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Friday, February 8, 2008

Meen Kuzhambu (chettinad fish curry)



For the past one month, I couldn’t find much time to take snaps of the items which I wanted to blog.My idea was to write next about the famous chettinad chicken but due to the fear of catching bird flue people at home are scared of even hearing its name.So till the chickens get well let me blog about the chettinad special fish items .
Meen kuzhambu prepared in chettinad will seem to be very simple and easy to prepare but the real taste will depend on the care with which it is made.But by experience one can make mouthwatering meen kuzhambu which will make your partner sing’ Nethuvecha Meenkuzhambu ennai ezhukkuthayya’(Yesterday’s fish curry is driving me to the kitchen).This kuzhambu kept outside is said to be very tasty the next day. But I have not taken that risk.If refrigerated,the taste will be fine for 2 to 3 days



Ingredients
Fish (known to be good for gravy)-1/2 kg
Small onion-20
Garlic-15 pods
Chilly powder -1 spoon or kuzhambu milagai thool-2 spoons
Coriander powder-2 tablespoons
Tomato-1
Curry leaf- little
Tamarind-gooseberry size(double the quantity you use for sambar)


First marinate the fish with
Chilly powder-1 teaspoon
Turmeric powder-1/2 teaspoon
Lemon juice-1 teaspoon
Salt-1 teaspoon
Keep the fish marinated for 1 to 2 hours.

Procedure
Soak the tamarind and required salt in 3 to 4 cups of water. Keep a flat bottom kadai in the stove. Pour 2 to 3 spoons of oil(gingelly oil if available will be the best).Season with
Fennel seeds-1 teaspoon
Fenugreek seeds-1/2 teaspoon
Curry leaf-little
Addthe minced onion, garlic and tomato and sauté well for 3 minutes. Now add the tamarind water. Add the chilly powder and coriander powder also and wait till the mixture boils. Once it starts boiling keep the stove in sim and allow the curry to cook in low fire for 10 to 12 minutes till the gravy has reduced to half. Now slowly add the fish one by one in such a way that all the pieces stay aloof. Once the fish is added, you will find the gravy becoming watery. Increase the flame a little and cook for 5 more minutes. Always make sure that you use the gravy only 2 or 3 hours after cooking.(this time is for the fish to get the taste of the gravy) .It is always better not to transfer the contents to another vessel since the fishes are likely to break while transferring.

49 comments:

Cham said...

Hi,
I love ur site dedicated for Chettinad cuisine which is popular for their spicy, fresh masala and of course oily food. This "Kara" meen (fish) really reminds my town.
Well done job!

Pavithra Nagarajan said...

Hi Solai,..
Just tumbled across ur Blog....
I am a brahmin,while my husband is a pure non-vegetarian(hehhe).i have tried kinds of chicken and a couple of attempts at Mutton also.His favorites being any things with Fish, saw ur Meen Kulambu,.. looks inviting,Have alwes restrained from the idea of making fish ,.. just because he says cleaning is important,which i am unaware of..Think i will surprise him with this,.. one weekend,..can u tell me what kind of fish i can use for the gravy,..as i have no idea??!!...Any small details i need to take note of ,.. do please mention,..
Think u will surely help me out.
Will wait for ur reply

Solai Chidambaram said...

Pavithra If you are in Tamilnadu then you will get sankara,ayilai,thengai parai ,viral which all be good without much thorns for the gravy.You can get it cleaned from the place where you buy itself.At home wash once or twice making sure that all the waste has been taken out.There will be clotted blood in the fish pieces.No need to take that out.It will not do much harm.If u try to take that out u will break the fish.cleaning viral is difficult.So dont go for that.All other fishes no problem.If u have any more particular doubt please write

lavanya said...

Hi,

Excellent recipe. I tried lot of recipes for fish curry, but nothing is good like yours. I am from karaikudi,after my marriage i was missing my hometown food.Now i am happy by cooking your recipes.I wish to have more and more chettinad style recipes from u...
Good luck..All the best

loveena moses said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Cindy said...

I tried this recipe. It came somehow sweet in taste. Donno why. May be, since I added little coconut !!!

Unknown said...

Hi solai.,

How about vanjaram? can vanjaram used for making fish kuzhambu? please reply. As i get vanjaram easily as its not difficult in cleaning it.i'm getting in pieces in the shop.

Anu

gigo said...

hi solai achi,my mom add coconut + fenell seed paste for thick gravy...it gives awesome taste....

crayol said...

hi solai,
i like ur site because todaY i did viral meen kulambhu . i dont know how to do it. so i searched in internet its shows your to enter it. i learned from your site and i did the dish... it was very yummy and yummy. my husband loved it so much.

so thanks a lot for your idea to give the information to the people who do know do the dishes... so please continue your job.. here after if any doubt i will consider your website.. once again thanks.

Sruthi of Life said...

Thanks a lot for sharing the recipes madam.
I have never made meen kozhambu before. I saw ur recipe and did it and it came out really well. I love this recipe of urs especially because u dont include coconut.

You have done an excellent job by writing ur recipes in a blog. There r several other dishes that I am interested in, whose recipes r available in ur blog and will be doing them all one by one.
Thanks a lot madam.

Unknown said...

Hi Solai,

I made meen kulambu only three times in my life it never turned good. But i followed your receipe, meen kuzhambu is awesome...

Thank you so much

Raaj said...

Hello Ma'am.
Thank you very much for your recipe.
This is my first time cooking fish curry.
I exactly followed your procedure and it turned out to be an excellent dish.
Thank you.

Siva said...

You haven't replied the question regarding vanjiram. I had my doubts too

Solai Chidambaram said...

Vanjiram is excellent for a fry.Why waste it on a gravy.For gravy any cheap fish will do.You can use the head and tail of vanjiram for gravy.But I dont find that too very tasty.But instead of throwing the head we can make a gravy out of it.

class photo said...

hi
i need some side dishes for chapathi.

rani said...

i have heard that chettinad food recipees are very tasty,but eating out in the hotel doesnt satisfy me,i would love to experience it from the hands of true basic chettinad aachi samayal .at least got a perfect chettinaad samayal recipees.thanks

Anu said...

Hello,

I love your recipes. Thanks a lot for sharing these. I got married recently and my husband is a non-veg lover n I have never cooked non-veg. But with your help I have managed. My husband loves your non-veg recipes. Thanks again.

BENZ said...

thanks for sharing this recipe...it came well and gave a different taste from my regular fish curry.....

Infotwins Technologies India said...

I would strongly recommend this for all diabetic patients. It has all the good ingredients like fenugreek, tamarind, garlic and fish. Of course have it with unpolished red rice and use olive oil instead of gingelly oil. The taste does not change much.

Sangee said...

Hello Aunty,
You have a very amazing collection of authentic chettinad recipes.Infact I was searching for a chettinad meen kozhambu recipe and I came across yours.The recipe was very simple.But the taste was awesome.My hubby liked it very much.I will add this dish to my recipe book.I would like to try all your recipes.

Thanks a lot for posting such traditional recipes.

Regards
Sangeetha

Vishnu said...

Hello Aunty,
Thank You, for the wonderful recipe, I'm a brahmin... and a my husband is fish addict..so I was thinking to do fish kolumbu and came across ur site, made the recipe and became a huge hit,every week he wants me to make the fish gravy. Today I'm going to try ur fish fry. Thank You once again.

U Chandra K said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Unknown said...

It came out watery. So the next time I grind little coconut, 6 to 7 small onion, little fenugreek, black pepper, cumin seeds, coriander powder, chili powder and added with this. It came out very well

jananiramakrishnan said...

Hello Solai achi..
I tried your meen kuzhambu today..it was awesome..this is the first time,i cooked fish..and it was a great eperience..Thanks a lot :)

Unknown said...

Hi Solai...
just one problem when i do the fish curry always plz help me out from this problem .. like when i add tamarind n other things wat ever u say... the curry is giving me a sour taste... i have a doubt on my tamarind only... to remove the sour can i use jaggery in it

Unknown said...

hi solai ...
pls help me out with this big problem which i face always...
pls tell me wat shld i do if the tamarind is giving a sour taste..?can i add jaggery?.... pls help me out

Unknown said...

Hi aunty,

I am gokul, I am doing my masters in US. We miss our moms cooking very much. I tried your meen kolambu recipe. It was awesome. Felt like eating in home. Thank you for your delicious recipe.

Meena said...

dear aachi,
love all your recipes.. am an ardant follwer of ur recipes and i keep trying them.. you write real good off beat recipes like kalaikose, pachapayir perattal and sundakai, which many wont have heard it even. its nice we get the rare recipes through you. the smell of your meen kolambhu converted my hubby from a veg to a nv... thats the impact of your recipe :-) do post many as possible so that we can learn for the better from you. thanks for the good work.

Raja said...

Guys please dont call her aachi...aachi is used to call old ladies...solai has 20 more years to be called aachi.
Thank you solai for ur dishes...i love you... my mother makes disgusting dishes...thanks to you nowdays i am eating delicious food...

Solai Chidambaram said...

Kalvij,if there is excess tamarind taste,take a cup of water add little salt and chilli powder and cook for some time and add to the gravy.

Shanthi said...

My fish curry has raw taste of masala and is watery. Pls tell me where I went wrong?

Pappu said...

Hi Aunty
What a coincidence , we had meen kuzhambu tonight . can you give me the recipe to do Asadhu meen kuzhambu. I know you have to add coconut. Could I have the recipe pleeease:-)
Thanks
Betsy

CoolBlues said...

Hi Aachi,

I tried and it was awesome..It was a hit not just at my home but also in my husbands office...Thank u so much

Jey

Sofi's samayal said...

hai aachi ,

This is sofi . tried your recipe and it was awesome , my husband is from nedungudi, he is fond of chettinad foods . so i tried ur meen kuzhambu recipe and it has come so well . Thank you so much for sharing and taking an effort to share .

Madhu said...

Dear Solai, I tried making fish kuzhambu the way you mentioned here and it turned out SUPER! My husband said that it is finger-licking-good. I have written your recipe, posted a picture and also linked your blog in mine under below. When you do get a chance, do stop by and see how my fish kuzhambu turned out :)

http://sweetspiceysour.blogspot.com/2011/03/fishmeen-kuzhambu-chettinad-style.html

Thanks a ton again.

arun said...

arun

hai aachi im arun/valliyappan from uk.im also a hotel management student.hear i get salmon fish as cheaper then our country fish.is it suit for kuzhambu bcos this fishes r so soft

Solai Chidambaram said...

Arun,give a try with small qty of fish and post a comment so that all will come to know.

kannukkiniyal said...

solai mam jus tumbled upon the recipe and tried out the very next day.......it turned out awesome i coudnt blive myself thanks for sharing the recipes !

Fight the Truth said...

made the curry. tasted great. great recipe . thanks Solai.

Madhu Pravin said...

Prepared Meen Kuzhambu today, Aachi. Everybody loved it :) tried with 'katla' variety. The fry wasn as tasty as vanjaram.. Everybody relished the kuzhambu n said 'it is finger lickin' good' :) (I hope KFC won't sue me for usin it's caption)

Avinash said...

Hi Achi,

This is the first time I'm cooking Fish. This turned out to be awesome. No one in my office believes that I did it for the first time in my life.

Thank you very much.

Please let us know about the mutton kuzhambu. One small problem, I donot have a mixie and a gas stove rather I use the eletric induction stove and an electrice rice cooker.

Regards,
Avinash Selvamani.
Bangalore.

Solai Chidambaram said...

Great Avinash,you really rock.Follow the mutton kuzhambu recipe from the blog.Use the ready made ginger garlic paste.Instead of grinded coconut use the tinned coconut milk from the market or maggy coconut milk powder.But mutton will not get cooked in rice cooker fast.you get one small induction pressure cooker. this will make cooking very easy.

Unknown said...

Hi Madam,

I tried this recipe a couple of weeks back. It came off very well.

Thanks for your recipe.

Joe, Dubai

preethi said...

Hi aachi,

I love your blog and i am especially a fan of your kulambhu milagai thool :). I had a craving for fish today and tried your meen kulambhu and fish fry . Love them both. My mom and grandmother were brought up in karaikudi and around so their cooking is strongly influenced by chettinattu samayal. Thank you for sharing such wonderful recipes.

Skl said...

Hello aunty,
We tried this recipe,it was very delicious,as time passes it seems to be more flavorful,made with salmon,came out well,did not break,heard here they make kuzhambhu with catfish,will give it a try some time and post,salmon kuzhambhu was great,easy and fast to make too,gravy is so tasty,goes well with everything,reminds of traditional home made cooking,thank you,skl

Unknown said...

my wife is fih
















my wife loves fish.. saw your recipe and made the fish curry and it came really awesome and my wife loved it lot...

Thanks.

kuttygayu said...

Hi, i love ur site. i am planning to make this meen kuzhambu tomorrow . i just wanted to know if you add coconut in this recipe.. i did not see in the ingredients list.please reply asap. thank you..

Solai Chidambaram said...

No gayu.no coconut in this recipe.

Thejasviny said...

Hi solai aunty...

Thanks for sharing this wonderful recipe and it's turn out good.
And could you post karuvadu kulambu recipe... my husband is big fan of this dish... but sadly I didn't know how to cook it :(
looking forward for your recipe....
Thanks