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
- Fish – 3/4 kg (I used salmon fillets. Clean and cut the fish fillets to medium-small sized pieces)
- Ginger – 2 tbsp, thinly sliced or chopped
- Garlic – 2 tbsp, slice if the garlic flakes are large
- Shallots – 5-6, thinly sliced (Optional)
- Green chilly – 1, slit (Optional)
- Kudam puli – 2 – 3 or to taste (Wash and soak them in 1/2 cup warm water for at least 15 mts. Tear into small pieces)
- Curry leaves – 2 – 3 sprigs
- Chilly powder – 2 – 2.5 tbsp (Adjust according to your spice tolerance. Use Kashmiri chilly powder to make it less spicy.)
- Coriander powder – 2 – 3 tsp
- Fenugreek powder/uluva podi – 1/4 tsp
- Turmeric powder – 1/2 tsp
- Mustard seeds – 1/2 tsp
- Dry red chilly – 1
- Coconut oil – 2.5 tbsp or as required (Use more oil if you are not using coriander powder)
- Salt – To taste
- Hot water – 1.5 – 2 cups or as needed
Method
1. Make a paste of the chilly powder, coriander powder, fenugreek powder and turmeric powder in little water(around 1.5 – 2 tbsp) and keep aside.
2. Heat 2 – 2.5 tbsp coconut oil in a claypot/meen chatti or a deep pan at medium heat and splutter the mustard seeds. Fry the dry red chilly and add the ginger, garlic, pearl onions, green chilly,curry leaves and saute until they turn golden. Bring down the heat and add the chili–coriander-fenugreek-turmeric 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 hot water, salt and the kudam puli pieces. Bring it to a boil, check for salt and add the fish pieces. (If the gravy is not sour enough, add some water in which the kudampuli pieces were soaked.)
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 mts to cook the fish.
4. Cook until the fish gets done and the gravy is medium-thick. Taste-check the gravy, if it tastes very sour, remove one or two kudam puli pieces. Switcch off. Add some curry leaves and 2 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 idli/dosa. This tastes best after one day.
Tips:
1) You can also add shallots along with ginger and garlic but remember to fry them until golden, In order to increase its shelf life.
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) If you prefer a thick gravy, you can add around 1 – 1.5 tbsp coriander powder for this curry. But in order to increase its shelf life, avoid adding it.
4) You can try this fish curry with any fish you prefer. Here’s a pomphret curry…
Wow….colorful n spicy. My family’s fav one..loved your neat presentation dear.
i love fish recipes…flavourful recipe…
ummm kandittu kothi akkunnu…..i love all the fish curry..meen ellatha penna enthu choru…
send me the bowl dear..its looks so spicy and bful colr….i love this fish curry…
wow what a beautiful click and such a lovely colour..looks very delicious…
Wooow!!! curry looks soo colourful dear makes me hungry to try it today but yesterday only finished fish had my fish fry. Superb fish curry paa.
Regarding ur query on fruit cake,sure dear you can use butter.
Omg, Wat a colourful curry, truly tempting and very catchy…yummyy!!
oooh the red curry with puttu is so damn tasty..i love it
I am expecting wonderful pictures as usual and you didn’t cheat me 🙂 Beautiful and tasty recipe. Loved the colour and consistency of the dish.
OMG!! this looks soooooooooooooooo good, I haven’t had my breakfast yet.. Im super hungry after lookin this post! Relly mouth watering.
Looks so gud..and love your blog…wonderful place..
i like this curry because it so simple and taste superb. kottayam’s own fish curry..
nice color and looks so delicious.
Wow superb fish curry…looks so spicy and so tempting :)..lovely presentation.
Wow this looks so good …yummy and nice color ..i love the Kottayam fish curry…
I loved the colour of the dish…and i bet it must be very tasty too…the snaps are grt…
Wow.. colourful fish curry… Looks to be spicy and yummy too.. I love this curry..
Super Fish Curry..Colorful and must have been spicy..
Entamme, echiri chorum koode tharamo..We love this spicy meen curry..Yummies..You Rock!!!
Love
Kairali sisters
love love love this tempting fish curry. would love to try this. what is kudam puli? is it kokum?
Fish in red sauce looks divine!
this one is wonderful.. let me try this next time.
Oh so lovely Fish Curry..Have booke marked it..I can bet its tasty
great fish curry looks delicious cooking method is amazing
wow… nalla meen curry!!! Love to have it with naadan kappa…. mouth watering indeed!!!
Thats a perfect and lovely fish curry..
Thank you all for your lovely words 🙂
Oh my! I really miss what my mom makes. She make the best fish curry. Nice clicks too.Red and spicy s=fish curry. i love to have with rice and moru curry.
I made this fish curry and it came out really good. I have put a picture of it in my blog…
Hi I have tried this kottayam fish curry. It was really tasty….. Thank you for availing the preparation…..expecting more different fish recipes from you guys………..
Cooking Blog Indexer and arathi,
Thanks a lot for trying out this recipe…Really glad to hear that you liked it :). We will surely post more fish recipes…
I have tried this curry from my friend….i like this curry, even though its quite spicy….she served us with kappa which was a match made in heaven….
Iam too a sucker with fish…and tired of trying out fish curries….one day teh cury will come out good, when i try to take measurements, it goes flop…so stopped meen curry experiments:)
Did you put mustard seeds?
Yes, we’ve used mustard seeds..
Lovely!!!!!! Just came to ur site today but i already decided to try many of ur items…Wish me luck!!
Welcome to our space Salu 🙂 Hope you will enjoy our recipes. Do let us know if you try them out..Good luck!!
Made this and turned out really well. Thanks for the great recipe. Love your site.
Anonymous,
Thanks a lot for your feedback. Great to know that it came out well..
Orangesnlemons2003, The best kottayam fish curry ever! Always turns out to be lip smacking !!
This was absolutely delicious. My whole family enjoyed the dish immensely.