The Indian subcontinent · Volume 20, The Merchant’s Thali, the Konkan Tide and a Kitchen from Persia
Malvani Fish Curry (Mase Kalvan)
Maharashtra, the Konkan coast
An illustration of the dish, not a photograph of it cooked.
- Time
- 1 hour
- Researched
- No outside sources linked
- Reviewed
- Not yet reviewed from inside the tradition
- Cooked
- Not yet cooked and reported
Fish marinated in kokum juice and ginger-garlic paste, added last to a wet masala of grated coconut, garlic, coriander and green chilli, ground and fried until the oil visibly separates, built out with coconut milk, dry Malvani masala and kokum water, and simmered only briefly once the fish goes in, so it never overcooks.
As tradition built it
Serves 4. About 1 hour.
Ingredients
- 600g firm white fish (pomfret or kingfish), cut into steaks
- 3 to 4 pieces dried kokum, soaked in a little water
- 1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
Wet masala
- 100g fresh grated coconut
- 4 cloves garlic
- 20g fresh coriander
- 2 green chillies
To build the curry
- 2 tbsp oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 1 tomato, chopped
- 2 tbsp dry Malvani masala
- 200ml coconut milk
- to taste salt
Method
- Marinate the fish in the kokum liquid and ginger-garlic paste, 30 minutes.
- Grind the fresh grated coconut, green chillies and the rest of the wet masala ingredients to a smooth paste.
- Heat the oil, soften the onion, add the tomato and cook down.
- Add the wet masala paste, frying, stirring often, until the oil visibly separates from the paste, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Stir in the dry Malvani masala, then the coconut milk and enough water to loosen to a curry consistency. Bring to a simmer.
- Slide in the marinated fish and its liquid, and simmer gently 2 to 3 minutes only, until just cooked through. Season with salt and finish with fresh coriander.
Notes
Ratios and timings here are drawn from Marathi recipe-tier sources rather than an archival or academic text, and should be read as representative home-cooking convention.
What a modern chef changes
The oil-break judged properly, and the fish handled with real restraint
Rung 3
Method
- Grind the wet masala in a high-power blender to a genuinely fine paste before frying, closing most of the gap a stone grinder once filled.
- Cook the base to a full oil-break and let it cool slightly before adding coconut milk, so the fat and the fresh masala are properly married rather than the coconut milk masking an underdone paste.
- Poach the fish separately, briefly, in a little of the finished sauce, off the direct heat, then combine, for more even, controlled doneness than lowering it straight into a simmering pot.