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Tuesday, January 09, 2007

Meen Vattichathu - Fish Curry


With the fiery looks and the hot & spicy taste, this fish curry is a popular dish in kerala. It's mostly cooked with oily fish. The oil of the fish enhances the taste of this curry. I have cooked with salmon. Back home in kerala, it's cooked mostly with sardine and mackeral. Sardine tastes just great with this prepartion, when the fish is very oily. To reduce the spicy level, Kashmiri chili powder can be used. But those of you who like the hot and spicy taste, just go ahead and cook with the red chili powder. Tamarind used here is kodampuli. If you don't have kodampuli, use regular tamarind. In kerala this curry is cooked in "chatty" which is a earthen pot.

Ingredients

500 gms - Fish
1 tbsp - Chili powder or Kashmiri chili powder
4 - Shallots, chopped
2 - Green chili, slit in center
1 inch - Ginger, chopped
3 - Kodampuli
1/4 tsp - Fenugreek seeds
2 to 3 sprig - Curry leaves
1 cup - water

Coconut oil
Salt to taste


Method

1 ) Soak kodampuli in little water, wash and clean, set aside.

2 ) Heat oil in a heavy bottom pan or kadai. Add fenugreek seeds. When it turns light brown add shallots, green chili, ginger and curry leaves. Stir and fry for few minutes.

3 ) Add chili powder, stir and fry for a minute. Add water and kodumpuli. Cook to a boil. When using tamarind, extract 1 cup of tamarind juice and add after frying chili powder.

4 ) Add fish pieces and salt to taste.Cook to a boil and then simmer the heat. Cook on low heat for 10 -15 minutes till the gravy thickens up and the fish is cooked.

5 ) Add some coconut oil, like a final garnish and take off the fire.



This is served mostly with kappa vevichathu or with rice.

6 comments:

Prakash Gopan V said...

Ohhhh.... Wowwww....
Aa padam kandappozhe vayaru niranjallo....

Noushu says: said...

wow!!
Enikkipol meen vattichathu kitttanam...................... hmmmmmmmmmmmm

Anonymous said...

Hi, I was wondering if I could use this picture on my blog for a post. Please let me know.

Thanks.

Anonymous said...

hi Pravs
after so many failed attempts to make a decent fish curry, i tried this recipe yesterday for dinner. guess what my hubby's comment was?


idivettu meen curry!!!!!!!
thanks for the wonderful recipe, it was really yummmmmm

thanks

sam

Pravs said...

Sam : Thanks for this great feedback. Now reading such a feedback makes it even more worth while blogging recipes :) Thanks for trying.

ria said...

finally got a good recipe to cook with salmon