Kerala Fish Curry (Malabar Matthi Curry)

Name: Kerala Fish Curry (Malabar Matthi Curry)
Total time: 40 min
Yield: 4
Cuisine: Kerala (Malabar)
Ingredients: 600 g Sardines, cleaned; 10 Shallots, sliced; 6 Garlic cloves, sliced; 1 tbsp Ginger, julienned; 3 Green chillies, slit; 2 tbsp Kashmiri chilli powder; 1 tbsp Coriander powder; 0.5 tsp Turmeric; 0.25 tsp Fenugreek seeds; 20 g Tamarind pulp; 200 ml Coconut milk; 2 sprigs Curry leaves; 3 tbsp Coconut oil; Salt

Sardines poached in a fierce red coconut-and-chilli gravy soured with tamarind — Kerala's coastal weekday curry, and better the day after you make it.

المصدر

الوصفة من Kerala home kitchens · 🏺 تقليدي · South Indian (Kerala/Malabar) household cooking

Traditional dish — no single author — A traditional coastal curry with no single author. The reference describes it as a sardine curry most popular in Kerala, Goa and Sri Lanka, traceable to Tamil Nadu and Kerala, made with a blend of spices and vegetables such as onion, variously with tamarind juice or coconut milk, and served with rice or tapioca — all of which this version follows. Honest gap: that page does not specify the clay manchatti or the kudampuli souring agent; both are noted here as common Kerala practice, not as claims from the source. The prose is our own.

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⏱ 40 دقيقة🍽 4 حصة🔥 280 سعرة🇮🇳 الهند🌶️🌶️🌶️

سمكيخالٍ من الغلوتينخالٍ من الألبانحلال

الخطوات

Clean the fish, cut into thick steaks if large, and rub with a little salt and turmeric. Leave 10 minutes.
Heat the coconut oil in a wide, shallow pan. Add the fenugreek seeds and let them darken for 10 seconds, then the shallots, garlic, ginger, green chillies and one sprig of curry leaves. Fry 6 minutes until soft and golden.
Take the pan off the heat and stir in the chilli, coriander and turmeric powders. Put it back on low heat and cook 1 minute only.
💡 Off the heat first: 2 tablespoons of chilli powder scorches in seconds on a hot pan and turns the curry bitter and dull instead of red.
Pour in the strained tamarind water and 150 ml plain water, season with salt, and simmer 8 minutes until the gravy darkens and thickens slightly.
Slide the fish in in a single layer. Do not stir — tilt and swirl the pan instead. Simmer 6–8 minutes until the fish is opaque through.
💡 A spoon breaks sardines apart instantly. Swirling the pan is how the gravy gets over the fish without destroying it.
Pour the coconut milk around the edge, add the second sprig of curry leaves, and heat through for 2 minutes without boiling.
Turn off the heat, spoon a little raw coconut oil over the top, and leave it to stand at least 20 minutes before eating with rice or tapioca.

💡 نصائح

Boiling coconut milk splits it into grainy curds and oil. Once it is in, the pan must never bubble again.
Kerala families genuinely make this a day ahead. The tamarind works into the fish overnight and the gravy settles — day two is the real version.
Traditionally cooked in a manchatti, an unglazed clay pot, which is why the dish is associated with a slightly earthy taste. A wide heavy pan is a fine substitute.
At 2 tablespoons of Kashmiri chilli this is coloured, not incendiary. Kerala versions are often considerably hotter.