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Monday, February 18, 2008

Meen Peera Pattichathu

A dry preparation with fish, mostly done with small fishes like smelt (natholi ) or very small sardine, this preparation brings out a good taste.

Ingredients

1 lb - Smelt, cleaned & washed
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
3/4 tsp - Red chili powder
1 big - Kodampuli
Salt to taste
To make a coarse mixture

1/2 cup - Grated coconut
1 big - Shallot, chopped
2 - Green chili, chopped
1/2 '' piece - Ginger, chopped
1/4 tsp - Jeera

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
2 sprigs - Curry leaves

Method

1 ) Wash kodampuli and then soak it in one cup warm water for 10 minutes. Make a coarse paste of coconut, shallot, ginger, green chili and jeera in a blender.

2 ) To a meen chatty or to a deep pan, add kodampuli along with the water it is soaked in to the chatty, red chili powder, turmeric powder and salt to taste. Bring to a boil, simmer and cook for 3- 4 minutes. Now add fish and cook till the fish is just about cooked. Add coconut mixture to the fish and cook till all the water is used up. This fish cooks very fast and can break to pieces.

3 ) Heat a pan with oil. Pop mustard seeds and then add curry leaves. Pour this seasoning on the fish and mix. Take off the stove and serve.

Serve hot with rice.

15 comments:

FH said...

Delicious! I really like the masala there, could use with other meat or veg dishes!:)

Shy said...

Hi! This looks really good. The picture is so tempting...
Shy

Pravs said...

Asha : Yeah, the coconut mixture will be good with dry veggie prepartion, minus the ginger. I use the mixture to make thoran's.

Shy : Thanks shy. glad to see your comment :)

Mishmash ! said...

One of my fav preps.....we call this just meen peera:)

Pravs said...

Mishmash : We too call this just meen peera,but was not sure if that was the real name....asked my mom and got this title :)

Sig said...

I love meen peera, don't have the patience to clean the small fishies though... my mom made it when she was here... :)

Anonymous said...

Hi Pravs
Thanks a lot for all the mouth watering recipes. Kodumpuli is a type of tamarind I believe. The actual stuff is not available here in Toronto and I bouught a bottle of Goruka paste which the Sri Lankan store owner assured me is the same as kodumpuli. Could you please guide me as to how many tsps. I should use instead of 1 big kodumpuli and also whether I could use it as a substitute for Tamarind.
Thanks
Neville Toronto

Kalai said...

Great and simple dish, Pravs! Will try this. :)

Pravs said...

sig : cleaning the fish is the hard part..otherwise a delicious dish to have :)

Neville : I am so sorry... i have no idea what Goruka paste is or how it tastes to make any suggestions :(
kokum ( though i have not used this ) has sourness, which could be substitued instead of kodampuli.
Kokum will be available in indian stores.

neroli said...

Dear Pravs, as always, everything I'm seeing makes me wish to dig right in!

Finla said...

Oh I don't remember the last time i had this and it was one of the dishes we always had back at home.

VINI said...

aiyyo, naattile orma varunnu!! looks delicious..so mouthwatering :).

Seena said...

We too say Meenpeera..As you said,netholi is good for this.I would make with big sardines too..:)

sandhya said...

Looks great.i just brought smelt last week. Fried half, baaki pattikamennu vicharichu.I hate the cleaning part.

Bits said...

Turned out real yummy!! I used normal tamarind instead of kudampuli and frozen "Mullan" (we call it Kaaral back home) instead of anchovy.
Very simple and quick recipe -- just had it with rice.
We call it meen peera too.