Kingfish Curry...Surmai

Surmai Jhol

Ingredients:

4-5 Kingfish pieces, nicely cleaned, scaled and cut into flat pieces. You can request the Fish seller to cut it into big Indian pieces. Believe me they know the difference between Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani pieces.
2 small onions, finely chopped
1 big tomato chopped
2 green chillies, split across
handful of chopped coriander leaves
1 big heapful tbsp of Ginger garlic paste
1 tbsp mustard paste. I use dijon mustard, it works wonder.
1 tbsp tamarind paste
1 tsp of Paanchphoron (mix of five spices- cumin, fenugreek, brown mustard seeds, fennel and nigella seeds)
Generous pinch of Jeera (Cumin) seeds, Mustard seeds, a bay leaf, 2 dried red chillies
1 tsp each of Cumin Powder, Coriander powder, Amchoor(Dried Mango) powder & sugar
1 tbsp of Garam masala
2 tbsp of veg oil
2 tbsp of mustard oil for frying
2 tbsp of turmeric powder
salt & water

Method

In a flat big pan, put the mustard oil to heat up. Nice hot.
Rub some turmeric and salt to the fish pieces and fry the fish for more than a minute on each side and keep aside.
Put the wok on gas and dry roast the mustard and cumin seeds and red chillies for a minute till you get the aroma. Remove from the wok.
In the same wok, pour in the veg oil(you can used mustard oil too), add the bay leaf and roasted cumin and mustard seeds with red chillies and paanchphoron. When they split, add the onions and fry it till it is soft. You can sprinkle some salt to fasten the process.
Add the tomatoes and keep frying, stirring regularly.
While our onion and tomatoes are frying in the pan, you can start with the mustard paste mixture.
In a bowl, add the mustard paste, remaining turmeric powder and tamarind paste. Pour in hot water and give it a whisk. this will also reduce the bitterness of the mustard paste.
Back to the wok, add the green chillies, ginger garlic paste and fry for another minute or two.
Add the cumin, coriander powder, salt, sugar and amchoor powder and mix well with the onion and tomato mixture. Add the garam masala and fry the mixture till it leaves oil.
Add the mustard, tamarind paste we earlier made to the mixture and stir. Pour in water as required for the gravy. Check the seasoning and adjust.



Now slowly add the fried fish to the wok and let it simmer for good 10 minutes for the fish to absorb all the flavour. once done, transfer it to the serving dish and sprinkle some coriander leaves. You can serve steam rice, pulao or plain chappati/roti.

Happy Cooking!




Tips:
1.  For frying fish, heat up the oil to a very hot temp to avoid the fish from sticking to the bottom of the pan.
2. Don't overcrowd the pan while frying fish pieces.
3. While frying the onions for curry, to fasten the process, sprinkle some salt.
4, While using mustard for any fish recipe, if the mustard paste is dissolved in water, it reduces the bitterness of the mustard.