Fish cooked in aluminium foil [Meen pollichathu]!

Good morning everybody...Hope all my dear people out there had a great weekend and I hope u guys have an even greater week ahead! I woke up with a smile on my face today...any guesses??? Well, next week, I shall finally be seeing A after 2 whole months..woohoo!!! I cannot wait to get back to Dubai and see A and everyone else, but most importantly, A of course! Enough of that already..the title of my post must look funny to some of you, if not all, but once u make this, I'm sure u'll be drooling as much as I did. This is a very traditional Kerala dish and is cooked with very minimum oil, so it's healthy too! The recipe is adapted from Sarah Naveen's www.vazhayilla.com site. So Sarah dear, because you were the first ever member of this blog, this one's for you! So, don't you want to know how to make this? Read on...

INGREDIENTS

• 2 medium sized fish fillets, cleaned thoroughly with salt, vinegar and lime juice. I used salmon fillets, but you can also use king fish, tilapia, pomfret and even sardines.
• 10 shallots, finely chopped
• 1/4 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 2 green chillies, slit through the middle
• Turmeric powder- 1/4 teaspoon
• Chilly powder- 1/2 teaspoon
• Coriander powder- 1 teaspoon
• Tomato- 1 medium sized, chopped into small cubes
• 1/2 cup thick coconut milk
• Salt to taste
• Loads of curry leaves

For Marination

• 1/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
• 1/2 teaspoon chilly powder
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper powder
• Salt to taste

METHOD

• Marinate the fillets with the ingredients under "For Marination" and set aside for at least 15-20 minutes. Lightly fry this in a teaspoon of oil and set aside.
• In a separate pan, heat 2 tablespoons of oil and saute the garlic cloves, green chillies and ginger.
• After a minute, add the shallots and saute till there's a nice aroma, and the onions turn semi transparent. Add a little salt at this stage.
• Now add, the turmeric, coriander and chilly powders and cook till the raw smell goes and oil starts to separate from the powders.
• Add the tomato at this stage. Saute till everything gets mashed together.
• Finally, add the coconut milk and lower the flame. Let it stand for 2 minutes and then switch off the flame. Check salt levels.
• Now place the fish fillet at the centre of the aluminium foil and coat both sides of the fish with the masala mixture. Each fillet should have it's own aluminium foil. Cover it completely to ensure that no gravy can slip out.
• Now fry this in the frying pan without any oil for at least 20 minutes on each side on an extremely low flame.

Meen pollichathu is ready! I still had a bit of gravy left on my fish, but I enjoyed it coz the gravy was amazing, trust me. You can also use a banana leaf which would have even more flavour. Now for the photos..

And another one..

As you can see, there was a little gravy still, but it still tasted very good. So, do try this out n let me know how it turns out! God bless!