Meen Mulagu Charu – Red Fish Curry
Spicy, delicious Indian fish curry, packed with flavors.
Servings 4 people
Ingredients
Curry
- 70 ml coconut oil
- 2 g fenugreek seeds
- 100 g sliced shallots
- 40 g finely grated garlic
- 40 g slices green chilli
- 30 g fresh curry leaves
- 3 g ground turmeric
- 30 g kashmiri chilli powder
- 400 ml water
- 80 g dried kudampuli soaked in 1 cup water
- 1 tsp salt flakes, plus extra to season
- 1 blue swimmer crab, quartered, gills and guts removed
- 500 g coral trout, skin off, 4 cm dice
Tempered Spices
- 30 ml coconut oil
- 15 g sliced shallots
- 5 g white mustard seeds
- 2 g ground fenugreek
- 10 g curry leaves
- 5 g finely julienned green chilli
Instructions
Curry
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Place the coconut oil in a large wok over high heat.
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Add fenugreek seeds and warm until they pop.
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Add shallots, ginger, garlic, green chilli and curry leaves.
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Sauté well until soft, sweet and beginning to colour. Season with a little salt.
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Reduce the heat to low add the turmeric and chilli powder, stir well and cook out for 1-2 minutes.
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Add the water, hydrated kokum and a little of the soaking water.
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Add the salt and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5-6 minutes. Check flavour, heat and seasoning and adjust if necessary.
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Place crab and coral trout into the curry and simmer for 5 minutes or until seafood is just cooked.
Tempered spices
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Heat coconut oil in a small frying pan over medium heat.
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Add shallots, mustard seeds and fenugreek and cook for 3 minutes. Add the curry leaves and green chilli and stir through.
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Pour Tempered Spices over the curry
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Optional – serve with appam.
Notes
NOTE1: This curry is very different to other curries you get in common Indian restaurants.
NOTE2: I used kokum fruit since I couldn’t find kudampuli (although was told that it is the same fruit by the store owner). I found some conflicting information online.
Kokum fruit adds a lot of unique flavor and texture to the dish, and sour ingredients such as tamarind are not equivalent.
NOTE3: I served this curry with Persian cauliflower rice which was a healthy and great matching accompaniment.