Thursday, March 16, 2006

Fish curry and Sweet potato-red bean curry

continuation of a nostalgic meal

Fish curry with Kokum


Kokum (Kodum Puli) is the mystery ingredient in this fish curry, which gives it a very distinct flavor -a sour, smoked flavor with a tinge of sweetness from the coconut milk. I am not sure if this is available in USA. This is one spice that always finds its place in my luggage from home. Stored in an air-tight container these stay good for up to two years for me.


Recipe

Fish : 2 lbs
Onion, Sliced: 2
Ginger-garlic paste : 2 t
Tomato, chopped: 2
Green Chilli, sliced : 3
Curry leaf : 4-5
Kokum : 2
Coconut milk , thick : 1 cup
Water : 1 cup
Chilli powder: 2 T
Turmeric powder: ½ t
Corriander Powder: 3 T
Pepper powder: 1t
Fenugreek : ¼ t
Oil : 3 T
Salt

Heat oil in a pot, add fenugreek and fry for a couple of seconds.
Add ginger Рgarlic paste, onions and saut̩ on low heat till the onions are well saut̩ed. Then add the powdered spices chilli-turmeric-corriander and fry till a nice aroma comes.

Pour water, add tomatoes, kokum , green chillies, curry leaf, salt and bring to a boil.
Add the fish pieces and cook until the pieces are thoroughly cooked.

Pour the coconut milk and simmer on low heat for 5 to 10 minutes. Serve hot.
(This curry tastes best on the second day)

Sweet potato-red beans curry




Easy to cook, and melt in your mouth mellow taste, makes this dish an excellent side dish with rice and other curries. My mother makes this one with pumpkin (mathan). The pumpkins I have seen here so far looks so different from the ones seen in Kerala, they are much bigger, have a harder skin and the color is definitely more orrraangish. Has anyone tried cooking Indian curries with the pumpkins here? Please, let me know. For this dish I use the not-so- sweet sweet potatoes, and hardly notice any difference from my mom’s pumpkin curry.

Sweet potato, peeled and cubed: 2 cups
Red beans : ½ cup
Green chilli : 2
Curry leaf : 3-4
Grated coconut: 1 T
Turmeric powder: ½ t
Salt

Wash and pressure cook the beans . Make sure they don’t get mashed up. Once the beans is cooked, add cubed sweet potato, green chilli, curry leaf , turmeric and salt, and cook until the sweet potato is well cooked. Add the coconut and mix well, this curry has to be of a thick paste like consistency.

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey great post...I'm really getting nostalgic.Got to make fish curry as soon as I get good fish..It tastes gr8 with Kappa,rt?.I got Kokum from a Malayali Grocery Store in Chicago..I still rememeber the name of that store..It was "maveli"

Anonymous said...

hi reshma,
i have used the pumpkin that we get here in US for our kerala dishes. i make mathanga erisseri (with red and green payar)too . taste is slight different but is really good.for pachadi, this pumpkin won't match the taste.
lekha

Unknown said...

Hmmm fish curry. Found tat a few bloggers have been cooking it. I just can't control myself as I'm a fish curry maniac. Got to cook it.

Ashwini said...

The sweet potato dish is so unique. I am gonna try this one

Kay said...

Reshma, I LOVE fish curries, and yours looks lovely. Somehow I dont like kokum :( I've tried it so many places and still avoide ating it after trying a spoonful. Is it an acquired taste?

What is that red colored beans called in Tamil/Hindi? Maybe even malayali name would also do.. I'd like to make that dish with sweet potatoes too. It looks very nice.

reshma said...

Annita, a Malayali grocery store and all , eh? gorlohgirl you are lucky!

Lekha, Thank You! no more pumpkin-shyness for me:)

Pushpa,cook, and share :)

Ashwini, pumpkin-bean curry is common in kerala homes. sweet-potato proves to be equally wonderful.

Kay, I belive it's an acquired taste, my better-half found the curry 'funny' the first time he had it:) I am sorry I don't know what the red bean is called in Tamil or Hindi, the packet says 'Red Chori'and the malayalam name is 'manpayaru' . hope that helps:)

Courtney, amd honoured! Hail pepper:)

Sarah said...

When I got married, my grandma's gift was a urn full of kokkum and a clay pot chatti..

Kay said...

Thanks Reshma, I think I know now... There's a payar in Tamil that my grandma calls 'naripayar' .. Maybe it's that one.. And I'm glad to hear it's the red-chori beans, because I can look for it on the shelves of Indian grocery stores.

CyberRowdy(Q8TechDrive) said...

Hello Chechys..its good to see that you people are still working on those old old good tastes of kerala...good job...I will have to take note of all these so that when a girl comes into my life, I can show it to her...unfortuantely these days our mallu girls know very lil about these kinda things...

reshma said...

immigrant in Canada, that's so ...so novel!Good for you:)

q8techdrive, brother, why not try 'these kind of things' yourself...for a change you know, rather than waiting for an unsuspecting girl;)

CyberRowdy(Q8TechDrive) said...

dear reshma chechy....no, I am not waiting for 'her' to make it for me...I was just ocmmenting generally...I am proud of myself that I can manage somewhat myself all these...coz when I was in India, i used to help my amma a lot...always...

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Anonymous said...

Looks tasty. Thank you very much for sharing this one.

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Thanks for sharing content and such nice information for me. I hope you will share some more content about. Please keep sharing! Kokum Oil

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