Fish curry

Fish curry recipe
Serves – 4
Cooking time – approx 40 min

Ingredients:
Fish of your choice or prawns (peeled and de-veined) – ½ kg
Salt – 1-1/2 teaspoon or to taste
Green chillies – 4, medium hot, de-seeded
Onion – 1, medium size, sliced
Coconut oil – 2 tablespoon
Mustard Seeds – 1 teaspoon
Curry Leaves – a small bunch, freshCoconut milk – 2 cups, extracted from one fresh small firm whole coconut scrapings
Kodampuli – 4 pieces, boiled in water
Water – 2 cups, warm

For ground paste:
Red chillies – 6
Peppercorns - 3
Turmeric powder – ½ teaspoon
Coriander seeds – 1 teaspoon
Cummin seeds – 1 teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds – ¼ teaspoon
Garlic – 6 cloves
Ginger – 1 inch piece

Method: Wash, clean, and cut the fish into 6-7 pieces. Mix it with the salt, green chillies, and onion. Keep aside. Combine all the the ingredients for paste, and grind it to make a smooth paste. Extract coconut milk and keep aside. Heat oil in a deep pan. When very hot, add mustard seeds. When those stop spluttering, add curry leaves and the ground paste. Fry the paste on a medium heat for 2 minutes. Add a little water if needed. Now put the coconut extract and stir-cook for 20 minutes. The sauce will become thick. Add the marinated fish pieces and the kodampuli pulp to the boiling sauce. Add enough water to cover the fish pieces. Cook on a medium heat stirring it lightly in between. Stir only with the stem end of a spoon or just shake the vessel lightly. This is to prevent the fish from breaking into bits. Add more salt to taste if necessary. When the fish curry is reduced to half its quantity and gravy thickens, remove the curry from fire and put it into a serving dish. Serve hot or cool and enjoy.

Fish curry made this way is delicious when eaten with white boiled rice, bread, dosais, idlies, or appams. Cover the fish curry with a lid only after it cools.