R024Meen Vevichathu
Kudampuli fish curry, the Kottayam Syrian Christian way
R030
Neymeen Mango Curry
Seer fish with raw mango and coconut milk, for the pre-monsoon glut
Photograph: Adobe Stock · representative of the dish
The re-engineeringFirst milk cut to 80 ml and added off the heat; 100 ml of M13 fish stock and the mango's own body take up the difference. The mango is treated as the souring agent it is rather than as a garnish, which is what lets the coconut come down.
In the weeks before the southwest monsoon breaks, Kerala's mango trees drop more hard green fruit than any household can pickle, and coastal kitchens stop buying kudampuli. Raw mango is the seasonal acid: fresher and sharper than kudampuli, with fruit body behind it, and it goes into fish curries, kichadi, pachadi and manga curry for as long as the glut lasts. Pairing it with neymeen, the richest fish in these waters, is the best use of both.
Before you start: Taste the mango. Green mangoes vary enormously in sourness, and this recipe is written for a properly sour one. A mild mango needs 5 ml of lime at the end; a ferociously sour one needs 20 ml less water and no lime at all.
Neymeen Mango Curry
Active 25 minutes Total 35 minutes
Scale
4 servings
Ingredients — tap to tick off
- ✓10 g (2 tsp) coconut oil
- ✓100 g (about 10) shallots, sliced
- ✓12 g (a 2.5 cm piece) ginger, julienned
- ✓3 green chillies (about 15 g), slit
- ✓14 g (2 tbsp) M05 fish masala
- ✓200 g raw green mango (about 1 small), peeled and cut into 2 cm wedges
- ✓100 ml M13 fish stock, or water
- ✓200 ml second coconut milk (M08)
- ✓3 g (½ tsp) M07 salt, or plain salt
- ✓500 g (1 lb 2 oz) neymeen or kingfish, in 4 steaks
- ✓80 ml first coconut milk (M08)
- ✓3 g (1 sprig) curry leaves
Allergens: Fish. Gluten (wheat) — only if your asafoetida is compounded with wheat flour, as most brands are (it arrives with M05).
Equipment: Clay pot or wide non-reactive pan, 24–26 cm. Substitute: as R024. Raw mango is acidic enough that aluminium and bare iron will both taint the curry.
Per serving (estimated)
| Energy | 342 kcal |
| Protein | 31 g |
| Fibre | 4 g |
| Net carbohydrate | 13 g |
| Total carbohydrate | 17 g |
| Sugars | 9 g |
| Fat | 18 g |
| Saturated fat | 12 g |
| Sodium | 310 mg |
From ICMR-NIN IFCT 2017 and USDA FoodData Central. Per-serving figures stay the same when you scale.
Method — tap a step to mark it done, tap a time to start a timer
- Heat the pot slowly, add the oil, and cook the shallots, ginger and green chilli with a pinch of salt over a medium-low flame until soft and just gold, .
- Add the M05 and stir , until the raw note lifts and the paste darkens a shade.
- Add the mango wedges, stock and the rest of the salt, and simmer covered until the mango is translucent at the edges and yields to a spoon tip but still holds its shape, . Under-ripe mango can take 10; taste one.
- Pour in the second coconut milk and simmer uncovered , until the gravy has thickened slightly and the mango's sourness has spread through it. Taste and adjust: it should be sharply sour, because the fish and the first milk will both soften it.
- Slide in the fish steaks in one layer and simmer at a bare tremble, without stirring, until the flesh is opaque and gives slightly under the back of a spoon, .
- Take the pot off the heat, add the first milk and the curry leaves, and swirl the pan — do not stir — until warmed through, .
- Rest uncovered before serving. The clay will finish the fish.
Why this worksRaw mango brings citric and malic acid plus pectin, and the pectin is the point: it dissolves into the gravy as the wedges soften and thickens it as a dried souring rind cannot. That is body from fruit rather than from fat, which is why this curry needs less thick coconut milk than a mappas of the same weight. The acid firms the fish protein too, so the steaks hold.
Sourcing note
You want a hard, pale, aggressively sour green mango, not an underripe eating mango. In the US, UK and Australia: green mango is sold in every South Asian, Thai and Filipino grocery, often labelled "sour green mango" or kaeng mango; Thai green mangoes are ideal and sold year-round. In the Gulf: Indian green mango is seasonal from March and everywhere in season. If there is genuinely none: 2 pieces of kudampuli plus 60 g of tart green apple gives you acid plus fruit body, and it is a different but coherent curry. Do not use ripe mango; you will get a sweet fish curry and nothing will save it.
If you are watching…
Blood sugar: 13 g of net carbohydrate is the highest of the fish curries here, and the mango is why. It is still a low-load dish, and the sugars figure above is an overestimate. Pair it with a smaller rice portion than you would give R024.
Blood pressure: 310 mg. Two grams of salt gives about 240 mg; a sour curry hides a missing gram better than a mild one.
Cholesterol: 12 g of saturated fat, almost all coconut. Take the first milk to 40 ml and add 40 ml more stock: about 9 g, and the curry is still rich because the mango is carrying the body.
Swap it
No neymeen → pomfret, kingfish, or a firm white fish. Prawns work well too, added at step 5 for 3–4 minutes only. (Allergen: this swap introduces crustaceans.)
No raw mango → 3 pieces kudampuli. Smokier, deeper, no fruit body, and no pectin, so add 20 g of M09 for thickness.
Second and first milk → 40 g cashews blended with 250 ml water. Roughly a third of the saturated fat; a rounder, less coconut-forward curry. (Allergen: this swap introduces tree nuts (cashew).)
No M13 stock → water. Thinner; simmer 2 minutes longer at step 4.
Make ahead · store · freeze
Fridge 2 days — the mango's acid keeps working and the curry gets sharper, not deeper. Do not freeze; the coconut emulsion breaks and the mango turns to mush. Reheat over the lowest flame, or over hot water.
Leftovers
Lift out the mango and fish, reduce the gravy hard for 5 minutes, and use it as a sauce for R038. Or chop everything together and fold into rice.
Troubleshooting
Curry is sweet: the mango was not green enough. Add 15 ml lime juice and 2 more slit chillies; it will not be the same dish but it will be edible.
Split, oily surface: the first milk went in over heat. Off the heat, always.
Mango disintegrated: it was overcooked at step 3, or it was riper than it looked. Add it later next time, at step 4.
Gravy thin: not enough reduction at step 4, or a low-pectin mango. Twenty grams of M09 stirred in fixes it immediately.
Serve with
R015 Matta Rice · R001 Appam · R053 Vanpayar Thoran · R065 Cheera Thoran
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