Malvani fish curry

This is my third post for malvani cuisine.  The beforesaid cuisine, which is known for its hot fiery seafood, encloses coconut due to its abundant presence.  Following here below is hot fish curry..

Ingredients required

To be roasted and ground into powder

• 2 tsp whole cumin/Jeera
• 3-4 whole dry red chillies
• 1 tsp whole dhanya
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp rock salt

Nethilli meen kozhambu

  Nethili fish or Anchovy fish is my all-time-favourite.  But as these create an heavy response, you gotta run onto fish market early to get them.  Recently, bought them and enjoyed having them..

Ingredients required

To be roasted and powdered

• 1/2 tsp raw rice
• 1 tsp chana dal
• 1 tsp whole cumin seeds
• 1/2 tsp whole peppercorn
• 1/4 tsp methi seeds
• 3-4 broken dry red chillies
• 1 tsp whole dhanya
• 1 tsp tamarind piece

Sura puttu (meat of shark fish cooked as dry sidedish)

Guys! this is a wonderful and tasty food that goes with rice and any wet curry.  Many NV lovers dont cook this, even at my mother's or at in-law's they dont cook.  But this dish has many excellant properties, that too for womens at pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy this dish is given in order to strengthen her uterus and also to enhance breast milk, apart from this other uses are as follows:

•  The nature of shark meat is described as sweet, salty and smooth and able to help the proper function of the five internal organs.

•  In “Food list of Daily Life” it says that sharkskin can relieve all kinds of poison arising from fish, kill parasites and help recover from weakness.

• Shark fat is sweet, salty and smooth and is very helpful in nourishing lungs and heart and shark bile can be used to cure throat problems.

• Shark meat contains a lot of proteins, unsaturated fatty acids and many kinds of minerals.  Shark liver is famous as a “bank of natural A and D vitamins” and is used to extract liver oil. 

• Shark cartilage-derived products such as gel and chondroitin are used as anti-cancer drugs.

So, guys off to our recipe

 First take 350gm of shark fish pieces, clean and boil in water for some ten minutes

After ten minutes, remove from water, cool it, deskin and devein it, mash it till it resembles coconut gratings texture. (This is a very tedious proces and must be handled with care)

 They are ready to get cooked now. In kadai, add oil and temper with rai, curry leaves and red chilli

 Add in onions and saute til pink and then add spice such as ginger-garlic paste, pinch of haldi, salt, red chilli and coriander powder

Add in stirred fish grating and cook till done.  Garnish with coriander leaves

Nethili poondu kolambu (Anchovy cooked in garlic garvy)

        When spending my vacation @ chennai [yes, all my friends, relatives are there, we got transferred here two years back :( :( ] my sister very secretely drank some stuff in a glass, when i viewed it, it was the curry prepared by my aunty, Mrs. Sumathi Umashanker (obviously she was the one behind the amla stuff).  I actually laughed at her for drinking a fish curry, but i was curious enough to have a sip, my goddddddddddd that was purely heavenly, later i called her and got the recipe for her basic fish masala.  So, with base for gravy in my head, i tried this out with her suggested masala, it really came great!

 

   Ingredients required

For basic poondu masala, you will need: 12 large garlic flakes, 2-3 red chilli, 1 tsp dhanya, 1/2 tsp jeera, 1/4 tsp methi, 1/2 tsp chana dal, 3-4 onion scrappings, 4-5 coconut scrappings,4-5 peppercorns

Othr ingredients are 10anchovy fish(nethili), 2 tomatos, 1 onion, tamaring extract

For tempering: one red chilli, few curry leaves, 1/2 tsp rai

Othr ingredients: haldi(turmeric powder), chilli powder, dhanya powder, coriander leaves(to garnish), salt

Method

At first, dry roast all dry ingredients in masala list like chana dal, jeera, dhanya, methi, red chilli, peppercorn

Then grind this along with garlic, onion, coconut, will get a paste like this

In a kadai, heat oil and add temper like rai, curry leave, red chilli

Then add finely chopped onions, and cook till they become soft, transculent.  This will take  some 5 minutes

Later on, add finely chopped tomatos, followed by 4-5 tsp thick tamarind extract

After tamarind extract, kindly add turmeric, salt 

After the tomatos become mushy, add paste of masala, let this cook for some 20 minutes, till smell of masala emits out

Check or taste the gravy, if you need more spice, can add red chili and dhanya powder.  Finally after masala gets cooked, add anchovy.  (My aunty says after smell of masala emits, just wait for 5 more minutes in simmer flame, then add fish and not immediately after you get smell of masala)

Simmer to 3-4 minutes, then turn off the flame, garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with idly, dosa or rice

Grilled pomfret with veggies

    Pomfret is 'vavval meen' in tamil.  Never had it before in my life.   My mother had owned an old Morphy richards cookbook with this recipe, however that recipe baked the fish with other veggies with usual spices, i just added a few more to make it interesting and served with spicy n tangy mint chutney, it was great.  My husband called it as 'delivered as in restaurent style'  I was sooooo happyyyyy :) :) :)

    Cooking was done by coating fish in dry masalas, and partially tawa cooked in order to evaporate the masala content and put into oven as a dry fish, after grilling the fish was good, crisp and very tasty too

    So, let us get back to recipe

Ingredients required

(Make sure the pomfrets are cleaned and washed without disturbing its shape and I recommend making three deep incisions over the body as shown in pic so that masala will penetrate deeply)

Three medium sized pomfrets(300gm), hung curd half a cup, and spice mix(1/4tsp haldi, 1 tsp chicken tandoori powder, 1/2 tsp chilli powder, 1tsp gingergarlic paste, 1 tspdhanya powder, 1/4 tsp amchoor powder, 11/2 tsp salt), a pinch of colour(optional, for i didnt use)

 Method

In a broad vessel take hung curd

Mix the spice mix and give a thorough whisking in hand

Add one tsp oil for glazing and continue whisking by hand

 Now drop pomfret pieces and immerse deep and keep marinated fishes in a separate vessel

You can add veggies if u wish, i added cabbage, capsicum and carrot

Let this marination rest in fridge for minimum 3-4 hours, after that cook partially in tawa so that all masala evaporates.. Note that this is done in order to make the fish dry before you keep in oven

So, after 5-10 minutes turn in upside down, and add one tsp of oil

It is done and masala has got evaporated, now for grill..

Arrange veggies over ironrods and fish over grill plate.  Bake at 150 degree celsius for 30-45 minutes, although temperature may slightly vary upon thickness of fish.  And here it is ................