Kerala Fish Molly

[Kerala]

Fish molly, molee, moilee.. Meen molly. A white fish dish with gentle spice heat prepared with coconut milk and tomatoes, it is a family favourite. It's perfectly good made mild, but can be made quite hot, too.

This is how my younger sister prepares this. I'm not posting a recipe, but recording a process. No measurements in grams or cups, although I'm sure this is available elsewhere. I hope this will help guide you through the process if you wish to attempt it.

Where we start. Green chillies, ginger and garlic. Red onions.

 

 

Next, tomatoes.

 

Salmon, because that's what we have. Taliapa might be a better choice, but salmon is readily available here in the UK.

 

Add a bit of red chilli powder and turmeric, and rub into the flesh side of the fillet.

 

Fry on a hot pan, skin side down just for a few minutes to allow you to peel off the skin.

 

Set aside the fish.

 

Fry the onions. My sister used a neutral vegetable oil. Add a little salt at this point. Add the chillies, garlic and ginger, then when they're golden add and fry in some garam masala, turmeric, chilli powder, salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes. Continue gentle frying.

 

Add a handful of curry leaves.

 

Stir in the coconut milk. Continue gentle cooking.

 

Now we can add the sauce to the fish. Make sure to get some of the the sauce underneath the fish fillets too.

 

Now it's ready to bung in the oven, say 180C for 30 minutes. Serve it with sliced bread. Ciabatta tonight, close to the tough bread I had as a child.

 

Mild spice warmth, rich with coconut, a forward tomato note, underscored with turmeric. If you don't want to try cooking it yourself, do try it if you ever get to Kerala.

Edited April 17 by Kerala
Suggestions from my sister. "Chillies." (log)

[heidih]

Thank you . A simple flavorful dish.  Funny I'd call salmon red but that is my simplistic color thing, Also putting it back in the oven to me seems a long tume after the initial stove top. Does that "bring it together" for you. I'd want rice but do you perhaps dunk the bread in the sauce?

[Kerala]

The last 2 pictures are out of sequence, but I'm sure you get the idea.

[Kerala]

You're right @heidih, salmon is red, but it works fine. A more country style preparation omits tomatoes and red chilli powder so that it is a much paler, almost white dish. The heat is provided by more green chilli and more pepper. However, the red fish molly preparation is also common.

 

The initial sear of the fish is just to remove the skin. That's what my sister does. You could skin it without this step.

[Kerala]

The most proper accompaniment is appam, a fluffy rice pancake, but that's a whole 'nother thing. Bread is very commonly used in Kerala with fish molly.

Edited March 20, 2022 by Kerala (log)

[heidih]

50 minutes ago, Kerala said:

The most proper accompaniment is appam, a fluffy rice pancake, but that's a whole 'nother thing. Bread is very commonly used in Kerala with fish molly.

Oh appam sounds perfect!

[JoNorvelleWalker]

Naive question.  Would the dish work with dried curry leaves?  I was supposed to get some arctic char tonight but the delivery never happened.

 

[Kerala]

Dried curry leaves are not as fragrant,but they are better than making the dish without. Curry leaves are quite a subtle addition, but they really elevate the dish. Jo, I would just add a modest handful of dried curry leaves and go ahead. Too much would be worse than too little, but the acceptable range is quite wide.

If you stumble upon fresh curry leaves in some Asian grocer's, they freeze well. Just add them frozen to whatever you're preparing.

[blue_dolphin]

Thanks for sharing this, @Kerala!  A while back, I made the prawn version that appears in the Dishoom cookbook and thought it was delicious. I need to make it again soon and will review this again before I do. 

[Kerala]

The Dishoom recipe looks great. The main variation seems to be the mustard seeds at the very start of cooking and the treatment of the curry leaves. I could go either way with either of these.

And, of course, no oven stage in Dishoom. The oven phase is necessary if you are doing big slabs of fish rather than prawns, and it adds a bit of caramelisation at the surface.

[Kerala]

By the way, for anyone interested, the Dishoom cookbook is absolutely cracking.

[blue_dolphin]

5 hours ago, Kerala said:

By the way, for anyone interested, the Dishoom cookbook is absolutely cracking.

I agree.  I've cooked quite a bit from it and have more recipes on my list. And it’s a treat just to read!

[Cooker]

I have never cooked anything myself in my life before...

 

but i am going to learn it as soon as possible ...

 

i like how everything is nicely done in this thread with pictures and all ...

 

so these are all the usual ingredients that one needs when cooking ...

 

@Kerala

 

I am from kerala too ... so its nice to meet you ...

 

i am going to take this thread as a guide

 

you have explained everything nicely with pictures ...

 

Thanks

 

[Kerala]

@Cooker

Don't hold back. Cook now!

The Mark Wiens Keralan fish curry is failsafe and easier, and will taste good!

If it's not right, do it again a couple of times, and it will be better each time. You have the advantage of knowing when it tastes right. 

Equally with the fish molly, go for it! With both these dishes, the risk as an inexperienced cook from Kerala is overcooking rather than undercooking. 

[Cooker]

I will try to do it as soon as possible ...

 

usually my wife or my mother cooks the meals for us ...

 

so i never tried to learn cooking properly ...

 

but maybe next year i will have to move to a different country and then i will have to cook food for myself ...

 

so i better start learning this without wasting much time ...

 

Thanks for your cooking tips