Lightly spiced, fragrant and wholesome fish curry from Kerala.
Fish Molee, that's mo-lee, with the l rolled, is a different kind of fish curry from Kerala — different because the usual ingredients in a typical 'naadan' (local) fish curry would be kudampuli or malabar tamarind, raw mango and red chilli. There's none of that in a fish molee, instead the base is coconut milk and then it's really the spices that funk up the curry, particularly pepper. Look, it's a beautiful curry. The flesh literally falls off the bone because the fish is half cooked and then left to cook in the coconut milk base. And the base? I would drink it like soup. So what do you eat fish molee with? You could eat it for breakfast with appam or idiyappam, or eat it for lunch with hot basmati rice, or drink it like soup, there are no rules.
There's an interesting story about fish molee, if whoever wrote this is to be believed, the Portuguese when they came to the malabar coast for our spices were served fish curry but as it turned out, they weren't too pleased with spice. Ironic. So then came Molly, who poured coconut milk into the curry to offset the spice. And voila, fish molly for you. Corny much?....I suspect fish molee actually came from the Syrian Christians —the Nasranis, who've given us appams and stews. They were always known to work with coconut milk.
COOKING NOTES
Now before we get into the recipe, let's talk about some ingredients.
First, the fish. The ideal fish would be King Fish or King Mackerel but King Fish is known to be unhealthy and really does not contribute any nutrients so I'm going to suggest some healthy alternatives — Salmon, Pomfret, Tilapia and Rohu, all these fishes get the job done.
Next, the recipe mentions the use of thin and thick coconut milk.
You will need 250 gm worth of grated coconut. Add this into a blender with about 100 ml of warm water and blend for 20 seconds. Place the mixture into a muslin cloth and squeeze the juices into a bowl. That's thick coconut milk.
Gather the pulp, add it back into the blender with 200 ml of warm water and blitz. Pass it through a muslin cloth and voila, you have thin coconut milk.
Fish Molee
Serves 3-4
For the marinade:
8 pieces of fish (500 gm)
1 tbsp pepper powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
Juice of half a lime
Salt to taste
For the curry:
4 tbsp coconut oil
3 cinnamon sticks (small)
5-6 cloves
3-4 cardamom pods
3 medium onions, chopped
Few sprigs of curry leaves
1 tbsp ginger, chopped
1 tbsp garlic, chopped
6-7 green chillies, chopped
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp coriander powder
2 tsp pepper powder
2 medium tomatoes, cut into large pieces
2 cups thin coconut milk
Salt to taste
1 cup thick coconut milk
2 tbsp garam masala
3 tbsp pepper powder
1. Make the marinade with pepper, turmeric, lime juice and salt. Rub the mixture all over the fish and leave it to absorb.
2. In a pan, add coconut oil. Once the oil is warm, add cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Leave the aromats for 30 seconds in the oil before adding onions and curry leaves. Mix.
3. Add ginger, garlic and chopped green chillies. Mix and then add turmeric powder. Mix and let the onions soften with the lid on for 10 minutes. A good practice would be to give it a stir after the 5 minute mark and then leave it to cook.
4. While the onions are softening, in another pan, on medium heat, add two tablespoon's worth of coconut oil and shallow fry the fish until both sides have light brown specks. We are expecting the flesh to turn from pink to white. And that's how you know the fish is done.
5. Back to the curry. Add coriander and pepper powder. Mix. Add tomatoes. Mix gently as we want to retain the structure of the tomatoes.
6. Add thin coconut milk. Give it a stir. Add salt to taste and then add the fish pieces. Refer cooking notes for instructions on how to make thin and thick coconut milk.
7. Cook on medium heat with the lid on for 10 minutes and then add thick coconut milk along with garam masala and 3 tbsp pepper powder. Let simmer until it reaches your desired consistency. Serve with hot basmati rice, and serve generously.
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