The salty flavors of seafood are wonderfully paired with the aromatic spices found in curries, and this recipe of fish curry is a great choice to get your taste buds going. Although you can make this traditional village fish curry with any type of fish available, river water fish also known as fresh water fish are best as they go well in the curry. I know many of us don't have access to river water fish but trust me they make a huge difference in a curry. We Pakistani love to eat fish especially during winter season and here I am sharing a desi fish curry recipe that is used to prepare in Pakistani villages. For preparing this Pakistani style desi fish curry first we will fry it by adding some masala in it. The frying fish before cooking it in the curry will make it tastier and will not break it in the curry during cooking.
Rub some salt and vinegar over fish, leave it for 5-10 minutes and then wash it. This will remove the smell from fish.
Take the clean fish in a bowl and add salt, turmeric, carom seeds along with garlic paste. Rub all these over the fish completely.
In a frying pan add cooking oil and heat it over medium flame.
Add all fish pieces in the pan and cook these for 2-3 minutes, flip the side and cook the fish from other side for 2-3 minutes as well. Frying will remove the raw smell of fish and it will not break in the curry. Do not over cook the fish at this point.
Take the fish out after frying and keep aside.
Now add the same cooking oil in a pot/wok and then add chopped onion in it.
When the onion start to change their color crush the cumin seeds with your hands and add in the onions. Mix well.
After 7-8 minutes when the onions have changes their color add 2-3 tablespoon of water and mix well. Cover the pot and cook the onion for 3-4 minutes so the onions may turn soft.
Then uncover the pot and add chopped tomatoes in it. Cook for 3-4 minutes so that tomatoes could get soft.
Make a fine paste of garlic and green chilies and add in the curry, mix well. Traditional fish curry required good cooking and frying so cook the masala well. If the masala start to stick to the bottom little by little add water and cook the masala well.
Add turmeric, salt and red chili powder in the masala, mix well. We will cook the onion and tomatoes masala for almost 15 minutes and all the ingredients will be well cooked and mashed with each other.
Now add water (as per your requirement) in this curry masala, cover the pot and let the water cook for 3-5 minutes.
Add fried fish in the curry base, cover the pot again and cook for 12-15 minutes over low flame. (If the fish is not completely dipped in water give a flip after few minutes, be careful while flipping as the fish can break here).
After the time uncover the pot, you will notice the curry has thickened a bit.
Add cumin powder, garam masala powder and chopped fresh coriander leaves. Give a gentle mix.
Cover the pot again and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
Rich and traditional village fish curry is ready to serve.
