Meen Aviyal ~ Fish in Spicy Coconut Paste

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Remember about my school bestie I had mentioned on the blog a few times (here, here and here)? She used to be in Muscat, till they decided to relocate back home for her children. The time she informed me about it, I could literally feel her going through a lot of sadness on the decision. I think I don’t need to mention what I was feeling. But both of us know that we need to respect certain happenings in life. Allah knows best and it will definitely be for our good. We still keep in touch, however the intensity has reduced since life back home is much tough with growing up kids. Life in the Gulf for housewives is so much relaxed. A couple of days back as I chatted to her, she said she wanted to hear my voice. Incidentally, I had placed this post on the schedule for today. Maybe, it was a way for me to write off my feelings. I haven’t yet been able to speak to her as our schedules don’t match up. 🙁 She was there when I was at my lowest ebb, though she would never accept the fact that she helped me out of it. She would always say that we both pulled up together in it. I am so ever grateful to Allah for giving me a friend who I know will be there through thick and thin, irrespective of whether time will permit us to keep in touch constantly. May Allah make this new move easy and smooth for her… Aameen…

She is a very good cook and what I like is that her food is different from our food, since she hails from Trivandrum. Malabar food is basically the food from the north side of Kerala. As you go to other districts, the food and the recipes are diverse, though even they would agree that their food is not as much as the Malabar side can flaunt! For me, Avial was vegetarian till she told me about this dish. 😀 Her husband loves fish so she had shared a couple of recipes that are repeat in her kitchen. This is one of them. The recipe is very easy to make and interesting too, since the fish cooks in the fluid of the tomatoes and the ground coconut paste. You can serve this as a side dish for your rice and curry, but I found this to be equally good with chapathis too! Off to this delicious recipe…

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Meen Aviyal ~ Fish in Spicy Coconut Paste

Course Fish

Cuisine Kerala

Prep Time 5 minutes minutes

Cook Time 25 minutes minutes

Total Time 30 minutes minutes

Servings 4

Author Rafeeda

Ingredients

• 500 gm fish I used black tuna
• 2 tbsp coconut oil
• 1 tsp fenugreek seeds
• 1 large tomato chopped
• 3 green chillies slit
• 2 sprigs curry leaves
• Salt to taste
• FOR GRINDING:
• 1/2 coconut grated
• 1 lime size pc tamarind
• 1 tsp red chilli powder
• 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
• 1/4 tsp turmeric powder
• 1 onion

Instructions

• Grind the mixture under "for grinding" coarsely. Just one or two pulses should do.
• Heat oil and splutter the fenugreek seeds. Add the tomato, chilli and curry leaves and saute for a minute.
• Add in the ground paste and salt and allow it to come to a boil.
• Add in the fish and cook on high flame on closed lid for five minutes.
• Keep the flame to minimum and cook till the fish is done, flipping as required.
• Once the fish looks almost done, keep on open lid and cook till the mixture is dry.
• Serve as side with rice or with chapathis!

Notes

You may splutter some mustard in oil and fry curry leaves, add into the curry before serving.