Fish Curry – Meen Kozhambu

Fish curry and fish fry

Before I start blogging about this recipe, just a note – I am trying to change the look and feel of the site, so please bear with me while you see some color and font changes.. Now back to the recipe blog..

My Sister has long wish list that she wants me to post. One of her ( and my ) favourites is fish curry. Fish curry is called Meen Kozhambu in Tamil, Chepala Pulusu in Telugu. Living close to the coast, we always had our share of fresh fish. Thats why whenever I see the white fish fillet here in USA, I just cannot get myself to think thats its fish. More like white spongy rubber to me !!!

My mom and my grandmother make the best fish curry I have ever tasted. Especially the nethili meen kozhambu my mom makes (slurp!! slurp!! My mouth is watering as I type this) – Every time I pass by the kitchen, I will pop one of fish in my mouth – Sooo yummylicious…

This saturday, I visited the farmers market and there was a “Straight from the Sea” stall and boy was I going to miss it !! No way !!! I got a red snapper whole fish ( cut into half, scales removed ).

I started to fillet it the way we do it in India right across the fish, and I was having some difficulty with it. Just as I was pondering how to tackle the remaining fish, I remembered Santhi’s disaster in filleting the fish…So I filleted along side – It came out fine 🙂 Thanks for that blog Santhi !! Another important thing is I did this curry in the mann chatti(earthenware)

The recipe is darn simple just as my amma makes. Only thing that is different in making a fish curry is the fish has to be slided in just a minute before it ready to switch off the stove. I love this curry next day with idlis and over dhal-rice.

Ingredients
– half a big onion chopped
– two medium sized vine-ripe tomatos chopped
– two tbs sambar powder ( If using chilly powder, use 1 parts chilly powder to 2 parts coriander powder )
– 1/2 tsp turmeric
– pulp from one lemon size tamarind
– for tempering – one tsp each of mustard, fenugreek seeds, cumin

1. Heat 2 tsp oil (preferably gingely oil) and temper it with the ingredients for tempering
2. Add onion and saute for five minutes until its soft.
3. Add chopped tomato, turmeric, sambar powder, salt and cook it until the tomato becomes mushy, around 5 to 10 mins
4. Add tamarind pulp, water and cook until the onions are well cooked – 10 to 15 minutes. Adjust the amount of water to the consistency little thicker than that desired for the kozhambu.
5. Slide in the fish fillets, boil for a couple of minutes and shut down the flame.

Tips
1. Cooking with a earthenware, gingely oil, vine-ripe tomatoes definitely make a difference
2. The curry gets diluted when the fish is slided in. So the consistency has to be little thick before adding the fish.
3. Never never cover with a lid after the fish is added to the curry. It will mush up.