Meen Moilee

One of my favourite curries, especially with appams as it adds some bite to cut the sweetness of the appam. Incredibly easy to make, with just a hand-full of spices and loads of coconut milk. It can be made with any tender white meat, like chicken or a firm white fleshed fish, like pomfret, bass. I made this with fillets of Emperor fish, which added a sweetness to the entire dish. You can have this curry with plain rice or appams, the recipe for which can be found here: Appam with Nadan Mutta Curry
Ingredients

• 200 g firm white fish fillets or 400g white fish steaks; cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 cup thick coconut milk (first extraction)
• 1/2 cups thin coconut milk (second extraction)
• 2 cloves
• 1 bay leaf
• 1 inch cinnamon
• 4 green cardamoms
• 2 split green chilies
• 1 inch ginger
• 4 cloves garlic
• 1 onion finely chopped
• 1 tomato cubed
• 1 sprig curry leaves
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp turmeric
• salt and pepper to taste

Method

1. Wash the fish and add some salt and half the turmeric to it. Coat the fish evenly with the turmeric and salt and set aside for at least 30 minutes.
2. Crush the ginger and garlic together into a thick paste.
3. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a flat bottomed pan and add the fish. Lightly fry the fish till it turns brown around the edges and remove from the oil.
4. Add the cloves, cardamom, curry leaves and cinnamon and lightly fry it to release its aroma. Add the garlic-ginger paste, onions and green chilies, and fry till the onions turn translucent. 
5. Then add the tomatoes and cook until they turn tender. Then add the thin coconut milk, bay leaf and fish, and let it cook on high heat for around 4 minutes.
6. Add the remaining turmeric, salt and pepper to taste and lower the heat. Let is stew covered for another 5-7 minutes, so that the flavours meld together.
7. Now add the thick coconut milk and let it simmer on a low heat for 3 minutes before taking it off the heat.
8. Add the lime juice after taking it off the heat and let it sit aside covered for 10 minutes before serving.