Kappayum Meenum / Boiled Tapioca with Kerala Fish Curry

Kappayum Meenum! Need I say more? Every person who grew up in Kerala must miss this when they are out of their nests. Oh, unless they are vegetarian. Then they would miss... I don't know! What do vegetarians miss when they leave Kerala? Enlighten me.

Anyway, I miss this. Among other things of course but this I miss one of the most because it represents home so much to me. Suma, our maid, brought some kappayum meenum for sis and I and of course I took the banana leaf that happened to lie around in amma's kitchen and clicked it. I later asked amma for the recipe so I am not sure if this is hers or Suma's. Either ways, it works, trust them if not me.

Meen Mulakarachathu, as we call it in Kottayam, is not my favourite Kerala fish dish but with kappa, its unbeatable. Its called by so many names by the way - Meen Vevichathu, Meen Mulakittathu, and even Meen Pattichathu. All one and the same folks!

Kappa Puzhukku / Boiled Tapioca Kerala Style

Ingredients:
1 kilo tapioca / kappa
3/4 cup grated coconut
5 green chillies
5 flakes of garlic
5 shallots
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp cumin seeds / jeera / jeerakam
3 sprigs of curry leaves
3 tbsp coconut oil
Salt to taste

How Its Made:

1. Peel and wash the tapioca well. Cut into small cubes and add to a pan with water 3" inches higher than the level of tapioca. Bring to boil and add salt. Let it simmer on medium-low flame until the tapioca is almost soft.

2. Meanwhile, grind the other ingredients except curry leaves and oil. Once the tapioca is almost soft (just short of mushy stage), add the ground paste, along wtih the coconut oil and curry leaves. Mix well and let it heat through. (Alternately, you can heat oil in another pan, add curry leaves to it and then mix with the tapioca).

3. Remove from fire and serve with tangy and spicy fish curry /  meen vevichathu.

Meen Mulakarachathu / Meen Vevichathu / Meen Mulakittathu / Kerala Style Fish Curry

Ingredients:
1/2 kg any firm fish, cleaned and cubed (ideally with bones)
3 tbsp red chilli powder / mulaku podi (use Kashmiri chilli powder or a mix of that and the regular one if you can't take heat)
1 tbsp coriander powder / malli podi
3 pieces of kudam puli
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds / uluva
3 sprigs of curry leaves
5 shallots
5 garlic cloves
1" piece of finger
3 green chillies, slit
3 tbsp coconut oil

How Its Made:

1. Crush shallots, ginger, and garlic together in a pestle and mortar (or grind together).

2. Heat oil in a pan and add the fenugreek seeds. When they start to brown, add the crushed ginger-garlic-shallot paste. Fry for 10 seconds and then add the coriander powder, followed by the red chilli powder. Fry for another 10 seconds. Add curry leaves and green chillies and mix together well.

3. Now add the turmeric powder and the kudam puli with 2 cups water and salt. Bring to boil and let it boil for 2-3 mins before adding the fish.

4. Simmer on low heat for another 10-12 mins until the fish is cooked through. Check for salt and tanginess and add more of either if necessary.

Goes best with kappa puzhukku.

Nethili Meen Fry / Anchovies Fried Kerala Style

This is probably my most favourite Kerala fish recipe - nethili (natholi / uzhuva) fry. Its supposedly high in calcium because we eat the bones too.

Anchovies make regular appearance in a lot of Asian cuisines, especially in Malay dishes but those are much tinier than the ones I have seen in Kerala. I hear these are also called bait fish because of their size and alternate use.

Since I don't cook meat or fish in my kitchen, raw fish/meat slightly turns me off. I contemplated for a long time before posting this. Its one for the Kerala non vegetarian lovers :)

My mom adds a special ingredient to the marinade to make it yummier. Its probably common in your kitchen but she got the tip a few years back and nethili fry in our kitchen has been awesome since then.

Nethili Meen Fry / Fried Anchovies Recipe
Serves: 2-4
Recipe source: Amma

Ingredients:
250gm nethili meen / anchovies
2-3 tbsp maida / plain flour or half an egg (the extra ingredient amma adds!)
Oil to deep fry

For Marinade:
8 shallots
3-4 cloves of garlic
2" piece of ginger
1 tsp red chilli powder (adjust to taste)
A pinch of turmeric powder
1/4 tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste
Water as needed

How Its Made:

1. Clean the fish and cut / pinch off the head part. I have never cleaned fish so no tips from me here, sorry.

2. Grind all the ingredients for marinade into a smooth paste. Mix in with the fish and set aside for atleast an hour.

3. Heat enough oil to deep fry about 1/4th the fish at a time. Before frying, mix in half the egg or the maida and make sure its well incorporated into the fish-marinade mixture. This gives a nice texture to the fried fish.

4. Fry until nicely browned. At home we prefer fish that's not fried to the bones so that the flesh is still soft. Go with what your heart says.

Always serve fried fish with chopped, raw onions. Always. Trust me on this, the onion-breath afterwards is worth it. 

Kerala Fish Stew / Meen Molee Recipe

As you guys probably know by now, I don't cook meat or fish in my kitchen. Although I reason I give is TH's vegetarianism, the actual truth is, he doesn't care what I cook as long as he gets his vegetarian dishes. So its my laziness in cooking separate things for him and me that's the actual reason. There, I said it!

Due to this self-imposed limitation, I asked my amma to be a guest contributor to Edible Garden. We live in Kerala, and although we don't eat fish every day like most Malayalis do, some fish does get cooked in her kitchen on and off. So expect posts from amma in this blog from now on, with pictures styled by her and taken by my dear uncle.

Here's a previous recipe cooked and clicked by the bro-sis team: chambakka pickle.

Ok on to today's recipe: Fish Molee or Meen Molee, a very popular Kerala fish stew that's cooked in coconut milk and spices. The flavour is light, yet spicy with a good bit of green chillies in the mix. Each household in Kerala will have their own version of course, and this is amma's.

Meet the fish. These big-eyed beauties are called Unnimary after the pretty actress of the 80s known for her large, beautiful eyes. Erm.. yeah she was quiet a sexy addition to movies back in the day.

I apologize to my vegetarian readers and friends for this picture. But I had to demonstrate what a quick learner amma is. I gave her some photography tips over phone about good light, background, plating, no flash, etc and she followed the "rules" beautifully.

You can use any firm fleshy fish for fish molee. Cut into small-ish pieces, don't use small, whole fish. Admittedly, I don't have much experience handling fish so trust my mom on this, ok?

Here are some of the ingredients we need. Lots of onions, fresh curry leaves and green chillies, and of course, coconut milk.

Kerala Fish Molee / Meen Molee Recipe
Serves 4
Recipe source: Amma

Ingredients:
500gm firm fleshy fish, cut into small pieces
2 large onions, sliced into long, thin pieces
8-10 green chillies, depending on heat level required
Thick coconut milk 1/2 cup (onnaam paal)
Thin coconut milk 1.5 cups (rendaam paal - if using store bought coconut milk, mix water with 1/2 cup coconut milk)
1 tsp minced fresh ginger
1 tsp red chilli powder
1 tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp pepper powder
2 1" pieces of cinnamon (don't use powder)
4 cloves
1/2 tsp maida/plain flour
2-3 sprigs of curry leaves
Salt to tate
(Coconut) Oil as needed

Method of preparation:

1. Clean the fish and add a pinch of turmeric powder, some salt, and 1/2 tsp red chilli powder (this is in addition to what is listed above under ingredients) to the pieces. Rub in well and leave aside for 30 minutes to an hour.

2. Heat about 1 cup oil in a small frying wok or pan and fry the fish until half done. The idea is to semi-cook the fish rather than fry it well. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat about 1 tbsp oil in another pan and saute the onions until soft and pink. To this, add the flour, chilly powder, pepper powder, turmeric, and curry leaves. Fry for another minute or so.

4. Next, add the thin coconut milk along with the ginger, green chillies, vinegar, cloves and cinnamon along with salt as needed. Cook closed on low heat for about 12-15 mins until all the spices come together in the mixture.

5. At this stage, add the semi-fried fish. When the mixture comes to boil, add the thick coconut milk, mix well and remove from fire (don't bring to boil after adding the thick coconut milk).

Notes:

- As I have mentioned, different parts of Kerala make fish molee in a different way. Another version I have seen is much milder and lighter in colour because all the heat comes from green chillies and no red chilli powder is added. Amma's version sometimes has an orange colour because she generally uses Kahsmiri chilli powder that has a deeper red colour but milder heat. Dishes cooked in my house are not very spicy, if at all.

- Fresh coconut milk works best for this dish. Store-bought coconut milk will lend a different flavour and may not exactly satisfy your cravings if you are hoping for this authentic fish molee for your meal

- Serve hot with rice and any stir-fried vegetable or mezhukkupuratti of choice.

Huge thanks to Amma and Radha mama for the superb step by step pictures :) 

Top 5 Fish Recipes - The Recipe Diary

After the pretty great feedback most of you gave me for the list of non vegetarian biryani recipes from The Recipe Diary, here's a list of top 5 fish recipes from the site.

The first 4 fish recipes are from Divya of Yum World

1. Fish Molee 
2. Fish Curry 
3. Fried Pearlspot /  Karimeen Varuthathu 
4. Fried Sardines / Mathi Varuthathu
5. Steamed Hilsa by Sudeshna (a yummy Bengali treat!)

If you have any recipes you'd like to submit, please visit this link!

Image by Lubna

Huge thanks to Lubna for her Prawns Biryani, Shifa for her Malabar Chicken Biryani and Malabar Beef / Mutton Biryani, and Lena for her Chicken Biriyani submitted following my post last week non vegetarian recipes in The Recipe Diary.

Ocean Curry Fish Head, Telok Ayer Street

Curry fish head is a Singaporean specialty. During my initial days here, I used to wonder "a curry with fish head? But isn't the head the part we usually discard?". Well, apparently not. Pictures like the one below are pretty common as are restaurants offering curry fish head.

Ocean Curry Fish Head is one of our favourite haunts from work. Its a 10-min walk from work and any time we have a new joinee in the team (roughly once a month or so), there will be a calendar invite from someone saying "Curry Fish Head with ----".

Well, it kinda looks like this in real life! There's a fish head in there somewhere. Its huge and its got meaty parts too. The thing is, when a claypot that's bigger than my head comes bubbling to the table, the smart thing to do is stay a bit away and click carefully.

The curry is very hard to describe. It definitely doesn't taste anything like any Indian curry but it has coconut and all the spices and vegetables that we normally use. And its pretty darn good.

This place also has a whole range of other food we can pick, to go with the steamed rice and curry fish head. We have some regulars..

Like the tofu salad with raw mango slices. The sauce is tangy and spicy and light.

Then, of course, the stir fried bean sprouts.

This is a favourite for quite a few people at work. Fried anchovies (ikan bilis) with peanuts. Its slightly sweet but definitely tasty. I suspect if they add honey to this.

One of my faves. Fish Otah (aka otak-otak). Its mashed, spiced and steamed fish in banana leaves. It looks like raw fish marinated in masala, I know. But you have to taste this to see how awesome fish can taste. Really! Ocean Curry Fish Head place has one of the best otahs I have tried.

Some kang kong to balance out all that fish!

This is something we don't usually order but someone was feeling experimental that day. Which ended up being a good thing because this was super good. Jumbo prawns in a hot and sweet sauce with pineapple chunks, chillies and spring onions. I usually don't like pineapple in my food (yes, not even in Biriyani) but for this dish, I could just ignore that.

In case you thought we are eating too much fish, think again. This pepper chicken is just the right kind of spicy and tasty as they come. A crowd favourite, although this place is better known for their seafood, and of course, Curry Fish Head.

What you've seen here is probably just 1/3rd of what they have to offer. We usually go in a group of 6-8 people and order a bunch of stuff like this. You can also dao bao (take away) your lunch.

The queue around noon is extremely long so be prepared!

**All pics taken with my Nexus One with a very hungry group of people around so excuse the picture quality :)

Ocean Curry Fish Head

181 Telok Ayer Street S(068529)

Tel: 6324 9226

Closest MRT: Tanjong Pagar

Avg cost per person: 12-14 SGD

A Simple Kerala Meal With Fish Curry

I had posted a 30-minute Kerala meal for Shaheen's Express Cooking Event a few months back. Its was the most popular post till my Low-Fat Sugar Cookies took over. So here is a sequal, a simple lunch at home with Kerala Fish Curry, Cabbage Thoran and Rice.

Kerala Fish Curry

What I Used:

Kanambu Fish/Mullet or any other medium sized fish - 1/2 kg
Coconut - 2 cups
Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp
Jeera powder - 1/2 tsp
Garlic - 4 cloves
Shallots - 4
Tamarind paste - 1 tbsp
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Mustard and fenugreek - for tempering
Gingelly oil - 2 tbsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

1. Grind coconut, pepper, garlic, shallots, turmeric and jeera to a paste with some added water.

2. Heat oil and crackle mustard seeds. Fry fenugreek for a while and add a couple of chopped shallots. Then add curry leaves and chilly powder.

3. Add the gound paste, tamarind salt. Half a cup water may be added at this stage if gravy is too thick. Boil for 2 mins.

4. Add the cleaned and cut fish pieces, close and cook for 10 mins.

5. Serve hot with rice and any thoran.

Note: Replacing tamarind paste with one or two kodam puli (cocum) would change the flavour of the curry. But we use kodam puli only in curries that use no coconut.

More Kerala Recipes:

Karimeen Pollichathu

Kerala Fish Fry

Aviyal

Ethakka Thoran/Raw Banana Thoran

Hope Jyothsna does not ban me from her event RCI - Kerala this month. This is my third entry :)

Karimeen Pollichathu/Pearl Spot Kerala Style

I was recently back home in Kottayam for three weeks and my bro was also there on a vacation from Dubai. So was my sis from Trichy. So all of us were craving for some karimeen pollichathu, a toddy shop speaciality. The monsoons have been acting up this year and the toddy shops were making use of the opportunity and selling one fish at 150rs. Considering we are around 6-7 members in the house, we decided to cut the costs by preparing this at home. Mom immediately turned to me since she was not very comfy with making it on her own. I have experimented with Sardines/Mathi when I was in college, but with karimeen, one couldn't afford to experiment and mess up. Anyway, I decided to give it a shot and at the end of it all, we were all pretty happy :)

The marinated fish ready to be wrapped and fried

What I Used:

Pearl Spot/Karimeen - 4, cleaned and slit on the side.

For the paste:
Shallots - 10
Onions - 1 big
Ginger - a 2" piece
Garlic - 10 cloves
Chilly powder - 1 tbsp
Pepper powder - 2 tsp
Vinegar - 2 tsp
Curry leaves - 2 strands
Salt - to taste

Coconut oil - for frying
Tender banana leaves - to wrap the fish in while cooking

How I Made It:

1. Make a paste with all the ingredients mentioned.

2. Marinate the fish well in the paste. It may not completely stick to the fish, but make sure that it is mostly covered.

3. Place the fish in the banana leaf and wrap gently.

4. Pour some oil in a wok. Gently place the wrapped fish in, close with a lid and cook on a low fire till both sides are done. This took me around 30 mins, per fish.

Garnish with onion rings, tomatoes, cucumber and a piece of lime.

Final pic taken by my sis :)

The same recipe may be followed by big-sized sardines too, but I am not sure if it will come out well for canned sardines. I have only used fesh sardines and they come out nice and soft. The masala makes sure that the unpleasant smell of sardines is completely masked.

For a behind-the-scene story, visit my sister's blog.

Kerala Fish Fry

When I saw that this month's JFI by Saffron Trail is on Chillies, the first thing that came to my mind was the spicy fried fish that my mom invariably prepares when we visit home. This is her preparation and I am merely posting the recipe with the picture. Since its exremely difficult to get good fresh fish in Hyderabad, I am left with no options.



What I Used:

Any medium sized fish - 4 pieces

For the paste:
Chilly powder - 1tsp
Pepper powder - 1/4 tsp
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Curry leaves - 1 strand
Turmeric powder - one pinch
Fenugreek powder - 1/4 tsp
Salt - to taste

How I Made It:

Grind the ingredients for the paste, adding a little water. Marinate the fish pieces in the paste for 4 hours. Deep fry in coconut oil till the pieces turn dark. Serve hot.

My entry for JFI For August hosted by Saffron Trail.
Recipe courtesy: my mom :)