FISH / MEEN KOLUMBU
Just to share with you …
This is simple and mouth watering Fish /Meen kolumbu . The Same method can be followed for any type of fish. Meen Kolumbu is very famous dish. We have lots of tamil songs which depicts the taste of meen kolumbu (say nathu vachha meen kolumbu yenna illukkuthu etc). Yep always the old meen kolumbu tastes more since the fish pieces are soaked in puli . Usually my grandma will make in huge quanties and keep the kolumbu for 2 to 3 days. The flavor of the meen kolumbu will remail in whole samayal arai which tell others that u made meen kolumbu which is its speciality.
Meen Kolumbu
Ingredients
1. Fish – 1 kg
2. Onion – 1/2 chopped
3. Green chillies -2 slitted
4. Curry and coriander leaves
5. Sesame Oil (is best if you don’t have u can use any ) as need for saurting
6. Tamarind – small ball size
7. Red chilli powder -2 tsp
8. coriander powder – 5 tsp
9. Little turmeric powder
For Tampering
little fenugreek seeds, whole pepper corns and sombu
For grinding
1. Onion -1 (if you have small onions/red shallots/chinna venkayam then take that equivalent to big onion/periya venkayam/ballari venkayam)
2. Corriander seeds -3 tsp
3. Jeera – 1/2 tsp
4. Red chillies -2 and green chilli -1
5. Tomato small size -1
6. Grated coconut -2 tsp
7. Sombu- 1/4 tsp
8. Garlic cloves -8-10
8. Whole pepper corns – ½ tsp
9. Oil as needed for frying above ingredients
Preparation
1. Fry well all the ingredients For Grinding and grind that well.
2. Pour oil in Kadai. Add the items under tempering and then add curry leaves.
3. Add chopped onions , green chillies (optional) .
4. Then add the grinded masala and let it fry for some time.
5. In the mean time soak the tamarind in water and get the thick extract. Add Red chilli powder, coriander powder ,turmeric powder and salt. This itself will look like kolumbu.
6. Now pour this in kadai. Cover it with lid and let it be in fire for minimum of half an hour in medium fire. Then open the lid and check the color and consistency and also the oil should float on the top. If not then keep it for some more time.
7. Finally add fish pieces and let it bil for 5 mins and switch off. Fish kolumbu is ready.
TIP
After putting the fish pieces don’t keep in stove for more mins .If so the pieces will get mashed and you won’t be able to take out pieces from gravy
Prepare Kolumbu a day ahead to feel the real taste.
Heads and tails you can use for kolumbu and the remaining pieces for frying.
