Tilapia Fish Curry!

Hello All,

Hope u guys had a great week and an even greater weekend! I apologise for the delay in posting...I've been working crazy hours off late...but thank you for visiting my blog nevertheless in spite of my relatively long absence. :).

Tilapia is a fish I was introduced to after marriage. It's a really nice white fish, with practically no bones, so it's a relatively easy fish to dissect and eat ;). My mom in law cooks this with vinegar as the "sour factor", but here i used tomatoes instead and a bit of coconut milk at the end. The result was a truly succulent curry (hey, I am allowed to blow my own horn once in a while right?!?). I apologise if the photos are not very good, took them with my ipad as a bit of experimentation instead of my usual Sony camera. This is a very simple curry, so without any further delays, let's see how truly simple and scrumptious this dish is...This recipe is courtesy Vineetha Vijayan and Beena Premachandran, who had cooked for a competition for the Kerala Club, California. Hats off to u guys and thanks once again for the recipe!

INGREDIENTS

• Tilapia fillets, cut into small pieces- 1/2 kilo (500 gms)
• 1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1/4" piece of ginger- finely chopped
• 1 1/2 medium sized onions, finely sliced
• 1 medium sized tomato, or 2 small tomatoes
• 4-5 green chillies, finely chopped
• Chilly powder- 3 tablespoons
• Coriander powder- 3 tablespoons
• Turmeric Powder- 1/2 teaspoon
• Fenugreek seeds- 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
• 1 1/2 cups water
• 1/2 cup of thick coconut milk. I(31/2 tablespoons coconut milk powder + 1/2 cup hot water)
• Salt to taste
• Curry leaves to garnish
• 4 tablespoons coconut oil or any refined oil

METHOD

• Wash the tilapia fillets in a mixture of salt and vinegar.
• Marinate the  fillets with a tablespoon of coriander powder, a tablespoon of red chilly powder and turmeric powder. Set this aside for at least 15 minutes.
• In a frying pan, heat 2 tablespoons coconut oil and lightly fry the fish. This is to avoid them from breaking while in the curry. Fry them lightly for 3 minutes on each side.
• Separately, in a saucepan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and add the mustard seeds.
• Once the seeds start popping, add the finely chopped ginger and saute till they emit a nice aroma.
• Add the onions and green chillies along with a bit of salt to speed up the cooking process of the onions.
• Now add the fenugreek seeds, coriander and chilly powders and saute. Ensure to reduce the flame so as to avoid burning the powders.
• Now add the tomatoes and cook for another 5 minutes.
• Add the water and allow it to boil for 2-3 minutes. Add salt at this stage.
• Now add the fish to this and cook on a low flame for 5 minutes.
• After 5 minutes, add the coconut milk and cook closed again for another 5 minutes.
• Switch off the flame, add curry leaves and a tablespoon of oil.

Tada, tilapia fish curry is ready! Oh of course, the photos....

You can have this curry with rice, chapatis, bread, naan...and the list is endless. In this curry, we have not used garlic and small onions. Instead we have used mustard seeds which is quite different for a fish curry. Also, the tanginess is provided by the tomatoes, instead of the usual tamarind or vinegar.

So, please do try this out. You could this with any fleshy fish, like king fish, salmon, black trout or pom fret.

So, till next time, take care and God bless!

BTW, am sending this over to Julie's site for the Kerala Kitchen event she's hosting this month! Wish me luck!! Do check out her site http://erivumpuliyumm.blogspot.ca/2012/05/event-announcement-kerala-kitchen-june.html for more details!