Andhra Style Spicy Fish Curry

Andhra Style fish curry, tangy, spicy and finger licking good. Here is recipe for you all to try.

Ingredients

• Fish 500gm, fresh one, sliced
• Gingely (sesame) oil or Sunflower oil  4 to 6 tbsp
• Mustard seeds 1/4 tsp
• Cumin seeds 1/4 tsp
• Fenugreek seeds 1/4 tsp
• Dry red chillies 2nos
• Curry leaves 3 sprigs
• Garlic Cloves 8 nos, finely chopped
• Green chillies 5 nos, slitted
• Shallots (small onions) 12 to 18 nos
• Tamarind big lemon size
• Tomatoes 4 nos very ripe
• Turmeric powder 1 tsp
• Red chilli powder 2 tsp
• Coriander powder (dhania) 3 tsp
• salt

For the Spice Powder

• ½ teaspoon fenugreek seeds
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 2 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon coriander powder

Method

Heat 4-6 tablespoons of Gingely (sesame) Oilor Sunflower oil in a pan. Add in the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chillies and curry leaves. Fry until the curry leaves fried well.

Add in the finely chopped garlic, chopped green chillies and finely chopped shallots (small onions). Add green chillies according to your taste. Fry till they are lightly brown. The oil will bubble up if you are using gingely oil. Its fine.

Soak a big lemon size tamarind in 2 cups of warm water. Let it soak for 15 minutes. Make a pulp by squeezing the tamarind well. Strain the pulp to get rid of the seeds. Set aside.

Puree 4 tomatoes in a blender. Set aside.

Add in the tomato puree and the tamarind pulp. Add in a teaspoon of turmeric powder, 2 teaspoons of red chilli powder and 3 teaspoons of coriander powder (dhania).  Add in the salt. Add some more water.

Simmer the gravy for 30 minutes covered on a low flame stirring every 5 minutes once. After 30 minutes the oil would start to float on top. That is a sure sign that the gravy has been cooked.

Add in the fish pieces and let it cook for 7-8 minutes on low flame. Fresh water fish works well for this recipe.

When the fish is cooking, lets make a spice powder for the curry. Heat oil in a heavy pan and dry roast fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and black pepper on a low flame for 5 minutes. Please keep in low flame else it will burn. Dry roast until everything starts to pop and starts to brown. Remove from heat and cool on a plate. Once the mixture is cooled, grind to a very fine powder.

Pour the powder into the curry. Simmer for a minute. Remove from heat and serve hot with rice.

NB: If you get fresh water fish please use that. That tastes better for this curry. Use very ripe tomatoes. Enjoy cooking..