Kerala Prawn (Shrimp) Curry: Chemmeen Kari

Kerala is a state along the seacoast in southwestern India, and seafood dishes are common there. Most recipes use coconut milk in this dish, which of course lightens the color, but I've seen a couple of recipes that omit the coconut milk, and the nice red color of the dish draws me to it. I know the list of ingredients looks intimidating, but it really shouldn't scare you at all, and if you cook Indian food at home often, and you already have a lot of spices, you should be pretty well set to make this dish, with the possible exceptions of curry leaves, which are common in southern Indian cooking, and black mustard seeds. Curry leaves can be found in Indian and Pakistani grocery stores and perhaps in "some" spice shops. They are often frozen, but I've actually found fresh curry leaves here in Cleveland at an Indian grocery store. Curry leaves have a combination of a citrusy and basil like taste. You can substitute basil leaves along with some grated lime peel. Black mustard seeds are available at spice shops, Indian/Pakistani grocers and at some supermarkets.

 

I've made this dish a couple of times before, but when I made it for this article, I decided to substitute tomato juice for the water I had used before, and I now prefer to use tomato juice.

Serve with basmati rice ...

 

Ingredients:

 

1 pound raw medium shrimp, shelled and cleaned

4 tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 large onion (softball size), quartered and then sliced

2 teaspoons grated ginger

4 medium cloves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon fennel seeds

1 or 2 red chilies, cut into 4 or 5 pieces each

1 cup chopped tomato

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric

1 tablespoon ground coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon ground red pepper (like cayenne, or for milder: 1/2 sweet paprika, 1/2 cayenne)

1 heaping teaspoon ground black pepper

12 to 15 curry leaves (or substitute 1 tablespoon grated lime peel and like 6 or 8 torn basil leaves)

1/3 cup tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cardamom pods, crushed or slit 

2 heaping tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro, aka coriander 

Heat oil over medium heat (I list 4 tablespoons of oil, but I suggest using 3 tablespoons, then adding the remaining tablespoon, if necessary), add the black mustard seeds and cook for a minute or until the seeds begin to "pop." Add the onions and saute until they begin to soften, then add the ginger, garlic and fennel seed; saute another minute, then add the chilies and cook for 90 seconds, then add the tomato and cook for 3 minutes. Add the salt, turmeric, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground red pepper (or the half and half mixture), ground black pepper, curry leaves (or grated lime/basil leaves substitute), tomato juice, ground cinnamon, cardamom pods (crushed or slit) and cook for another 6 minutes, before adding the shrimp and cook a further 6 minutes, then add 1 tablespoon of the chopped cilantro, stir and cook about 60 to 90 seconds. Garnish with the other tablespoon of chopped cilantro.

 

Kerala Prawn Curry, basmati rice and paratha, a type of layered and flaky Indian flatbread ...

WORD HISTORY:

Clue-This word is related to "clay," "clod," "cleave" (with the meaning "to cling to," not the meaning "to cut, chop"), all words from the Germanic roots of English, and to "glue," a Latin-derived word borrowed by English via French. "Clue" goes back to Indo European ""gleuh/gleih," which had the notion of "stick together, adhere." This gave Old Germanic "kliwjo(n)," meaning,  "something stuck together, a mass, something clumped into a ball." This gave Old English "cliewen" meaning, "a ball or clump," then "ball or clump of thread," and this then became "clewe," then "clew," then "clue" (perhaps influenced by some French spellings?). The meaning "ball of thread" was long the meaning, but the more modern meaning comes via Greek mythology where Theseus used a ball of thread to guide him out of a maze (used as "clew/clue ball," circa 1600); thus in English, this usage then took on the broader sense (circa 1625?), "something that guides and gives direction to solve a problem." Used in a negative sense in like, "That guy hasn't a clue where he is," with the general meaning "bewildered, not have an idea about something." The early to mid 1930s saw the development of the verb form meaning, "to give information to help point one in a particular direction," not long thereafter almost always used with "in," as with, "Clue me in on how to use this new app." Low German has both "Kluven" and "Kloen" ("ball of thread"),^ Dutch has "kluwen" ("ball of thread"), German has modern "Knäuel" (ball of yarn, ball of twine/thread), and the spelling with the "n" came about through a variant pronunciation in the Middle Ages of German "kliuwel," itself a diminutive form of German "kliuwe," Frisian once had "kliwen," but I cannot find anything beyond that, and Old Norse had "kle" ("ball," also "ball of wool?"), but the word seems to have died out in Old Norse, and thus, in the North Germanic languages.

 

^ Low German is not a standard language, but rather a collection of dialects; thus, it is not totally uncommon to see more than one form of a word by regions, or even totally different words.  

Indian Fish & Chili Curry: Meen Mulakittathu

This dish is from the state of Kerala in southwestern India. Kerala is a state with a substantial coastline, and thus, plenty of fresh fish, including what is called "kingfish" (one word) in India, which is a type of mackerel typically used in Kerala for this dish. This fish is also known as "king mackerel" in some other parts of the world, including in parts of the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico, depending upon the time of year, as these fish prefer fairly warm water temperatures. If you can't find kingfish/king mackerel, you can easily substitute tilapia (which is what I used), cod or halibut. India is a land of hundreds of languages and dialects, and in Kerala the main language is Malayalam, from the Dravidian language family. Just as a point of comparison, English is a Germanic language from the Indo European language family.

This is a spicy dish (with some mild tartness), but much of the "heat" will depend upon the chili powder/ground cayenne pepper you use, as the heat level can vary tremendously, just as with hot chili peppers themselves, when used fresh or dried. I often grind my own dried hot chilies, and usually it is quite potent, but when I used it in this dish, the cooking did mellow the heat level to some extent, and it was not as hot as I had anticipated. As I have mentioned in other Indian food articles, the people of the Indian subcontinent have lots of spices and seasonings, including hot chilies, and they are not sparing in their use, as "hot" spicy food is common there, but not every dish produces a blowtorch feeling in your mouth, and some are quite mild. Another thing I noticed about this dish, and I actually had read this somewhere before I ever made this, the dish is noticeably better, if you cook it, then refrigerate it for a number of hours, preferably overnight. I had fixed the recipe and served it, but placed the remainder in the refrigerator simply to keep it from going bad. The next day when I took it out for lunch, WOW! The taste was so incredible, and again, it was NOT unbearably hot for me, and although I like hot spicy food, a few adjustments as I've noted in the recipe, and even many folks who do not like "heat" will find this dish to be great. You can find tamarind paste in many supermarkets or most certainly in Indian/Pakistani shops, or online. It has a somewhat tart taste, and you could skip using it, or perhaps use a little lime juice instead. Tamarind paste is pretty concentrated, so you don't want to use too much, as it can overwhelm other flavors. As a point of information, tamarind is one of the components of Worcestershire sauce.    

Ingredients (about 6 servings):

1 1/2 pounds white fish fillets (king mackerel, halibut, tilapia or cod)
3 tablespoons vegetable oil (you can add a fourth tablespoon later, if needed)
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 cup chopped onion
1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped or grated
5 garlic cloves, chopped
about 12 curry leaves *
1 1/2 cups water (a little more, if needed)
2 whole dried red chilies
2/3 teaspoon ground turmeric
3 tablespoons red chili powder (or 2 tablespoons cayenne pepper + 1 tablespoon mild red chili powder, like ancho, or for milder, 1 tablespoon cayenne and 2 tablespoons ancho chili powder**)
2 teaspoons tamarind paste
1 teaspoon ground fenugreek
1 teaspoon salt

Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the mustard seeds and let them pop, then add the onion, ginger, garlic and curry leaves. Let cook for about 3 to 4 minutes, then add 1/3 cup of the water, the dried red chilies, the turmeric, the red chili powder (or cayenne and chili powder), the ground fenugreek and the tamarind paste. Cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the fish pieces and the remainder of the water. Let the mixture come to a boil, then reduce the heat to produce a gentle simmer and add the salt. Cook 12 to 15 minutes. The liquid will cook down some, but this is not meant to be a thickened sauce. Serve with rice and/or chapati (roti) bread. ***

* Curry leaves have a combination of a citrusy and basil like taste. You can find frozen curry leaves in Indian/Pakistani grocery stores, or you can substitute basil leaves along with some grated lime peel.

** When people from the Indian subcontinent talk about "chili powder," they mean "hot" chili powder. In the U.S., and presumably Canada, "chili powder" has far less, if any, notion of "heat," as it is mild. When "heat" is desired for foods, Americans (and presumably Canadians) most commonly use cayenne pepper, chili pepper flakes, hot sauce, or fresh hot chilies. I'm not sure what the term "chili powder" (more likely spelled "chilli powder") means in Britain; that is, "hot" or "mild," since influences from the former British colonies of the Indian subcontinent may have prevailed.   

*** For chapati/roti bread, here is the link, but actually in the Kerala region, roti is usually made with rice flour, but  : https://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2018/10/easy-flatbread-of-indian-subcontinent.html

WORD HISTORY:
Key-English has more than one word of this spelling, but this is the noun for "small island," likely with its best known form being in the plural and used for the U.S. archipelago, "the Florida Keys." It goes back to Taino, a language from the Caribbean islands, and a part of the Arawakan language family of Central and South America.^ Taino had "cayo" (meaning, "small low level island") and this was borrowed by Spanish as "cayo," with the additional meaning of "reef." English borrowed the word circa 1700, but the word's spelling seems to have been influenced by the then fairly common spellings of "quay," which were "key(e)" and "caye."   

^ Arawakan languages have declined over the centuries, largely at the expense of Spanish and other European languages that came to the New World.