Mangalorean Style Surmai (King fish) Curry

King fish or Surmai is one of my favorite Indian fish. While in India, I used to cook this quite often as this is one of my husband's favorite dishes.

Last week I went to a Chinese market in Canada and found this fish there. I couldn't wait to come home and cook it. Needless to say that everyone enjoyed and relished it !!!

I have learned this recipe from my mother. A bowl of hot steamed rice with surmai curry simply tastes amazing.

Preparation Time : 20 minutes

Serves : 4

Ingredients :

6-8 Surmai fish pieces

1 tbsp vinegar

salt to taste

a small bunch of coriander leaves finely chopped

3 tbsp oil

to grind to a paste:

1 meduim onion chopped

3 whole dry kashmiri chillies

2 whole dry madras chillies

2 whole dry bedki chillies

1 tbsp ginger garlic paste

1 cup coconut milk or 1/2 coconut freshly grated

5 peppercorns

1 tsp cumin seeds

1 tsp coriander seeds

1 tsp tamarind paste

1/4 tsp mustard seeds

1/4 tsp turmeric powder

salt

For tempering:

1/2 onion finely chopped

a few curry leaves

Method :

• Marinate the fish with salt and turmeric and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• In a mixer, grind all the ingredients as mentioned above to a fine paste with little water.
• Take some oil in a frying pan and fry the marinated fish on both sides and keep aside.
• Take another pan and heat some oil in it. Then add the curry leaves and the finely chopped onion and fry nicely.
• Then add the ground masala and fry it well for about 5 minutes
• Then add enough water to the masala to make it a gravy (not too thick or not too thin) like consistency
• Bring this to a boil. Then add the vinegar and again bring to a boil. Check seasoning.
• To this add the fried fish pieces and cover and cook for 3 minutes.
• Garnish with freshly chopped coriander leaves
• Serve hot with steamed rice.