South Indian Fish Moilee with South Indian Red Rice

Name: South Indian Fish Moilee with South Indian Red Rice
Cuisine: Indian
Ingredients: 800 g white Fish, skinned & deboned (Blue Eye, Rockling etc); 1 ½ teaspoons Turmeric Powder; ½ tsp Salt; 3 tablespoons Olive Oil plus; 1 Shallots or 1/2 Onion finely sliced; 5 cm piece Ginger peeled and finely grated; 4 cardamom pods; 3 cloves Garlic peeled and finely sliced; 2 long Green Chillies split and sliced, seeds removed if preferred; 10 Curry Leaves (plus 6 to finish the curry); 2 x 440 ml Ayam Coconut Cream lite; 1 cup Chicken Stock, salt reduced or water if required; 2 Tomatoes cut into thick 5 cm slices; 2 tsp ground coriander; 1 tsp garam masala; 1 Lime (juice only); chilli oil; Serve with red rice, brown or basmati rice.

With

Gary Mehigan

Keralan coconut and turmeric fish stew over nutty red rice. Coastal, gentle, gold-toned.

Jump to recipe

About this recipe

Kerala's white-fish stew, gentle with coconut milk, turmeric and curry leaves, the broth pale gold and barely simmering. Cardamom and ginger keep the dish lifted; red rice underneath holds the sauce. A coastal Sunday dish that rewards a slow hand.

Fish moilee (or molee) is the Christian Keralan home-cook curry, a milder, paler counterpoint to the searing red fish curries (meen vevichathu) of the same coast. The dish was supposedly developed by the Syrian Christian community of central Kerala as a Lent-friendly preparation, with the gentle coconut-and-turmeric base reading as restrained against the chilli-forward Hindu and Muslim repertoires.

The pale gold colour is the visual signature. Turmeric provides the colour; coconut milk dilutes and lifts it; the dish should never go orange or red. No chilli paste, no tomato, no garam masala. Whole green cardamoms, ginger sliced thin, sliced shallots and curry leaves provide all the aromatic backbone the dish needs.

Firm white fish (blue eye, rockling, ling) holds together in chunks through the gentle simmer. Marinate the chunks in turmeric and salt for thirty minutes before cooking so the flavour penetrates; the salt also firms the flesh. Add the fish to the coconut base in the last five minutes only; longer cook and it falls apart. Serve over Kerala red rice (matta rice, the unpolished local variety) with a wedge of lime and a small bowl of plain rice pappadams alongside.

Ingredients

- 800 g white Fish, skinned & deboned (Blue Eye, Rockling etc)

- 1 ½ teaspoons Turmeric Powder

- ½ tsp Salt

- 3 tablespoons Olive Oil plus

- 1 Shallots or 1/2 Onion finely sliced

- 5 cm piece Ginger peeled and finely grated

- 4 cardamom pods

- 3 cloves Garlic peeled and finely sliced

- 2 long Green Chillies split and sliced, seeds removed if preferred

- 10 Curry Leaves (plus 6 to finish the curry)

- 2 x 440 ml Ayam Coconut Cream lite

- 1 cup Chicken Stock, salt reduced or water if required

- 2 Tomatoes cut into thick 5 cm slices

- 2 tsp ground coriander

- 1 tsp garam masala

- 1 Lime (juice only)

- chilli oil

- Serve with red rice, brown or basmati rice.

Method

1. Cut the Fish into thick slices or chunks, sprinkle with a little of the Turmeric powder and Salt, mix gently to coat and set aside for ½ hour.

2. Heat the Olive Oil in a heavy based pot over a medium heat, add the Curry Leaves, cardamom pods, the Shallots, allow to sizzle for a few seconds and then add the sliced, Ginger and Garlic, cook for 30 seconds to blend the flavours together. Add the Green Chilli, Cook gently for 3-4 minutes until soft, sweet and transparent in color. Add the cumin. coriander.

3. Reduce the heat and add Turmeric Powder and stir well and cook gently for 1 minute.

4. Add in the stock or water.

5. Pour in the Ayam lite Coconut cream and bring to the boil simmer for 5-6 minutes to combine all the flavours. Add a little water or stock if required. (The sauce should be consistency of light single cream)

6. Add the Fish pieces and bring gently back to the boil and simmer until just cooked approx. 5-6 minutes. Put the tomatoes in.

7. Add the fresh lime. Add dollops of the last of the thick Coconut Cream, and shake the pan gently to incorporate into the sauce. Drizzle with a tablespoon of Chilli Oil. Let the curry sit for 2 minutes and serve.

8. Finally add fresh Curry Leaf on the top as garnish.

9. Serve with Red, Brown or Basmati rice

Gary Mehigan

Gary Mehigan spent eleven seasons as a judge on MasterChef Australia before turning his attention to the road. He hosts Around the World on Two Plates and Good Food Everyday, cooking through markets and family kitchens from Spain to Sri Lanka. His own kitchen instinct sits in classical French technique with a forensic eye for produce.