Fish Curry

Some of the ingredients may be hard to find, so I have provided substitutes in parentheses

Ingredients

1. 5 whole dry red chillies (1.5 t red chillies powder)
2. 0.75 c dry coconut, not sweetened
3. 1 t cumin seeds (0.5 t cumin powder)
4. 1 T coriander seeds (2 t coriander powder)
5. 1 large onion
6. 0.25 c oil
7. a sprig of curry leaves (you can find this only in an Indian store. If you can’t, well there is no substitute. You will just have to do without them).
8. half a can of diced tomatoes, about 1/2 a pound
9. 4 green chillies slit lengthwise
10. 1 T tamarind paste
11. 1 T salt, more or less to taste
12. 2 pounds any white fish chopped into pieces, or shrimp

Directions

• Grind chillies, coconut, cumin and coriander into a paste, adding a little water from time to time.
• Grate the onion. Now, grinding the first four by themselves is tricky because I don’t have any dry spices grinder. So, I chop the onion and put it in a grinder/dicer — and then add the chillies, coconut, cumin and coriander to the onion and grind it all together.
• Fry the onion in the oil till golden brown, then add the coconut paste. However, if you have combined everything and ground them into a paste together for ease, then fry it all together till it is golden brown, and the oil starts showing separately. This will take about 5-8 mins. Really, the hardest part is done.
• Add curry leaves and tomatoes + 0.25 c water, and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.
• Add green chillies, tamarind and salt + 1 c water and bring to a boil.
• Add fish and cook for 2-3 mins. Fish will get done really quickly.

Serve hot with white rice.