Traditional Tamilnadu style Seer Fish gravy/ Vanjiram Meen kulambhu .

# Healthy high quality protein dish..

# packed with omega 3 fatty acids ,

# cooked in a traditional way .

Ingredients

• Fish - 1 kg .

• Onion -1

• Tomatoes-2

• Green chilli-2

• Garlic -15 pods

• Curry leaves

• Gingelly oil 2 -3 tbsp

• Salt 3 tsp ( as required)

• Mustard seeds 1 tsp

• Urad dhal 1 tsp

• fenugreek 1 tsp

1.For Marination

• Chilli powder 1 tsp

• Salt 1 tsp

• Turmeric powder 1 tsp

• Ginger garlic paste 1 tsp

• Curd 1 tbsp (optional )

2.For Dry mixture:

• Coriander seeds- 3 tbsp

• Red chilli- 10

• Jeera - 1 tsp

• Saunf - 1 tsp

• Black pepper- 1/2 tsp

• Fenugreek 1/2 tsp

3.For Wet mixture:

• Tamarind juice - 2 cups .. extracted from a lemon size tamarind

• Shallots - 20

• Grated coconut - 1 cup

4.For Thali:

• Gingelly oil 1 tsp

• Shallots - 4

• Curry leaves

Preparation work :

Wash the fish, cut it into equal pieces and marinate with the ingredients mentioned in step 1(for marination) and keep aside.

Chop the onion, tomatoes and slit the green chillies, garlic pods and keep aside .

Soak the lemon size tamarind in 2 cups of warm water. Later to be extracted for tamarind juice .

Roast the ingredients for dry mixture in a heated dry pan for 2 minutes under medium flame . Grind this in a mixie to a fine powder mixture and keep it aside.

With 1 tbsp of oil in a heated pan sauté the cut shallots for 2 minutes. To this add the grated coconut and fry for a minute. Grind this mixture in a mixie by adding adequate water and keep aside.

Cooking process:

Pour 2 tbsp of gingelly oil in a heated cooking pan .

Once the oil gets heated add mustard seeds 1 tsp , urad dhal 1 tsp , fenugreek 1tsp .As it splutters add curry leaves .

Add the chopped onions ,green chilli, garlic and sauté for 2 minutes under medium flame till it turns to light brown.

Add tomatoes along with salt , turmeric powder and sauté for another 2 minutes.

Add dry mixture(step 2) and sauté for a minute.

Add extracted 2 cups of tamarind juice with additional 2 cups of water and bring it to boil .

Add the wet mixture (step 3) and cook for 5 minutes under medium flame .

Now add the fish pieces one by one ... to the above contents and cook for 5 minutes under medium flame .

Close the lid and cook for another few minutes under low flame and check whether the fish is cooked and the gravy has blended with the fish to give you a desired consistent gravy / kulambhu.

Then add 1 tsp of oil in a another small pan .

Once oil is heated up add the finely chopped shallots .. sauté till it turns to golden brown and then add curry leaves .

Add this to the gravy .

Your yummy traditional fish gravy is ready to be served along with cooked rice for a sumptuous meal.

Health benefits:

• A very high quality protein , packed with omega 3 Fatty acids ... which is essential for a healthy heart, brain, eyes, joints, skin .

• Very good diet for diabetics as it contains zero carbohydrates.

• Rich source of vitamin D and Iodine.

• Rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium.

• Cons : Some varieties of fatty fish especially seer/mackarel, have a high mercury content which affects the development of the fetal brain. Hence, Pregnant women and breast feeding mothers are advised to consult expert opinion on this before including as part of their routine diet.