1001 Indian Fish Curries

This cookbook lists 1000 Indian fish curries, greatly simplified, so that a first time cook can easily cook them. The principle is simple – 10 commonly consumed fishes are combined with ten different bases and 10 different flavouring techniques to create a thousand different recipes.  The building blocks are listed below.

Fishes commonly used in South Indian Cuisine:

Vanjiram : Seer fish / King fish. 

Koduva : Sea Bass.

Viraal : Murrel.

Karuppu Vavval : Black Pomfret.

Vellai Vavval : Silver Pomfret.

Sura : Baby Shark.

Sankara : Red Snapper.

Kilanga : Smelt.

Sudumbu : False Trevally.

 The base :

0.: None . No liquid base is used to cook dry fish curries.

1.: Onion . An extra dose of pureed onions is used for the North Indian Fish Dopyaza

2.: Nuts / Seeds . A rich base made from nut paste,  made popular by the Moguls. This is used to cook up rich, mild fish curries.

3.: Herbs . A variety of pureed herbs are used for tangy fish curries.

4.: Fish Tamarind . Used especially in the western coast, Kokkum r fish tamarind is chiefly responsible for the unique fish curries of Kerala, Goa and Konkan.

6.: Tomato is used as a curry base across the country.

7.: Tamarind is used to cook up a variety of sour fish stews like the Kulambu of Tamilnadu and Pulusu of Andhra.

8.: Onion – tomato is stir fried, blended to a paste with other additives and is used as a base in the rich Chettinadu fish curry.

 The flavouring :

0.:  Readymade Masala  is used across the country.

1.:  Mustard is fried in oil and is used to flavour South Indian fish curries

2.:  Ginger- Garlic  is used across the country.

3.:  Asafetida   is widely used in South Indian curries

4.:  Panchphoran  is a mix of five whole spices and is chiefly used in Orissa and West Bengal

5.:  Fenugreek  lends a bitter note and is more common in South Indian curries.

6.:  Cloves – Cinnamon are commonly used in Muglai curries.

7.:  Roast & Ground whole spices  are used across the country

8.:  Fried & Ground whole spices are more common in South Indian cuisine.