1001 Indian Fish Curries

This cookbook lists 1000 fish curries, greatly simplified, so that a first time cook can easily cook them. The principle is simple – fish is cooked in 10 different ways, combined with ten different bases and 10 different flavourings to create a thousand different recipes.   

Sea fish is much loved all along the 7000 kms of Indian coastline. Kerala, Goa, Maharashtra and coastal Tamilnadu are heavy sea  fish consumers. West Bengal, Kashmir, Central India and North East have an abundance of freshwater fish in their lakes and rivers and these are preferred to Sea fish. 

Vanjiram is Tamilnadu's favourite fish. Other sea fish like koduva, vavval, sankara, kilanga, sudumbu and nethili are also popular. Viraal, Kendai and Keluthi are favourites among freshwater fishes. For more information of Tamilnadu’s favourite fishes, click here.                           

Cooking Fish: Fish can be added directly to the boiling gravy as it cooks within 5 – 10 minutes. For more flavour, fish can be marinated, fried, grilled and then added to the gravy. These variations are listed in column 1.

 The Base : A wide variety of gravies are cooked across India. Tamarind based gravies are common in Tamilnadu & andhra. Fish tamarind , coconut and coconut milk based gravies are popular in Kerala, Konkan and Maharashtra. Vinegar based gravies are preferred in Goa, yogurt based gravies in Kashmir and mustard based gravies in West Bengal. These are listed in column 2.

 Flavourings : Different combination of spices fried in a variety of oils are used across India. Coconut oil is preferred in Kerala, and the Konkan coast, Sesame oil in Tamilnadu, groundnut oil in Andhra and Maharashtra, ghee in Kashmir, mustard oil in Bihar, orissa and West Bengal. Column 3 lists these variations.

 By combining a fish from column 1 with a gravy from column 2 and flavouring from column 3, you can easily cookup a huge range of fish curries.

 Tips :
1. Do not overcook fish. An inch thick fish is fully cooked in 5 minutes.
2. Fish curries taste better when cooked in an earthen pot. They usually taste even better the next day.
3. Other seafood like prawns, crab etc can be used in these curries instead of fish.

 Lean, healthy and easily cooked, fish is consumed world over. Unlike Indian curries, western fish curries are not heavliy spiced or cooked for long. In fact, mildly cooked or even raw fish is consumed in Japan and France. Fish marinated in lemon juice gets cooked in the citric acid and is eaten without any further cooking as ceviche. Baked / steamed / smoked fish is not so common in India, but are very popular abroad. Try using these in Indian gravies for a wide variety of fusion fish curries. Baked / steamed / smoked fish is not so common in India, but are very popular abroad. Try using these in Indian gravies for a wide variety of fusion fish curries .