Kerala Style Spicy Tangy Fish Curry

Just like chicken vindaloo, this curry also has a slight tang to it, however, the tang comes from the use of tamarind paste and not vinegar. Having said that, you can use vinegar in place of tamarind if you are short of it. Welcome to Zesty South Indian Kitchen, I am Swathi ( Dr. Ambujom Saraswathy Ph.D) who loves to explore cuisines from all over the world. Whenever possible I try to to give an Indian touch to several of the world cuisine, and has weakness for freshly baked bread.

Although you add it towards the end so it doesn't have too long to break up, I'd still recommend a relatively firm white fish. I typically use haddock and it works really well. Finally add the fish to cook in the flavorful sauce in only a few minutes. You make the masala first, by toasting the whole spices, crushing them along with the garlic and ginger then mix in the rest.



Add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Allow the mustard seeds to splutter. Remove from flame and add it to the curry. Its tangy, spicy, sour, garlicky and has a very mild flavour from coconut. It's made to be served with ghee rice, coconut rice, idiyappam, appams and neer dosas - all the things that can soak up flavours from the fish curry.

Toss in spices, chopped tomatoes and salt, and stir-fry for a few minutes till tomatoes begin to soften and pulp. If you don’t like spicy curries, then adjust the black pepper and cayenne pepper amounts to your taste. I use homemade Sri Lankan curry powder, but you can also use store-bought Sri Lankan curry powder. Another alternative is Madras curry powder. But avoid using regular curry powders available at the store, since these almost always don’t use the proper spices for a curry powder.

Add the salt to season the gravy and stir to combine. Now add the canned tomatoes or tomato puree, and mix well with the paste, letting it cook for a couple of minutes. I like to use a whisk to break down the tomatoes, so that it cooks evenly.

Just FYI, it tastes a lot better with fresh grated coconut as opposed to coconut milk. Coconut milk tends to be quite sweet and upsets the balance. This is meant to be slightly tangy and spicy. So glad to hear you enjoyed, and yes can see curry leaves are good in there if you have them. I substituted the tomato with a tablespoon of tomato paste and added fresh fish stock.

Bring curry to a simmer, then reduce heat to medium-low. Cover and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, 10 minutes. Stir in turmeric, then tomatoes and fun bring to a simmer. Thank you for an amazing recipe. Have been searching for a Goan fish curry for a long time, this was easy and simply devine! My husband loved every part of it.

So glad you enjoyed, and I can imagine swordfish being great in there too. I love your posts because you cook the most interesting things! I need to work on getting my guys out of their comfort zone more. I did not have tamarind concentrate so I replaced with 1 teaspoon of lemon oil. Glad to hear you enjoyed! Haven't tried it with smoked fish but glad it worked out.