Kerala Fish Curry- Meen Curry,Central Kerala Style

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To teach a Malayalee, how to cook fish curry, is like teaching a monkey, how to climb the trees ! It is such a basic recipe in any household, in the place where I come from. But it took a long time for me to post this here, even after so many repeated requests from the readers. If you blog, you know, the most common dishes you make might take the longest to get in your blog !

Canned Tuna stir fried with grated coconut/ Canned Tuna Peera

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 I still remember the first time I had canned tuna with coconut at my aunt’s place.  She cooked it with tuna-in-coconut-milk or oil, some brand from Taiwan.  I was clearly not excited.  In fact, I did not like it at all.  My mom and cousins raved and ranted, and helped themselves to more when I stuck with whatever else was on the table.  Being in the U.S. now, I eat a lot of canned tuna as salad, cutlets/fish-cake and thoran too.  Yeah, I love it now!  The efficiency with respect to time and ease of preparation all makes canned tuna a smart option.  However, one thing that has not changed for me is the aversion to tuna in oil.  I always select the "chicken in the sea" based in water.  That’s what I love and I recommend highly.

  As for a general weather report, it is getting colder and the gloom persists outside my window.  The chipmunks continue to rattle and cheer up things with constant playing, and prayer (sitting on two legs with the other two joined in front of their chest) on my patio.  But since I got my plants in with the dropping temperature, I don’t police them anymore and hence miss a lot their fun.  Instead, I immerse myself in crochet and reading or that’s what I tell people to sound like I am purposeful.  In reality, the weather is just the kind to sit around, drink pots of cider, green tea, or an occasional black coffee and be.  Even better is to curl up on the sofa with the express purpose of reading and snoozing hoping the information from the book held close to me will in some way carry over into my brains.     

  Hoping you are doing better than me, if not, make tuna thoran.  Cheers! 

 Ingredients:

Tuna                     - 2, 5 Oz can (about 300 gms) drained of all water

Onions                  - 1 small (about 3/4 cup when chopped)

Green Chilies        - 6 nos

Ginger                  - 1 inch piece (about 1 Tbspn when chopped fine)

Mustard               - 1/4 tspn

Oil                       - 1/2 Tbspn 

Kudampuli/Gambooge               - 1 piece soaked in water for atleast 15 minutes.  Do not throw the water, you will use some to sprinkle to keep the moisture and incorporate flavors evenly

Turmeric              - 1/2 tspn
Salt                      - to taste

Method:

1. Heat oil and splutter mustard
2. Add chopped ginger, onions and green chili.  Saute for a couple of minutes and stir in curry leaves and saute
3. Follow with turmeric..
4. Add coconut, kokum (drained from the water and split into smaller pieces,this helps to express it's sourness better) and tuna
5. Break the tuna and mix in well with the spoon/spatula and keeping fire on low sprinkle about a tablespoon of water the kokum was soaking in and salt.
6. Let everything sit in the pan on the lowest heat/fire and cook for 5 minutes.  This will help to incorporate the taste of the ginger and kokum into the fish.  If you cannot bring the heat very low be sure to add a little more water to avoid burning.

Contributor Sunitha

Indo-Chinese Fish Chili

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Batter fried fish in hot, spicy, tangy sauce is quite the pair for Chinese noodles or rice.  Having been making so much noodles and rice this last week it's only fair to wrap that roll with this recipe.  Coincidentally, the blustery, windy, wet weather outside is just the right time to eat Chinese curled up on your sofa, watching a nice romantic flick.  That's exactly what I plan to do this Saturday unless the rain let's up.

I am also charmed these days by Italian pockets on the baker's shelf in stores.  All things savory and Italian seems to be on my mind so now that we have had a definite dose of Chinese will move on.  Until then please indulge me.  Shall we have some fun with fish all Chinese? I heard you say "yes, get on with it"!?

Have a nice weekend!



Ingredients:
Tilapia - 3 Fillets (boneless, skinless fish about 1 and 1/2 fishes)

For Batter:
All purpose flour - 3/4 cup
Corn Flour - 1/4 cup (you could vary the proportion or only use corn flour)
Ginger garlic paste - 1 tspn
Chili powder - 1 tspn
Salt - to taste
Soya sauce - 1 tspn
Pepper - a sprinkle
Water - to make a thick batter which you can use to dip the fish and fry

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients and make a thick batter and set aside closed.
2. Pat dry the fish fillet and cut them into bite size pieces and marinate with soya sauce. If the sauce is not salty enough add some salt too. Marinate for and hour
3. Take the fish out pat dry and dust it with flour. Leave the marinade to use for the sauce
4. You can avoid marinating the fish but I find it too bland when not salted or marinated.
5. Dip in the batter and deep fry the fish on a medium fire because you have to cook the fish with this step.
6. Drain on kitchen towels and set aside



For the Gravy
Ginger - 1 Tbspn julienned
Garlic - 1 Tbspn julienned
Onions - 1 Diced
Green Onions (scallions/spring onions) - 2 chopped 1 inch size
Green Chilies - 6 julienned
Soya Sauce - the thin kind 1/4 cup (if you are using thick sauce I think a tablespoon diluted in a Tbspn in water will suffice.
Corn Flour - 1 1/2 Tbspn
Water - 2 cups
Chili Sauce - 1 Tbspn (optional)
Oil - 1 Tbspn from the oil used to deep fry fish



Method:
1. Dilute/dissolve the corn flour in 1/4 cup water and set aside
2. Heat oil, saute the ginger, onions, garlic, green chilies and the lower end of the spring onions leaving the green leafy bit for garnishing. Spoon out this and set asid
2. Reduce the heat, add water, soya sauce and bring to a boil
3. Check for taste. If it's enough salty add the dissolved corn flour a little at a time stirring. Stop when you like the consistency of the sauce.
4. Add all fried ingredients including the fish and and serve.

Notes: If you have to wait for your guest or cook ahead. Mix the fried fish only when serving.

Contributor: sunitha

Karimeen Vazhayilayil pollichathu/Pearlspot dry fried on Banana leaf

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When someone says "karimeen", this evergreen malayalam song reverberates in my mind.."ayala porichathundu, karimeen varuthathundu, kudampuli ittu vacha nalla chemmen kariyundu" The heroine is elaborating on the dishes for lunch.  To woo her hero and win his heart. She sure believed "Stomach is the way to a man's heart." The translation is something like this:fried mackerel and pearl spot fry, kokum added prawns curry. For most of us listeners the song became a paradigm for cooking fish. If it is pearl spot, it's best fried! Go ahead and dispute it if you dare I have a whole state backing me up. :)

We have posted a "meen pollichathu" earlier. That is fried and then smothered in a wet gravy. Today's is smeared with masala, wrapped and fried in banana leaf



Ingredients:

Karimeen/Pearlspot- 2-3
Black pepper powder-2 tsp
Red chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Turmeric powder- a pinch
Garlic paste- 1 Tbsp
Ginger paste- 1 Tbsp
Lemon juice- 1 tsp
Salt
Curry Leaves-2 sprigs
Banana leaves- for wrapping the fish
Coconut Oil- enough to spray on the leaf

Method:

1.Clean the fish by taking out the head with the parts in the stomach of the fish. Keep the tail intact.Make some shallow slits on the fish.
2.Prepare the marinade by mixing together all the ingredients, add a little water to make it a thick paste and rub it on the fish.
3.Heat an earthen pot on medium heat.Spray the coconut oil on the banana leaf and wrap the marinated fish in it.
4.Keep it in the pot and cook on low heat, turning the sides after every 2-3 minutes.
5.Serve warm with rice and a gravy of your choice.



Notes:

1.If pearlspot is not available you could use Pomfret instaed.
2.You could reduce the amount of pepper if you would like it to be mild.
Contributor: Namitha

Meen Pollichathu / Fish baked in homemade sauce

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    Fishing is my uncle's hobby.  He is so good one feels he can catch them with his bare hands.    He can fish with fishing rods, nets and also by one of the more primitive ways of forking out the fish.  If you are not squeamish about watching a fish being caught then watching him fish is worthwhile. It amazes me every time I accompany him on his fishing expeditions.  He plops some cooked tapioca by the edge of the river and keeps a close watch from the banks.  After a couple of minutes, he positions the spear (an iron rod with a pointed tip) and in a sweeping movement cuts through the water and hits the target.  He's got his pearl spot (fish) of the day .  Tapioca according to him is the best lure to catch black pearl spot from the river.

Once the fish is caught it is mostly fried.  But once in a while a more elaborate preparation, pollichathu.  The malayalam word pollichathu more or less means 'searing.' However, the preparation for this dish includes two processes.  Searing and then slow cooking.  Once the fish is lightly browned on both sides it's wrapped in banana leaf with a sauce and cooked in a shallow earthen pot turning intermittently.  The flavor of this dish is acquired from 1. Obviously the sauce 2. From banana leaf paired with the fact its cooking in an earthen pot on coal.  The slow burning of the banana leaf in the earthen port exudes a flavor which cannot be mimicked in a modern day oven.  However, to indulge in anything even remotely tasting like the real deal of a meen pollichathu is worthwhile.  I bought some whole tilapia (by the way it has an uncanny resemblance to pearl spot) on my last shopping fix and regaled, so to speak.  I have given a modern day approach for cooking a traditional dish here.  The method given below is using foil paper instead of banana leaf and cooking in a electric oven as against the earthen pot.  Hope you enjoy this favorite of mine.

Ingredients:
Whole Tilapia with skin and tail on - 2
Onions - 1 Medium
Tomato - 1 large
Kokum - 1 small piece
Ginger - 1 Tbspn
Garlic - 1 Tbspn
Curry Leaves - 2 sprigs
Turmeric - 1  tspn
Chili powder - 1 Tbspn
Pepper powder - 1 tspn
Coconut Milk - 1/4 cup

Method:
1. Clean and gash the fish and pat dry.  I cleaned out the gills, fins etc.  I mostly get fish which is already gutted
2. Rub salt about 1/2 tspn, turmeric 1/2 tspn, pepper a little and vinegar just enought to moisten the powders or help you spread it on the fish.  Marinate for about 1/2 hour
3. Soak the kokum in as little water as you need to soak
3. At this point you can start on your sauce.  Saute the onions to tanslucent and add ginger followed by garlic and saute
4. Add all the powders turmeric, chili and pepper and once oil clears or you get the cooked smell add chopped tomatoes
5. Saute till oil seperates and add the kokum with the water.
6. You need a thick consistency for the sauce so if there is a lot of water cook it down and reducing the heat  add coconut milk.  Mix in and turn off the heat.
7. Place foil paper in case you do not have banana leaves into a baking pan big enough to hold the fish
8. Spread half of your sauce at the base

Searing the Fish
8. In a non stick skillet add a tinge or oil and brown the fish on both sides turning carefully to keep the fish in tact.
9. Place it over the sauce in the baking pan and top it with the remaining sauce
10. Close the foil over to wrap the fish and sauce
11. Bake in 300 F oven for 35 - 40 minutes. 

Contributor : Sunitha

Fish n Mango

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  With the long weekend over its taking me time to get back into my routine.  I will expressly finish my ramblings and get to the point today.  I made some fish which is pretty easy to cook and yet satisfying to the taste buds. I especially like this way of cooking fish with mango because it changes an everyday dish for me into a special one.  So, if you are like me and like fish made in Kerala style and yet want to make it a little different the best way is to change the ingredient that gives it it's tang.  You can change the kokum to tamarind, tomato, mango or Irumban puli.  The English names for tree bearing Irumban or Ilimbi puli nbsp;are cucumber tree, tree sorrel etc.

  Wish you Happy Mardi gras, Fat Tuesday or whatever name you call it.  I almost forgot about but last year same time is when I started making bread in a big way.  If you would like to read about what I did last year you can find it here. 


Ingredients:
Fish - 3 fillet (I used tilapia so any two fishes maximum of medium size will work well
Mango - 1 cup diced
Coconut - 1 cup grated and crushed by running in the mixer once
Green chillies - 2
Chilli powder - 1/2 Tbspn
Shallots - cut into four pieces 1/2 cup
Mustard - 1/2 tspn
Turmeric - 1/2 tspn
Ginger - 1 tspn Chopped fine
Garlic - 1/2 tspn (optional)
Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tspn
oil - 2 tspn



Method
1. Heat oil in a pan. Add mustard and when it splutters the shallots, ginger, garlic and curry leaves and stir around for a 3 - 4 minutes
2. Add the rest of the ingredients and 1/4 to 1/2 cup water and let it cook for a while till the water drains and the fish and mango is cooked.
3. Serve with rice and gravy of your choice.

Contributor: Sunitha

Fish in Coconut gravy

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The man on a black ferry (vallom, vanji) would paddle by my grand parent’s home to sell fish. I am talking about 1980’s. I used to love running all the way to the river bare footed, straight out of bed, with tousled hair and a puffy morning face to watch the spectacular display of fish on his boat. He would have some sea and fresh water fish. Sardines and mackerel from the sea and a myriad of fresh water ones. Of course, he would be carrying only a few varieties at a time but would bring something different every day.

There would be some haggling for the prize and then ‘mamachi’(that’s what I called my maternal grandmother) would settle for some prize and she we would walk back with her earthern shallow pot (chatty) brimming with fish and an excited me bobbing up and down beside her. I still remember her chattayum mundum with the fan gathered behind the way this is worn. The smell of her crisp, white, lightly starched, sun dried clothes is still fresh in my memory. She had peppered hair gathered back in a bun and wore a beautiful rosette designed earrings studded with crystals and long gold chain with a prominent cross sign.  She would tell me whever I fiddled with her earrings or kept looking at them admiring that I can have it when she is gone.  I am her eldest grand daughter and I own the earrings now.

   We would sit outside on the pebbled courtyard with the fish, to clean them. She on a low stool (called korandi) and me squatting close by listening to her stories and closely watching her trim the fins and tail dexterously off the fish and lay them into a clean pot nearby. There would be a whole lot of cleaning rubbing it on stone and then twirling it around in the pot with rock salt until she was satisfied. Karthiyani (her help) would quickly grind this peach colored coconut gravy on the stone swaying her whole body forward and backward. Her grinding style was a joke because only she moves like that with the stone all the others learned the trick of holding the body still and just moving your hands to get the job done.

 

Anyways, today I have the fish fillets, store bought grated coconut which my grinder will help me blend in no time to cook the same curry. I am thankful for the conveniences but the memories of those days and the taste of evenly ground coconut can never be replicated. Or maybe it’s my grand mother’s love that I am missing. On days when I feel home sick I pick up the phone, call my mom or aunt, figure out some old recipes and concoct them and feel instantly at home. Here is a simple yet delicious fish curry my family makes mostly with fresh water fish but now we use all kinds. Hope you enjoy it as much as I do.

A dried fruit I have used,kudampuli(Gambooge- Garcinia gummi-gutta), gives the sourness to the curry. Please click on the link to read more about it. The tartness the kudampuli lends is what makes this dish stand apart from similar dishes made with tamarind or tomato. I have no words to describe the taste but just say if you like coconut gravy chances are you will enjoy this too.

  I couldn't help but get carried away with my memories talking about this fish curry.  Click on the links to see pictures of the vallom and chatta and mundu if you do not know what I am talking about.  Also, the curry is not peach in color because I forgot to add chilli powder while grinding the coconut.

Ingredients:

Tilapia Fish fillet    - 4
Coconut               -  1 cup
Water                  - 1/2 cup
Red chilli powder - 1 tspn
Green Chillies      - 4 nos
Ginger                 - 1/2 Tbspn
kudampuli               - 2 pieces washed and soaked in 1/4 cup water
Garlic                  - 1 - 2 pods optional
Curry Leaves      - 1 sprig
Salt                     - to taste

Method:

1. Cut the fish fillet in two
2. Grind chilli powder, turmeric, garlic and coconut to a fine paste
3. Mix the fish and all the other ingredients together and cook on medium high heat to bring to a boil and then simmer on low till fish is cooked

Notes:  You may grind the ginger to a paste as well I prefer to have it in pieces
2. You may do a tempering with coconut oil or oil of preference with mustard, shallots, dry red chilly and curry leaves
3. You could use kokum instead of "kudampuli", they have similar taste, being from the same family.

Contributor: Sunitha

Fish Fry-Kerala style/Naadan meen varuthathu

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Kerala is a southern state in India bound by the Arabian Sea on its west. The sea coast historically brought the state traders and invaders.  When one enriched the other plundered. All the same, the coastline dotted with tall coconut trees and the blue waters beyond lend to our culture and cuisine. Every bit of the coconut tree its leaves and fruit are all used for food and shelter. The variety of fish we enjoy from the sea are myriad and obviously holds an important part in cuisine. It is not my intention to expound further on the subject but I hope you see why our food has so much coconut gravy and seafood. This will also help you understand why 84 % of the population is non-vegetarian, unlike most of the other states in India.

Talking about being vegetarian reminds me how I stopped eating meat and fish listening to some weird stories from our maid. She made such an impact with her stories that I stayed a vegetarian for almost 8 years of my life. When I left for college and had to stay in a hostel; I realized that it is hard to remain a vegetarian in a hostel run by nuns. There I decided to try non-veg dishes. I am so glad about the decision now. The food in that hostel was the best I had compared to the hostels I would stay later in my life during degree and post graduation. The fish fries, chicken curry, beef fry, beef curry, beef cutlet, everything was fantastic. Thereafter I have remained a non-vegetarian till date :-)

Today I want to share one of my favorite fish recipes; the fry. Its crispy outside and juicy inside will leave you wanting more. Fish ,like I said, holds pride and a very important place in our cuisine. I know some of you are vegetarians and may not want to switch places like I did but you can try the marination as explained below on brinjal sliced in one inch rounds and shallow fried. Hope the taste will transport you to the breezy, coconut swaying coastlines of Kerala.



Ingredients:

Fish pieces(Preferably big fishes like, Kingfish (neymeen)) - 1lbs
Chilli powder- 3 Tsp
Pepper Powder- 1/4 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Fenugreek Powder- a pinch
Ginger- Garlic paste- 1 tsp
Salt
Curry leaves- 1 sprig
Coconut oil/any other cooking oil- 3-4Tbsp

Method:

1.Make a thick paste of all the powders with salt and ginger-garlic.
2.Mix well with fish pieces, by taking each piece and applying the marinade on it and marinate for at least 30 minutes in refrigerator.
3.Heat oil in a non stick frying pan.
4.Throw in the fish pieces along with curry leaves and fry until fish is cooked well and the pieces turn brown in color.If you cover this with a lid, it will reduce the mess in the kitchen and also avoids the smell from frying to certain extend.
5.Serve warm with rice and curry or mashed tapioca.



Notes:

1.You could add lemon juice/vinegar if you like the tanginess. I do not add these.
2.For those who want it more spicier can add more pepper powder and chilli powder.
3.Coconut oil gives the authentic taste :-), but you could use any other oil.