Coorgi Meen Curry- no pun intended!

Coorgi Meen Curry is something new that I hadn’t tried before. I have tried other Coorgi Dishes from what I remember earlier.

Fishy Connection

Fish is something that I grew up eating a lot. I come from a Bengali family where it is a staple of our diet. Though we usually end up eating more of river fish as the state is crisscrossed with rivers and ponds. Sea-fish is something that I was introduced to much later. Pomfret is perhaps the one that I can recall from my earliest memories of sea-fish. It was introduced when my mother tried recipes shared by other ladies in the colony where we lived. One of my favourites was a Goan pomfret curry which I shall try to replicate from memory later.

Sea-fish and See Fish

Seer fish (also called surmai I believe) is a much-loved sea-fish in Southern India where the steaks are meaty, boneless and lend well to both fries and curries. The Coorgi Meen Curry recipe which I am sharing here was introduced by my friendly neighbour from upstairs who got a book gifted by her husband. He hails from Coorg which is a very fascinating and different part of South India. It has an interesting background story of settlers from Alexander’s army. I don’t know if that is entirely true but there are enough links on google to read up more about the myths, legends and history of Coorg. It’s diverse people, culture and cuisine is quite unique in a way.

Toggling the memory cells further

My earliest memory of Coorg was a homestay in a small coffee plantation in Madikeri with my parents and brother. It was run by an elderly couple who provided home-cooked meals as well. I remember tasting the Coorgi pandi curry for the first time then and the lady of the house shared the recipe with my mother then..but I don’t remember making it anytime. I hope to try that too sometime later!

Back to the Future

For now, this post is about the Coorgi Fish curry, having fun cooking with a friend and sharing a meal with others over a table of joyful conversations. So, without much more meandering, let me share the recipe. It was delicious. We had it with Appams. Best with hot steaming rice/akki rotis I believe.

Do check out the Youtube video for more details. Have fun watching and hopefully cooking. 🙂

Coorgi Meen Curry

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Serves: 6-8 Prep Time: 15mins Cooking Time: 30 Min

Ingredients

• Approx 1 kg of Seer Fish Slices
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2-3 Tbsp of Cooking oil (Coconut oil or Olive oil is my choice)
• 2 Sticks of Curry Leaves
• 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
• 2 Green Chillies Slit
• 1/2 tsp of Fenugreek Seeds
• 1 tsp of black peppercorns
• 3 Small Onions Sliced
• Ingredients for Grinding into Masala
• 1/2 Cup of Grated Coconut
• 2 Tbsp Coriander seeds
• 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
• 1/4 tsp Turmeric
• 8-12 Cloves of Garlic
• 1 piece of Ginger
• Other seasonings
• 1/2 tsp of Kachampuli vinegar (or tamarind paste in case you dont have it)
• Some more salt and sugar to taste

Instructions

1. Marinate the fish with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside
2. Make a paste of the ingredients given for grinding
3. Heat the oil in a wok/kadahi and add the curry leaves, green chillies, mustard and fenugreek seeds, black peppercorn and the sliced onions
4. Fry the onions till translucent pink – stir to make sure they don’t burn. Lower flame if required. 
5. Add the masala paste and fry well. This will tend to get burnt.  You may add more oil but if you stir continuously scraping the sides with a sprinkling of water in between- that works too. Just takes longer. 
6. Add the Kachampuli vinegar and salt- you may taste a bit to add sugar to balance the flavours. 
7. Wait till the masala is well fried- you will see the oil separating slowly- and then you can add some water to make a curry. 
8. In the original recipe- was suggested to add the fish at this point. But I prefer it to be a little fried. Hence, fried it a bit before adding to the curry
9. Wait for the fish to boil and the curry is a bit thicker. This may take approx 5-10 mins. 
10. Serve hot with rice/akki roti/appams.

Coorgi Meen Curry- no pun intended! was last modified: November 2nd, 2024 by Melting Lemon Drop

Notes

Temperature of the pan needs to be adjusted from time to time. The whole process of cooking took only 20-30mins. But prep work actually took a bit longer as I was cooking and chatting with my friend which was actually more fun. 🙂