Family, Food, Indian cuisine, Sri Lankan cuisine
Mango-Dry Fish Curry

This recipe of mine has been adapted from a Kerala recipe. I have made several adjustments and can say its truly a tropical delight! What I have discovered is that Kerala cuisine comes very close to the Sri Lankan cuisine mainly because of the abundant use of coconut in all its forms. Dry fish is traditionally served with rice and usually accompanied with other vegetable dishes such as pumpkin (squash) curry. The addition of egg plant was not in the original recipe I found online, but boy did it gave the dish a boost of epic proportions!

Fried dried fish
Blended coconut
Tempering

Ingredients

  • 100g dried fish
  • Oil for frying
  • 2 mature mangoes (green)
  • 1 egg plant
  • ½ onion finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp ginger paste
  • 1-2 green chilies split/ sliced.
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1 tsp coriander powder
  • ½ tsp cumin powder
  • ¼ tsp turmeric
  • ¼ cup grated coconut
  • 1 tsp tamarind paste
  • ½ tsp sugar (optional)
  • Salt to taste

Temper

  • 3 shallots thinly sliced
  • ½ tsp mustard seeds
  • ¼  tsp fenugreek seeds
  • Leaves of 1 sprig curry leaf
  • 2 dried red chilis broken.
  • Ghee for tempering

Method

Cut (if needed) and wash the dry fish well to remove excess salt. Coat the fish with a little turmeric and chili powder and set aside. Cut the egg plant into largish pieces coat with turmeric and a little salt and set aside. When ready to fry, squeeze out any excess water from the egg plant and fry in hot oil. Remove on to a paper. Next fry the dry fish. Cut the mango into 3-4 pieces right down the seed. Do not peel the mango. Remove the inner seed which will come off easily.  Add the mango, dry fish, onion, ginger, garlic, green chilies, tamarind, salt (add little to begin with and adjust later if needed), and spices to a pot. Mix well. Add sufficient water to cover contents and cook on medium heat till reduced by half. While the curry is cooking, grind the coconut with a little water. Add this to the reduced curry along with the fried egg plant. Cook till the gravy is of a medium consistency. Taste and adjust seasoning. You many add more tamarind or some vinegar for more tartness and sugar if you want more sweetness. Temper the temper ingredients in some ghee and add it to the curry just before turning off the heat.