Tamarind fish/Thoothukudi puli meen

Introduction:

Tamarind fish/Thoothukudi puli meen is a super delicious, tangy and easy to make dish. Fish cooked in tangy gravy with just a handful of ingredients. This is not a curry/kulambu.It is a side dish that goes well with sambar rice and Thoothukudi meen sothi /meen aviyal (fish stew).It tastes great even with chapathi. Sardine/chalai /kavalai fish is usually used to prepare this dish .But you can try with other small fishes too. Traditionally, this recipe used to be prepared with roasted red chillies and few small onions mashed (by hand) into tamarind juice and then boiled until onions are half cooked. Freshly caught sardine is added to it and removed from heat in just one or two minutes. It was usually eaten with rice porridge (kanji).This recipe has evolved over the years and today it is prepared in this style. If you want more gravy, add more onions and little more water. Enjoy cooking this recipe...

	Cuisine: South Indian
	Recipe category: fish,  non veg,Side- dish
	Prep time: 25 min
	Cooking time: 15 min
	Serves: 4
Ingredients:
Sardine/chalai/kavalai fish	8 to 10 (cleaned)
Red chillies	6 (Broken into two)
Green chillies	2 slit
Small onions/shallots	200 Gms (sliced or chopped)
Garlic	6 cloves (sliced)
Tamarind pulp	1/2 cup (from lemon sized tamarind)
Chilly powder	1/2 tsp (optional)
Turmeric powder	1/4 tsp
Oil	2 tbsp
Coconut oil	1 tsp
Water	1/2 cup
Salt	1/2 tsp
Few curry leaves

Method:

Heat oil in a thick flat bottomed pan. When hot add broken red chillies, slit green chillies and curry leaves

Saute quickly. Add sliced garlic cloves, sliced small onions/shallots and salt

Fry until onions turn soft (3 min) on low heat

Add chilly powder (optional) and turmeric powder. Give a quick stir (1 min)

Pour the tamarind pulp and water. Allow it to boil.

Check salt and sourness. If needed add more

When it starts to boil arrange the fish on top of the gravy.

Cover and cook (2 min) on Low flame

Now gently flip over the fish .Close and cook (2 min)

Fish is cooked on both sides. Mix the gravy periodically (take care not to break the fish)

Allow the onions to slightly caramelize.(Leave the pan open)

Finally add coconut oil and immediately turn off stove

Cover and rest it for at least 2 min

Puli meen is ready to serve

Notes:

If you feel peeling small onions is a big task, you can add 100 Gms of big onions and 100 Gms of small onions or you can just add big onions (but remember big onions give a sweet taste to the dish)

If you feel that the heat from the red and green chillies is not enough to spice up the dish, add chilly powder

Sometimes tamarind pulp is a little sweet; in that case add more chillies or chilly powder

If you want more gravy add more onions and water

Caramelizing the onions along with the fish juices gives an excellent flavour and taste to the dish

Use a thick and flat bottomed pan to make this recipe