onions, mangoes, tomato until they soften.
One teaspoon of tamarind paste mixed with water is now added to this mixture. Saute for a minute. Add the ground paste, saute. Add the desired amount of red chili powder and saute for a couple of minutes. Add salt according to your taste.
Add two cups of water and bring it to a boil, simmer for 7-8 minutes.
Its time to add the fish to the curry. I decided to cut the fish into smaller pieces at this point. Cover the pan and cook for 5-6 minutes, ensure that the fish is covered in curry. Check to see if the fish is cooked. It usually takes about 5-8 minutes to cook depending on the size of the fish.
Your curry is ready to be served with rice and fried fish like I did. I also serve papad with this meal.
This is slightly spicy dish so you could adjust the level of red chili powder to your taste. It is also tangy in nature and goes well with rice. If you'd like to round off the flavors add 6-8 cashew nuts to the grated coconut when you make the paste.
Sorry, I forgot to take pictures of the plates after I served the food. 馃槥
I enjoyed my meal, hope you try this.
