It was January 2019 and I was in India for a get together with my University friends. I met my long time friend Yaso after 31 years and spent a few days with her in home in Madurai. Yaso had come down from the United States for the get together and also to visit her mother who lived in Madurai.
Yaso said to me one day that she wanted me to meet dear friends of hers who lived close to her mother's - and we turned up at this lady's house. She said her name was Sarala Mohandas and that she was originally from Nagercoil.
When someone says to you they are from your parents home town you start asking a lot of questions - and turns out this lady, who was known by her "common" name Rajam, knew my mother and my mother's siblings too. In fact she went to University with my mother's youngest brother!
What a coincidence, and when she offered this lip smacking white bait curry with crispy dosas, it felt like my mother was making my favourite dish for me - and I ate like an ogre - with no inhibitions. Personally, I took it as a sign my mother was definitely looking after me!
I fell in love with aunty Sarala's fish curry so much that I asked her for the recipe and she was generous enough to write it out for me.
The other day, I made just enough for me since my husband is not a fan of fish curry as such. He sat there licking his fingers and telling me "How come you never made this before?"
Anyhow, this is going to be a permanent dish at home during whitebait season, I can tell you!
Ingredients:
500 grams of White Bait
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
4-5 tablespoons of desiccated coconut - moistened with some warm water
3-4 shallots or 1/2 a red onion
1/2 inch piece of ginger
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon of tamarind, soaked in 1/2 cup warm water and juice squeezed out
1/2 tablespoon Kashmiri chilli powder
1 tablespoon coriander powder
1/2 a red onion, sliced finely
1 sprig curry leaves
1 tablespoon oil
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/2 a green raw sour mango, sliced
salt to taste
1 teaspoon coconut oil (optional)
Method:
Clean the fish. This is the most time consuming part of the process. I remove the guts by squeezing it out. Then, put the fish in a clean bowl and add a tablespoon of rock salt to it. Move the fish around in the salt to get most of the silvery stuff off. Then rinse with clear water and repeat this process 3 to 4 times. Eventually you will see the water is almost clear and now the fish is ready for cooking.
Add 1/2 teaspoon of turmeric powder to the fish and set aside.
Grind to a fine paste the coconut, shallots, ginger and cumin. To this paste add the chilli powder and the coriander powder and set aside. This is your masala paste.
In a large wok, heat oil, add mustard seeds. When it crackles, add the finely sliced onions and a sprig curry leaf. Mix for a while till the onions start to crisp up. Next add the masala paste and fry it up well, till you see the oil starting to come off the sides. Now add 1 cup water, the tamarind water that you squeezed before, salt to taste and the green mangoes.
When the water starts to boil and the mangoes start to soften up a bit and the gravy has thickened to your liking, add the cleaned fish.
The curry will be ready in under 10 minutes as the fish cooks very fast. Drizzle with coconut oil if using.
Serve hot with white rice or dosa.
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