Mackerel Kurma (Kurma Ikan Tenggiri)

Yesterday was a fishy day.  I cooked Fish Kurma or in Malay, it would be called Kurma Ikan.  Kurma is something like curry basically.  It is more like green curry but the Indian version of green curry. In the case of curry, you would have to use curry powder to cook it.  For kurma, you would have to use kurma powder.

 

I was having flu and my throat is still sore today. Glad that my hands were not, so I did cook yesterday.  

Just to elaborate a little bit more, like curry, I varied my cooking with kurma too.  Thanks to my mother, I dare to mess around with cooking..hehe... ;)

The recipe that I am going to share with you is one of two versions that I cook fish kurma.  Both versions to me taste good but they each have different texture.  You can find out how to cook the other version HERE.

I have tried cooking kurma with various brands of kurma powder and I find "Malabar Masala" kurma powder to be the best.  You can still use kurma powder of your choice.

I also use fish seasoning spice when I cook fish kurma.  The above is the close up of the fish seasoning spice.

Ingredients:

10-12 pieces of mackerel or any fish of your choice (cleaned and marinated with about 2 tablespoon of turmeric powder and salt to taste and fried till cooked and set aside)

1 large onion - finely sliced

5 red chillies - slit in halves and cut into twos

3 tomatoes - cut into fours

10 pieces lady's fingers - cut diagonally in twos about a minute or two before adding into kurma to prevent leaking slime

1 spoon fish seasoning spice

1 small bowl of tamarind juice from a handful of tamarind

2 tablespoon yoghurt

1/2 teacup of coconut milk

1-2 small bowls of water

1 spoon sugar

1 spoon white ground pepper

2 tablespoons kurma powder - mixed with water into a paste

salt to taste

a small bunch of coriander leaves as garnish

(*to be blended)

2 large onions

6 shallots 

8 garlics

2 cm ginger

Method:

1.  Heat oil in pan and add in sliced onions.

2.  Saute for about two minutes.

3.  Add in the fish seasoning spice and sauté for about two to three minutes.

4.  Add in the blended mixture.

5.  Saute for about five minutes.

6.  Add in the kurma powder paste.

7.  Saute until oil separates.

8.  Once the oil has collected at the gaps of your sautéing mix, oil has separated.  There should be more oil than this as I realised that I had missed taking a picture of the sautéing mix with more oil.  It is important that the oil is really separated to avoid having your kurma taste like the malay traditional herbal medicine or a "jamu" like taste.  If your sautéing mix has not released that much oil and it appears dry, add in water bit by bit and continue to sauté till oil separates. 

9.  Add in the tamarind juice.

10.  Add in water. Stir and bring to a boil.

11.  Add in coconut milk.  Stir.

12. Add in yoghurt.  Stir.  Add in salt and sugar.  Add pepper. Stir.

13.  Bring fire to medium and simmer for five minutes stirring every now and then.

14.  Add in red chillies.  Stir.

15.  Add in lady's fingers.  Stir.

16.  Add in tomatoes.  Stir.

17.  Add in fried fish.  Fold the fried fish into the kurma gravy.

18.  Bring fire to high and simmer for a further five minutes whilst stirring every now and then.

19. Off fire and garnish the top with coriander leaves and stir them in before serving.  Obviously, as you can see from my picture above, I had forgotten to put the coriander leaves in. ;p  I put them in a little later after realising that I had forgotten! 

So, there you go, the first version of my fish kurma.  I better start to get ready for a good friend's wedding dinner!  Happy Kitchen-ing!