Kottayam Style Fish Curry / Meen Vevichathu

  

 

This is my mother’s recipe for the spicy and extremely tasty Kottayam style fish curry. This fish curry can be left outside for 1-2 days and tastes better the next day. My fish curries were always a flop until I tried this recipe. Those of you who have never had success with a fish curry will find this recipe really useful. Do try it out sometime and tell me how you liked it. It goes very well with rice/ kappa puzhukku/ idli/ dosa.

Ingredients

1. Fish - 3/4 kg (I used salmon fillets. Clean and cut the fish fillets to medium-small sized pieces)
2. Ginger - 3 tbsp, thinly sliced or chopped
3. Garlic - 3 tbsp, slice if the garlic flakes are large
4. Shallots - 5-6, thinly sliced (Optional)
5. Green chillies - 2, slit (Optional)
6. Kudam puli - 3-4 or to taste (Wash and soak them in 1/2 cup warm water for at least 15 mts. Tear into smaller pieces)
7. Curry leaves - 2 - 3 sprigs
8. Chilly powder - 2 - 2.5 tbsp (Adjust according to your spice tolerance. You can use Kashmiri chilly powder to make it less spicy.)
9. Coriander powder - 1 tbsp (Optional, I didn’t use it but you can use it if you want a really thick gravy)
10. Fenugreek powder/uluva podi - 1/2 tsp
11. Turmeric powder - 1/4 - 1/2 tsp
12. Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp
13. Dry red chilies - 2 - 3, broken
14. Coconut oil - 1.5 - 2 tbsp or as required
15. Salt - To taste
16. Water -  1.5 - 2 cups or as needed

 

Method

 

1. Make a paste of the chilly powder, turmeric powder, coriander powder and fenugreek powder in little water(around 1.5 - 2 tbsp) and keep aside.

 

2. Heat coconut oil in a claypot/meen chatti or a deep pan at medium heat and splutter the mustard seeds. Fry the dry red chillies and add the ginger, garlic, pearl onions, green chillies and saute until they turn golden. Bring down the heat and add the curry leaves and the chilli-turmeric-coriander-fenugreek paste. Saute for a minute (take care not to burn it) or until the oil starts appearing on the surface. Now add about 1.5 - 2 cups water, salt and the kudam puli pieces along with the water in which they were soaked. Bring it to a boil, check for salt and add the fish pieces. 

3. After adding the fish pieces swirl the clay pot to mix everything well.  Bring to a boil and cover with a lid. Cook at medium-low flame. Remember to rotate the meen chatti or pan every 6-8 mts. It generally takes less than 20 - 25 mts to cook the fish.

4. Cook until the fish gets done and adjust the gravy according to your consistency.  Taste-check the gravy, if it tastes very sour, remove one or two kudampuli pieces. Add some curry leaves and switch off. You can add a tsp of coconut oil for an extra taste and aroma. If there is a lot of gravy, cook for a few more minutes at medium flame without covering it. Serve with hot rice, kappa puzhukku or even idlis.

Tips:

1) You can also add shallots along with ginger and garlic but remember to fry them until golden, if you want to keep it for long.

2) You could also arrange the fish pieces on lots of curry leaves in a meen chatti and make the gravy in a separate pan. Once the gravy is prepared pour it over the fish pieces and cook.

3) We do not use coriander powder in fish curry in order to increase its shelf life. If you want a really thick gravy, you can add around 2 - 3 tsp coriander powder for this curry. You can add it along with turmeric, chilly powder and fenugreek powder while making paste with water.

4) You can try this fish curry with any fish you prefer.