Kottayam Style Fish Curry

  

 

This is my mother’s recipe for the spicy and extremely tasty Kottayam style fish curry. This fish curry can be left outside for 1-2 days and tastes better the next day. My fish curries were always a flop until I tried this recipe. Those of you who have never had success with a fish curry will find this recipe really useful. Do try it out sometime and tell me how you like it. It goes extremely well with rice/ kappa puzhukku/idli/dosa.

Ingredients

1. Fish - 3/4 kg (I used salmon fillets. Clean and cut the fish fillets to medium sized pieces)
2. Ginger - 3 tbsp thinly sliced
3. Garlic - 3 tbsp, slice if the garlic flakes are large
4. Shallots - 5-6 sliced(Optional)
5. Kudam puli - 3-4 or to taste (Wash and soak them in 1/2 cup warm water for at least 15 mts)
6. Curry leaves - 2 - 3 sprigs
7. Chilly powder - 2 - 2.5 tbsp (Adjust according to your spice tolerance. You can use kashmiri chilly powder to make it less spicy.)
8. Fenugreek powder/uluva podi - 1/2 tsp
9. Turmeric powder - 1/4 - 1/2 tsp
10. Mustard - 1/2 tsp
11. Coconut oil - 1 tbsp or as required
12. Salt - To taste
13. Water -  2 cups or as needed

 

Method

 

1. Make a paste of the chilly powder, turmeric powder and fenugreek powder in little water(around 1 - 1.5 tbsp) and keep aside.

 

2. Heat oil in a claypot/meen chatti or a deep pan and splutter the mustards. Now add the ginger, garlic, pearl onions and saute until they turn golden brown. Now add the curry leaves and the chilli-turmeric-fenugreek paste. Saute for a minute at medium heat(take care not to burn it) or until the oil starts appearing on the surface. Now add about 1.5 - 2 cups water, salt and the kudam puli pieces along with the water in which they were soaked. Bring it to a boil, check for salt and add the fish pieces. 

3. After adding the fish pieces swirl the clay pot to mix everything well.  Bring to a boil and cover with a lid. Cook at medium flame. Remember to rotate the meen chatti or pan every 6-8 mts. It generally takes less than 20 - 25 mts to cook the fish.

4. Cook until the fish gets done and adjust the gravy according to your consistency.  Taste-check the gravy, if it tastes very sour, remove one or two kudampuli pieces. Add some curry leaves and switch off. You can add a tsp of oil for an extra taste and aroma. If there is a lot of gravy, cook for a few more minutes at medium flame without covering it.

Tips:

1) You can also add shallots along with ginger and garlic but remember to brown them if you want to keep it for long.

2) You could also arrange the fish pieces on lots of curry leaves in a meen chatti and make the gravy in a separate pan. Once the gravy is prepared pour it over the fish pieces and cook.

3) We do not use coriander powder in fish curry in order to increase its shelf life. If you want to use it, you can add around 2 tsp coriander powder for this curry. You can add it along with turmeric, chilly powder and fenugreek powder while making paste with water.

4) You can try this fish curry with any fish you prefer. Here is a tilapia curry.