Kerala Style Fish Masala

You probably know by now that how much I love South Indian food. Well...we all pretty much love dosa and idli and their curry leaves flavoured curries to some extent but when it comes to me...I stretch it a far too long. For me....masala dosa and idlis are not the limit....I want to explore all the nooks and corners of their food habits and cultures.

Generally if you look at their fish curries, you will find that they dump raw fishes into their curries...in stark contrast to the Bengali practice, where we first marinate them with turmeric powder and salt and then fry them until crisp before adding them to the curry. But this recipe is different from their general counterparts.

Here a special spicy marinade is prepared for the fishes. These fishes are then shallow fried and then added to the curry. Also, in some recipes there is no use of curry leaves in this curry. Only thick coconut milk and, c’est tout!! Also its very spicy and rich...so if you are not okay with that go slow with the dry red chillies, red chilli powder and oil. Trust me...the taste will be equally good at that time too.

Kerala Style Fish Masala

Serves 4-6

Ingredients:

For marinating the fish:

4 fat cloves of garlic

½ inch stick of ginger

2 tsp turmeric powder

1 tsp Kashniri red chilli powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp coriander seeds

A few black peppercorns (6-8)

10-12 dry red chillies

Salt

1 tbsp salt

Method:

6 thick pieces of fish

3 medium onions – chopped

1 tomato – chopped

3-4 fat garlic cloves – minced

1 inch ginger stick – minced / paste

1 can of coconut milk

1 tsp turmeric powder

2-3 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder

1 and ½ tsp coriander powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

1 tsp dry fenugreek leaves

A handful of fresh coriander leaves – chopped

2-3 tbsp oil

Method:
Dry roast the cumin seeds, coriander seeds, black peppercorns and dry red chillies for a minute.

In a grinder put together the garlic cloves, ginger stick and all the dry roasted spices, with little water and make a smooth paste of it. Pour this paste in bowl and whisk in the red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt.

Rub this paste over all the pieces of fish. Let them marinade in this paste for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, heat the oil in a kadai and fry the marinated piece of fish until they become crisp from outside.

Take the fishes out of the kadai after they are nicely fried.

Throw in all the chopped fishes into the remaining oil and sauté them on medium heat until they become lightly golden.

Add the ginger-garlic paste and sauté to get rid of the strong garlic flavours.

Next add the chopped tomatoes and cook till they become all mushy and oil starts to separate from the curry. Sniff the curry to be sure. If the curry does not smell like tomatoes anymore, your curry is ready.

Add a dash of water and throw in the turmeric powder, red chilli powder and coriander powder.

Pour in the coconut milk and give a good stir to mix everything well.

Adjust the salt.

Let the gravy come to a boil and then put the fried pieces of fish into it.

Put cover and cook for 10-12 minutes, so that the pieces of fish can absorb all the flavours from the curry.

Open the lid and sprinkle the dry fenugreek leaves.

Simmer on medium flame till the gravy thickens and oil starts to float on top of it.

Taste and adjust the seasonings.

Finally finish off with the handful chopped fresh coriander leaves.

Put off the flame

Serve hot with rice / roti.