Do you want authentic South Indian Meen Kulambu? Here you go:). The tradional way of making fish curry from the scratch. I learned it from my Mom ( an expert in cooking). When I moved to UK for my masters, the one thing I missed was my Mom’s food. I hope many of us will have the same feeling when we move out from our family for different reasons such as studies, work or marriage ! Now do I have an option other than learning cooking to have yummy home food 😉
The meen kulambu goes great with hot idly or rice!
Let us see how to make authentic meen kulambu step by step.
If we are in India, you will have varitey of fishes such as Paarai (Malabar Trevally) Sankara (Red Snapper), Vanjaram (King Fish), Kelluthi (Cat Fish), Sheela (Baracuda), Vaaval ( Pomfret), Neyyi Meen (Tilapia), etc. In USA, we have limited options: Neyyi Meen, King Fish, Pomfret, Kelluthi and Sankara. For this meen kulambu recipe, I used Tilapia whole fish sliced into pieces. For fish curry, I took head, tail and some slices of the whole tilapia fish. The rest of the slices, I used to keep it for fish fry. Take the fish pieces, clean and wash it under running water. Wash the fish with sea salt to remove the extra scales if any.
- Take the cleaned fish and add some tamarind water, chili powder, salt and keep it aside. Also soak the tamarind in hot water.
- Now let us prepare the fish masala. Take a pan and dry roast Cumin seeds, Coriander seeds, Dry red Chili, Kashmir chili, Coconut and Onions. If you have small onion or shallots that will give a special taste to the curry. As I did not have shallots, I used red onion which is a kind of equivalent to shallots. After roasting, allow it to cool and then grind it to a thick paste. Do not grind the mixture when hot because it will make the curry get a black color texture.
- Take a deep pan and put it on medium heat. Add 1/2 cup sesame oil to it. To get the authentic taste, use sesame oil as it give the special aroma and taste to the curry. To the heated oil add mustard seeds, Urdu daal, fenugreek seeds and a pinch of Asafetida/hing. When you see the Mustard seed popping, add the slitted green chili, Garlic cloves and curry leaves. Sauté it until the garlic turns soft red.
- Now add the chopped onion and a pinch of turmeric. Sauté the onion until soft. While cooking the onion, take 1 tomato and grind it to paste. Now add the tomato paste to the sautéed onion and allow it to blend well. Add salt to the mixture as it helps in easy cooking. I use sea salt not only for its healthy benefits but also for the taste.
- Now add the fish masala paste to the onion tomato mixture and add 1/2 cup of water. Allow it to cook well for 5-7 minutes to get rid of the raw texture and smell. Add water as required to prevent it from burning . Also add salt as per the taste.
- After 7 minutes, add the tamarind puree (from the soaked tamarind pulp). Put a lid and allow it to cook for another 5 minutes. Stir the curry occasionally. Allow the curry to cook until it get a thick texture as shown in below video.
- Make sure the curry is thick enough because, when you add the fish, it will add some water to the curry. Now add the fish to the thick curry and mix it well once. Now close the pan with the lid and cook it for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, turn the fish to the other sides and cook it for another 3 minutes. DO NOT OVER COOK because, it will cause fish to become very mushy. DO NOT KEEP ON STIRRING AS IT WILL BREAK THE FISH PIECES.
- Open the lid and add some chopped curry leaves and the curry is ready to be severed with hot rice or idly. This will also go great with kepai kali (Ragi Millet).
Ingredients:
Servings: 6 Time: 30-40 minutes
- TILAPIA WHOLE FISH SLICED – 3 ( Head, Tail and some slices)
- TAMARIND – LEMON SIZE
- MUSTARD SEEDS – 1 TBSP
- CUMIN SEEDS – 1/2 TBSP
- FENUGREEK SEEDS – 1/2 TBSP
- SESEME SEED OIL – 1/2 CUP
- CURRY LEAVES – 2 STRINGS
- GREEN CHILLI- 5 SLITTED
- ONION – 1 LARGE CHOPPED
- TOTAMTO – 1 LARGE
- GARLIC – 5 CLOVES
- CHILLI POWDER – 1 TBSP
Fish Masala
- DRY ROAST ALL BELOW AND GRIND IT TO THICK PASTE
- ONION – 2 TBSP
- DRY RED CHILI – 10
- KASHMIR CHILI – 3
- CORRIANDER SEEDS – 2 TBSP
- CUMIN SEEDS – 1 TBSP
- COCONUT – 2 SLICES (MEDIUM SIZE)
Steps to Prepare:
- Clean the fish, add some tamarind water, Chili Powder and salt. Keep it aside or inside the fridge, so that the fish will be marinated.
- Soak the Tamarind in a hot water.
- Dry Roast the fish masala ingredients and allow it to cool. Grind the cooled roasted ingredients to a thick paste.
- Take a deep pan and add the sesame oil to it. When the oil gets hot, add mustard seeds, Urudu daal, hing and fenugreek seeds. Allow the mustard seeds to pop and then add slitted green chili, Garlic Cloves and curry leaves.
- When the Garlic turn slightly brown/red, add the chopped onions, turmeric and sauté it until mushy.
- Grind 1 tomato and add it to the sautéed onions. Add salt and cook it until the onion and tomato blends well.
- Add the fish curry masala and a 1/2 cup of water. Allow it to cook for 5-7 minutes.
- Now add the tamarind puree to the pan and put the lid on and allow it to cook for 7 min. Check for the texture of the curry so that it should not be very thick/burnt or watery. Refer to the video above to see the consistency. Add salt as required.
- Now add the fish to the curry and cook it for 3 minutes. After 3 minutes, turn the fish to other side and cook it for another 3 minutes.
- Now open the lid and garnish with chopped curry leaves.
- Now the fish curry is ready to serve hot!
Tips:
- Use Sesame Oil for the Authentic taste. If you do not have it, use the extra virgin olive oil.
- You can use the fish curry next day but do not reheat the curry along with the fish. Take the fish pieces separately to a plate, heat the curry and add the fish pieces in last minute, stir it and serve it.
- Add dry chili to fish masala as per your spice tolerance. This above curry will have medium spice.
- Use Sea Salt to have better taste.
- You can also replace the spice powder instead of spices for fish masala.
Fish Curry Sema 🙂