Chettinad Fish Curry

Its been a long time since I made Fish Kuzhambu. I am not a big fan of fish kuzhambu. I could eat chicken gravy but not the fish(y) one. My hubby was browsing the net to find a good  recipe & finally found it. We made chicken salna & chettinad fish. Out of which Chettinad fish turned out really well. I got to try some other recipe for Salna.  He got this Fish recipe from Samai.in. Thanks to Komala at Samai.in.

Ingredients

• Cat fish - 1 pound (Cut into big pieces)
• Mustard seeds and Urad dal - 1/2 tspn
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
  
• Onion - 1 (small size) or 1/2 of a medium size onion
• Green Chili - 1
  
• Ginger garlic paste - 1 tspn
  
• Tomato - 1
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
• Tamarind - small gooseberry size
• Sugar - less than 1/4 tspn 
• Salt - to taste
• Oil - as required (Sesame oil is preferred)

To make Paste

• Coriander seeds - 1 ½ tspn
• Cumin seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Fennel seeds - 1/4 tspn
• Peppercorn - 1/4 tspn
• Toor dal - 1/4 tspn
• Fenugreek seeds (Methi) - a pinch
• Curry leaves - 1 sprig
• Coconut - 1 tspn
• Dry red chillies - 2- 3 nos

Method

1. Roast all the ingredients given for paste in a teaspoon of oil till golden brown.Turn off the heat and let it cool. When completely cooled grind it into a very fine paste by adding little water.
2. Chop the onions, Tomatoes & green chillies. Wash & cut the fish to desired size.
3. Heat some oil in a pan & season it  with mustard & urad dhal. Add curry leaves, ginger garlic paste, onion, tomato & green chillies. Add some salt & saute till tomatoes get mushy.
4. Add turmeric powder & ground masala. Mix in a cup of water along with tamarind extract. Add sugar & let it boil for some time till the gravy thickens.
5. Finally add the fish & let it cook for another 10 minutes in medium heat.