Kottayam Fish Curry

Heat about a quarter of a cup of coconut oil or vegetable oil in a frying pan until the oil is hot enough to break a few mustard seeds.

Now add the chopped onions, few curry leaves and slit green chilies and fry.

To this, add a mixture of turmeric, chilli powder and paprika powder in half a cup of water.

When the oil begins to clear, add the remaining spices previously ground, half a cup of `puli water` and sufficient additional water to make enough gravy to cover all the fish pieces when cooking subsequently.

Add salt as necessary.

Cook until the gravy is thick and keep this aside.

Next, take a large frying pan. Prepare a bed of curry leaves.

Arrange the pieces of fish on this bed. Pour the previously prepared gravy over this. The pieces of fish should be completely covered.

Add the remaining curry leaves and `PULI `pieces. Cover with a lid and cook slowly.

:- Do not stir, if necessary you can lift the frying pan by its` handle and give it a gentle rotating or rocking motion during cooking to spread the gravy evenly.

Stop cooking when the fish pieces are cooked sufficiently and the gravy is thick.

:- This preparation is best after it sits for a day or two to allow time for the spices to get in to the fish. In the old days they used `CHATTIES` made of "MANNU" to keep the fish curry in .The curry got better as it stayed in the chatty for some reason.