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Ruchik Randhap

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Special Surmai (Kingfish) Curry (With Or Without Coconut)

One can create a myriad of flavours with a same set of ingredients ~ Mangaloreans are especially skilled at achieving this. The bounty of our Indian Coast has helped feed generation after generation and authentic recipes have been created, altered & mastered, each one redefined and tweaked to suit a palate or culture. Fish curries need a special mention as there are a zillion different ways to cook fish, curries especially are broadly classified into those that are coconut based and those that use other ingredients to create a base. Again you have a choice of picking a particular style of making a curry depending on what kind of fish you are cooking. Fresh water fish (river & lake) fish & Salt water fish (sea fish) are again the sub categories. For example, cooking Baby Shark (Thato/Thaate) which is a sea fish in a coconut milk gravy is unheard of (at least we don’t make it). We have particular gravies that suit certain types of fish. Spicy curries that are loaded with spices, onions, ginger & garlic are married off to fish like Mackerels (Bangde/Bangude), Sardines (Tharle/Boothai), Shark (Thato/Thaate), Silverfish (Erli/Yerli/Bolenjir) to name a few. The more delicate flavoured fish like Pomfret, Tongue Fish (Lepo/) Lady Fish (Kane/Nogli/Murdoshi), Kingfish (Surmai) are often stewed in coconut or coconut milk based gravies. A few preparations include those made in a green masala base made with ground coriander leaves & green chillies. Last but not the least we also prepare salted & dried fish curries that are flavoured with spices & raw mango or bimblies (bimbuli/vilimbipuli) ~ the taste of these curries are simply out of the world!!

 

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We Mangalorean Catholics usually prepare 6-7 specific types of curries that suit particular types of fish. We have the regular Geraal Kadi (Common coconut based curry for most types of fish), the Bafat Kadi (using the Bafat masala suitable for Mackerels, King Fish etc), the Shirko Shindaap (vinegar & sliced onions, ginger, garlic & green chillies), Amshi Thikshi (Hot & Sour curry), Rosachi Kadi (Coconut milk based curry), Losun Miri (Garlic & Pepper curry) and the Jeere Miri (Cumin & Pepper).Besides the above mentioned styles there are many types of curries that are either coconut based or onion based and their preparation varies from one family to the other. Undoubtedly I loved my mum’s way of preparing fish curries. My MIL who is also a superb cook makes her signature dishes which are usually onion or coconut (grated & ground) based. My mum made a lot of Roce (coconut milk) based gravies which were finger lickin’ good.That brings me to the part where I need to tell you from where I picked this recipe. Mum or MIL. Well, neither! In my quest to try out new recipes almost daily, I hunted through my trusted recipe books & randomly picked one from the book ‘Ranpi’ by Isidore Coelho who has authored many cookery books in both Konkani & English.

 
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Today’s recipe can be prepared with or without coconut/coconut milk powder. If you are brave enough to add the extra chillies that the recipe asks for, you can skip the coconut and enjoy a fiery red curry, otherwise simply add the coconut & enjoy the delicate flavour of this curry. This curry suits Surmai as well as Pomfret and is easy to make.

Special Surmai Curry

You Need:

  • 500 gm (or 3-4 palm size slices) of king fish/surmai/iswon or pomfret
  • 1/2 tsp tamarind paste or 1 marble size tamarind dissolved in 1 tbsp water
  • 1 medium size onion sliced
  • 1 green chilli (optional) * see notes
  • 1 tsp vinegar (option) * see notes
  • 2 tbsp oil for frying
  • 1 tbsp chopped coriander for garnishing (optional)

For the masala

  • 6-7 long dry red chillies (Bedgi), deseed if you wish * see notes *IMPORTANT*
  • 5 peppercorns (kali mirch)
  • 2 cloves (laung)
  • 1/2 inch cinnamon stick (dalchini)
  • 1 pod of cardamom (elaichi)
  • 1/4 tsp turmeric powder (haldi)
  • 1/2 tsp cumin (jeera)
  • 1/2 tsp mustard (rai)
  • 1/2 inch ginger
  • 6 flakes of garlic (Indian) with skin
  • 3 tbsp coconut milk powder or 3-4 tbsp grated coconut (optional) *see notes
  • 1/2 onion (optional) * seet notes
Method:
1. Wash & drain the fish on a colander. Using a little water grind all the ingredients mentioned in ‘For the masala‘ to a fine paste. Reserve the masala water from the mixer jar.
2. In a large pan or wok heat the oil & fry the sliced onion till golden brown. Add the green chilli (optional) and fry till it turns translucent. Add the ground masala paste & fry on a slow flame till the oil leaves the sides of the pan.
3. Add the reserved masala water, salt to taste, tamarind juice, vinegar (optional) and bring the gravy to a boil. Add the fish pieces gently and carefully cover them with gravy. Cover & cook on a medium flame for about 2-3 minutes.
4. Turn off the flame, garnish with chopped coriander & serve hot with rice
Notes:
1. I skipped the green chilli & vinegar and adjusted the tamarind juice as per my taste.
2. The original recipe asked for 10 long chillies and 10 peppercorns. I reduced these quantities as I prefer moderately spicy curries. However, you can add the extra chillies by deseeding them. Instead of doing this I added the coconut milk powder & onion (mentioned as optional items above) as they help in increasing the quantity of gravy.
3. If you are using very large slices of Surmai fish wash them carefully as they break easily.
4. If you like moderately spicy curries then make sure you add more than 3 tbsp coconut milk powder or grated coconut. Deseed the red chillies before grinding them. If the curry is still spicy add coconut milk to balance and reduce the spice. Once you do this you will have to check the taste and add more salt or tamarind juice if required.
Updated Notes:
I used 6-7 deseeded bedgi chillies and still found it spicy as the chillies were fresh (new crop). I added some coconut milk to the gravy before adding the fish to balance the spice. A lot of readers who have low tolerance to spice said that this curry turned out delicious but spicy. If you have low tolerance to spice please use just 3-4 Byadge chillies, all deseeded or Kashmiri chillies or a mix of Kashmiri and Byadge. Note that the seeds of the chillies are what give the maximum heat so when in doubt always remove the seeds and use just the skins. Byadge chillies give the traditional taste for curries while Kashmiri chillies are great for their colour but lower on spice than the Byadge variety.Pin

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Comments

  5. May says

    Shireen, it will be 2 years since we arrived to Deutschland on saturday. The only reason why I want to return back home is for the FOOD!!! Can you believe that on Mark's birthday I could not find any coriander or mint leaves in the whole village..:( And fresh curry leaves seem a distant dream!!! Thank you for your blog which keeps me going and makes me look forward to returning back home. I think I will revive my food blog only after return….

    Reply

  6. Shireen Sequeira says

    Thanks Aarti, Sharmilee, Soujanya, Priya & May 🙂
    @May: I hope your wait ends soon, I can't imagine how it must be to not have simple ingredients available easily 🙁 I am waiting for u to return & revive ur blog!! Till then, im glad my recipes help u look forward to better times ahead, cheer up dearie!

    Reply

  7. SKIP TO MALOU says

    SHireen,
    Hello it's me! Did you know that I've been looking for you. I have been wanting to get over here but poor me, i didn't bookmark it or anything. Im glad i found you again. I had to back track all my comments section and emails to find you. I've been planning to back track for days but today, i said I'm not going to leave this computer until i find you again. aha i did. Now i'm bookmarking you and following you as well.
    Have a wonderful week Shireen, I m so happy to be here again!
    malou

    Reply

  15. Prema Michael says

    Sher, I have to try it. Ive never bought king fish. Will do so today. Id like to add your mom curries were the best. yum yum slurp slurp!

    Reply

  18. Anonymous says

    Shireen,
    baaiyalli niruuu…. menu saaruu… nimma aduge blog tumba chennagide re..
    uttarkannada dakshina kannada aduge..!!

    jummanakaai(tirpal) haaki meenu saaru madi receipe post madri..

    tumba.. dhanyavadagalu:)

    Reply

  19. Shireen Sequeira says

    @Anonymous: Nimma comment ge thumba thumba thanks! 🙂 jummanakaai andre triphala alwa? Ok, try maadthini…recipe sikkidhre try maadi recipe post maadthini. Suggestion ge thumba dhanyavaadagalu 🙂

    Reply

  20. Anonymous says

    I tried this out with a slight modification. It was yummy. My first time Attempting fish curry. I used 3 Kashmiri an 2 short red chillies instead of bedagi . I also added 3/4 tbsp coriander seeds.

    Reply

  28. Sunz says

    Was looking for a good surmai/king fish recipe and I came across your recipe.
    This was pretty good, but I used only 3 red chillies and it was STILL too hot for everyone, how do you use SEVEN?? I had to drain half a can of coconut milk and add yogurt and regular milk to make the spice bearable. Next time I will use only one red chilli.
    Also I cut out the vinegar because I had some left over tomato paste marinara sauce I had made from before and I just added that for some zing. Overall it was a success and appreciated by everyone. Thanks for the post!

    Reply

  29. Shireen Sequeira says

    @ Sunz: Thanks for writing in and I appreciate your frank opinion. However, please note that I had mentioned in my notes about the chillies and how you need to adjust the spice. This is a Mangalorean recipe and it is common to use 6 chillies when coconut milk is used. What kind of chillies did you use? Which variety? The spice levels vary depending on the variety of chillies you use. The variety I have mentioned -Bedgi – is moderately spicy, however I do not know if you are Indian or not, so maybe you are not used to the level of spice?

    Reply

  33. Juvita d'silva says

    Hi Shireen, Thank you for the post, it really helped me prepare fish curry, my fish curry after marriage. It came out well, however I would like to know how come the gravy has orange color? I used all the given ingredients, however the color was dull yellow. Can you suggest how to obtain the same color as the gravy you prepared?

    Reply

  34. Shireen Sequeira says

    @ Juvita: Thanks for the compliment, glad you liked the curry. Well, the colour of the curry depends on the type of chillies used and how fresh (new stock) they were. When chillies age, the skins turn darker and maybe that's why you got a slightly dull colour. If you wish you can add some kashmiri chillies along with the Bedgi variety of chillies for that extra colour.

    Reply

  38. Unknown says

    Hi Shireen… first of all thanks for this lovely recipe… I prepared it yesterday and it turned out to be very tasty and fabulous… Keep posting and we all will keep trying.

    Reply

  41. UA says

    Wow! Yummy. Can't wait to get Surmai and try out this recipe. I have never used garam masala in fish curry before. Though will try out this recipe soon for sure. Thanks.

    Reply

  43. d.m says

    I selected this fish recipe from your blog because I liked the bright red color gravy. The fish curry tasted great. I added extra onion, coconut and chilies for extra gravy. Also I soaked the red chilies in a little warm water ahead of time, as I have a tiny milk shake blender and grinding the masala to a fine paste was way easier than normal. Thank you

    Reply

  45. maria pereira says

    Thank you Shireen for sharing your recipe..this was my first attempt in cooking this dish since I was craving fish curry (this is one of the reasons why I miss home). It turned out nice, except that the spice level was way too much than I can tolerate. It tasted better with steamed rice. I like that your recipes are not very complicated and you also provide tips and suggestions to modify/suit each one's personal taste. Thanks once again, and keep cooking!

    Reply

  46. maria pereira says

    Thank you Shireen for sharing this recipe. I attempted to make fish curry for the very first time since I was craving it so much (this is one of the reasons why I miss home). The dish turned out nice, but the spice level was way too much that I can tolerate…I did'nt realize while adding the chilies.It was OK when I ate it wit rice. This is a great site for all those wanting to learn to cook some real traditional food! Thanks and good luck!

    Reply

  47. Shireen Sequeira says

    @ Maria: Thanks so much for your feedback and I am sorry that you found it too spicy. Yes, a lot of readers who have low tolerance to spice said that they found it spicy too, so I have updated the recipe with some more notes. I am glad you like my other recipes! Thanks for the feedback!

    Reply

  49. fred101 says

    Increase the curry taste by 10 times.by frying onions, then dry powerded masala, cool and toss them along with dessicated coconut to a grinder and grind. Heat the curry in a pot and put fish. See the difference

    Reply

  53. Rachitha says

    I was tired of eating the same fish curry. Wanted to try something and came across your fish curry. easy to prepare and it was yumm……Thank you and please share few more different fish curries.

    Reply

  54. Suparna says

    Hi Shireen,
    Made this lovely recipe of yours and my family absolutely loved and enjoyed till the last drop… Thank you so much for making our day….. Would look forward to more things to cook…..
    Lots of love….

    Reply

  56. peter says

    dear shireen,
    blessings in the name of jesus i really appreciate your good work you really inspire others to cook, thanks for your great recepies i like it i am a seafood lover like to see more on that, mostly calms / macreal/shark please if you can

    Reply

    • Shireen Sequeira says

      Hi Peter,

      Thank you very much for your kind wishes & blessings. I am truly honoured! I will surely share more fish recipes soon!

      Reply

    • Shireen Sequeira says

      Hi Laila,

      Yes, I am aware of that. However this recipe was adapted from a book by Isidore Coelho and he calls it the ‘special curry’, perhaps due to the addition of garam masala which is otherwise not used in Catholic style fish curries

      Reply

  59. Smarty Rego says

    Hi , I wanted ask forth in how do one will know the amount of quantity of powders to be used in making of the masala if instead of making the same masala powder from the list of ingredients? Will there be any difference or better or worse ? Any complications ?

    Reply

    • Shireen Sequeira says

      Hi Smarty,

      I always grind my masalas using whole spices and have never really measured it. Maybe I should. I will prepare a separate post on it. I am not sure the result will be the same though. I don’t think there will be any complications if you are using accurate measures to make the spice blends

      Reply