KARUVAATTU KUZHAMBU (SALT FISH CURRY)

 

Basic Ingredient (Potato, brinjal,tomatoes,onion,garlic and ginger and tamarind sauce)

Main Item, Threadfin Salt Fish (Ikan Kurau Masin)

Firstly heat coconut oil, and add tempering items, mustard seed, fenugreek, cumin and urad gram. Once it pops, add curry leaves.

Tampering

With Curry Leaves

Once the aroma of the curry leaves gets to your senses, add chopped garlic and sliced onions. Saute till onion turns golden then add diced garlic.

Onion and Ginger

Garlic

At this point add the chopped tomatoes. Allow it to cook for 5 min till the tomatoes turn a little mushy and seem blended with the tempering ingredient.

Tomatoes to give a rich taste

Then transfer the chopped potatoe's and brinjal. Stir well, allow the tempering ingredient and tomatoes to blend with these item. You can also add lima beans, but make sure either you soak it in water for about an hour first or semi boil it. Otherwise it may not cook well. Another option is to use the canned lima beans. Anyway to day I did not use lima beans, because I ran out of it.

Potatoes and Brinjal.

Then pour in the special tamarind sauce. This tamarind sauce consist of asam jawa, 2 table spoon of chilly powder (add more if you want the curry to be spicy), 2 table spoon of coriander powder, 1 table spoon of cumin powder and quater teaspoon of tumeric. Mix well with water, 2 - 3 cups or more if you want more gravy. 

Let the Special Tamarind Soak into the Ingredient

Close the lid and allow the tamarind sauce to cook. The best indicator to know whether it is well done, is to check on your potatoes. If the potatoes are cooked, then you will know the time is ready to transfer the fried salt fish into the curry. Btw before frying the salt fish, soak it in hot water first and dry it. This is to remove access salt, you do not want your curry to be overly salty. 

Close the Lid

Fried Salt Fish Transferred.

Allow this to cook for about 6 - 8 minutes. Taste the curry to check the salt level, and then decide if need to be added. At this juncture you can also add coconut milk. This will give a rich thick curry. For this preparation I did not add coconut milk, because I wanted my curry to have a lighter texture. 

Finally add 2 - 3 teaspoon of ghee. This will not only give a rich taste but also gives a rich aroma to the kuzhambu (curry). 

Ghee added

....and viola you have you Karuvattu Kuzhambu

This curry can be a stand alone complete meal with rice. In fact they say this curry would taste better the next day. True indeed, I had this curry for breakfast the next day with Pazhaya Soru Kanji or Neeragaram (left over rice porridge). This particular culinary item has fantastic health benefits. The fermented rice is rich in micro nutrients and minerals, particularly iron, potassium and calcium. Plus rice soaked in water would have 60% less calories then freshly cooked one. Further it can also cool down your body and can keep your guts healthy.

How do you do left over rice porridge, well thats easy. Transfer left over rice into a pot, preferably mud pot, add water submerging the rice and leave it overnight. The next day mix chopped onion, green chillies, yougurt and a little salt with the rice, blend well with your fingers. Viola you have a healthy morning breakfast. Pair it with your salt fish curry, it is simply out of this world.

Try it and let me know.

ravivarmmankkanniappan@1127070620233.0567° N, 101.5851° E