Chettinad Fish Curry or the Meen Kulambu is another of the versatile South Indian dish from the Chettinad cuisine.
By now all of you must have known my love for the this South Indian cuisine. Being from the Tamil Nadu, I love any of the Tamil recipes. Especially when it comes to the chettiar recipes, I am totally spell bound.
The spices in the Chettinad Fish curry or the meen kulambu is very different from the other fish curries on my blog. You can see the south indian fish curry or the easy fish gravy recipe. You will notice how different these recipes are from the chettinad fish curry or the meen kulambu.
We add a lot of spices in the chettinad fish curry recipe that we do not add in other fish dishes. We add the black pepper and fennel seeds here, which are not added in other recipes.
And for onions, try to use shallots. The small sambar vengayam if they are available at the place you live. The shallots give a good flavor to this chettinad fish curry recipe.
But if you do not find small onions easily then you can very well use the normal onions.
Seafood gets cooked so fast and are loaded with health benefits. It is for this very reason that fish is made very often in my home. We do not have to worry about whether they are organic or not. Whether they are fed hormones and not.
There is just no reason why the fish shouldn’t be a part of our regular menu. And making in this style is just like a jewel in the crown.
Let’s get started with the Chettinad Fish Curry, Meen Kulambu, South Indian
Chettinad Fish Curry, Meen Kulambu, South Indian
Ingredients
- 500 gms fish (I have used the black pomfret, you can use any fish of your choice.)
- 3 tbsp oil
- 1 onion finely chopped
- 1 sprig of curry leaves
- 2 green chili
- 1 tsp ginger garlic paste
- 2 to matoes finely chopped
- handful of coriander leaves / cilantro
- 2 tbsp tamarind paste
Ingredients for grinding
- 15 shallots
- 1 cup freshly grated coconut
- 3 - 4 whole dry red chili
- 1/2 tsp black pepper powder
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
Instructions
- First lightly roast all the ingredients under "grinding" with 1 tsp oil. Allow to cool and make into a fine paste.
- Take oil in a pan and add the green chili and onion. Fry till the onion are golden brown in color.
- Add the curry leaves, ginger garlic paste and cook till the raw smell from the ginger garlic paste vanishes.
- Throw in the tomatoes and cook till soft and pulpy.
- Next add in the ground masala paste and 2 cups of water.
- Bring to a boil and add the fish now.
- Cook till the fish is done.
- Add the tamarind and adjust the consistency of water by adding water if required.
- Cook on low heat till water starts floating on top. Add the coriander leaves and switch off the flame.
- Serve hot.
Until next time,
Fareeha.
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Nishan says
Ground masala paste – this is a key ingrident but you have just left it silent. Do we need to buy from the shop ? Chtinad masala ?
Fareeha says
Hi Nishan,
You can find all the items under the heading “ingredients for grinding”. Thats the ground masala paste. Hope you enjoy the dish. Cheers