KARIMEEN FRY & COCONUT MILK.
Monu Danesh Surendran
“The meat is delicate too. In spite of its thorns, some ( Vir Sanghvi, journalist and food writer for one) call it the finest fish in the country due of its flavour and taste.
It is no wonder that the Kerala Government declared Karimeen, Pearl Spot or Green Chromide the ‘State Fish of Kerala’ in 2010.”
Everyone has a specific preference for the way they would love their Karimeen or Pearl Spot to be cooked.
Deep fried, in a mango curry, or a fiery, red curry, in a rich fish Moily or the exotic ‘Pollichathu’ cooked in a banana leaf.
I never was a Karimeen fan till recently.
As a kid, it was too thorny for comfort and I preferred the other varieties without worrying about stiff, tiny thorns getting stuck in your throat.
There are numerous horror stories of escapades from Karimeen thorns getting embedded inside throats. As a kid you realise that an ENT Surgeon gets regular cases of ‘Karimeen thorn in the throat’ in my side of the country then.
It was all in a day’s work for him.
The Karimeeen fried in all its glory in coconut oil and finished off with coconut milk
He puts on his headlight, focuses it into the patient’s throat and delicately pulls out the thorn with tweezers. Wonder where he fine tuned his art. Not at Medical School for sure.
The patient would go home relieved and swearing that he or she will never, eat a Karimeen ever again.
At the next family meet, the Karimeen arrives and for the patient ‘all the cursing and swearing is forgotten’.
Eating a Karimeen is a fine art.
Ask any ENT surgeon.
Picking the flesh out delicately with your fingers or stripping the flesh form the long side bones with your teeth is an evolved practise. A prime Karimeen eater would just leave the skeletal bone of the fish behind, after every morsel of flesh eased out and relished.
The meat is delicate too. In spite of its thorns, some ( Vir Sanghvi, journalist and food writer for one) call it the finest fish in the country due of its flavour and taste.
It is no wonder that the Kerala Government declared Karimeen, Pearl Spot or Green Chromide the ‘State Fish of Kerala’ in 2010.
It is very cliched too.
‘Eat a Karimeen pollichathu as you cruise down the kumarakom backwaters in a Houseboat’. Every tourist who has been to Kerala has ‘been there, and done just that!’.
As for me, the new Karimeen fan, it has to be fried. In fresh coconut oil. Period.
A Karimeen Pollichathu is not my bone of contention.
Pun intended.
Karimeen fried this way is a great combo with Avial, Kerala’s ‘King’ of vegetarian dishes.
30 minutes of staying dipped in lukewarm tamarind laced water helps remove the muck.
Firstly, the Karimeen is a brackish water fish, that thrives in the backwaters of Kerala, the finest of them caught from Kumarakom and the ‘Kanjiramcode Kayal (Lake)’ in Kollam.
Seek, find and fry immediately! That’s how I look at Karimeen.
Being in Bengaluru, and in the midst of a massive Covid lockdown, I can’t be that choosy.
I made do with a consignment of Pearl Spot from FRESH TO HOME, the online Fish portal.
Here’s my modus operandi.
Order the Karimeen whole and not cleaned at all. Why?
Because the Karimeen lives in brackish waters which have a soft, blackish clay soil and for these fish all waste is their favourite feed, including human excreta way back when the toilets on the banks of these lakes were built jutting into the lake.
This muck tends to stick to the scales of the fish.
I cleaned the Karimeen in the traditional way first.
With a sharp knife I finely scraped off the scales attached to the skin and removed all the fins and cleaned its belly.
MY CLEANING HACK ( Thank you Youtube hackers)
Next, after washing them well place in a vessel with warm water and add a ball of tamarind paste. Mix the tamarind well into the slightly warm water and leave to rest for about 20-30 minutes.
Now scrape off the black muck off the skin that comes off easily till the skin of the fish is glowing white.
Bingo!
‘A well cleaned Karimeen with glistening white skin without any of the black muck adds to the fine flavour of the fish when it’s eaten’, says my mother.
Finally, put the fish into a mud pot with sprinkled salt and swish them around one by one till they are cleaned well. Wash off the salt and now the Karimeen is ready to cook.
It is very cliched too.
‘Eat a Karimeen pollichathu as you cruise down the kumarakom backwaters in a Houseboat’. Every tourist who has been to Kerala has ‘been there, and done just that!’.
Slice the fish across its flesh and apply the classic, Kerala fish fry masala.
Red chilly powder, freshly crushed black pepper powder, a dash of turmeric powder and salt to taste. Mix the powders well with a tablespoon of vinegar and a splash of water.
Apply all over the fish including inside the belly and the gills. Leave to marinate for about 15 minutes.
Shallow fry the marinated fish in a little coconut oil on low flame with the lid on. Flip over when one side is done.
Now add in a bunch of curry leaves and put back the lid.
When is fish is done fried to the right crispy consistency on the outside and soft inside, add in half a cup of freshly squeezed coconut milk all over and turn off the flame and close the vessel.
After about 5 minutes, the coconut milk would have been absorbed by the fried fish. Done.
This is a delicious Karimeen fry with just the right splash of coconut milk to top it off.
Golden fried Karimeen with the glow of fresh coconut milk.
My kind of Kollam Karimeen cooking in Bengaluru!
– Monu Danesh Surendran.
What a way to cook Karimeen. Loved your writing.
Thanks Anil! In the land of coconuts and fish, why not combine the two like most Kerala preparations was my twist.