Malaysian Fish Head Curry Recipe

Within the early 1900s, my paternal grandfather sailed from Tamil Nadu to then-Malaya as a 12-year-old orphan. He was part of considered one of many immigration waves from India, which largely consisted of males and boys from the southern Indian areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala who had been introduced by British colonizers to Malaya as indentured laborers to work on rubber plantations in an abusive and exploitative system that existed alongside after which ultimately changed enslavement. Past my grandfather’s courageous and harsh journey, I don’t know a lot about him, although I’m advised he opened what was probably the primary Indian restaurant within the sleepy port city of Pontian, Johor. My dad grew up consuming many meals at his father’s restaurant, which trickled right down to my very own childhood, during which there was at all times curry on our eating desk.

Malaysian-style curry, sometimes an excellent red-orange gravy with totally different greens and proteins, tends to be on the spicier facet. Essentially the most well-known model is fish head curry, which probably started as a poor man’s meal however has since risen in reputation to turn into some of the costly gadgets on Indian restaurant menus. For a lot of, sharing a decadent fish head curry as a part of a banana leaf–rice meal with household and associates remains to be a particular deal with.

Image this: A big tureen stuffed with steaming curry is delivered to the desk, during which a number of massive fish heads are submerged, surrounded by bobbing greens. Widespread fish varieties in eating places are whitefish like snapper and seabass, although I personally favor oily fish like massive mackerel and salmon, as they arise nicely to the spice of the curry sauce. Diners spoon the curry sauce onto their plates of rice, and communally choose on the fish heads over the course of the meal. Many will name dibs on their favourite components: the little scallops of cheek meat, the tender flesh within the crevices of the collar, the gooey eyeballs saturated with spice. When the fish heads are seemingly picked clear, some people will place what stays of the cranium on their plate, and tunnel by each hole and crevice, triumphant each time they uncover a bit of flesh that another person missed. It’s a feast, one finest loved with a big group of family members on a weekend afternoon.

Whereas the curry sauce is what contributes the majority of the flavour, most eating places don’t make their very own spice mix for the curry; many as a substitute choose to make use of ready-made packets of floor spices labeled “fish curry powder,” or order their very own customized mixes to be floor at native spice mills. Whereas the usage of pre-ground spice mixes is handy, they have a tendency to lean fairly closely on chile powder, which supplies the curries their vivid reddish-orange shade. I personally love warmth, however an excessive amount of chile powder makes the curry slightly one-note. On high of that, I favor to grind my very own spices, which, as a result of they’re contemporary and stronger, produce an total hotter mix with out having to go heavy on the chile powder. Whereas this does end in a curry with a much less vibrant shade, it makes for extra balanced flavors throughout, which is a tradeoff I am completely satisfied to make.

A way usually used when making ready Malaysian curries—dubbed the “reverse tadka” by Critical Eats contributor Nik Sharma—is to toast a number of spices in the beginning of the cooking course of. These spices stay entire, separate from those which can be floor right into a powder. For fish curries, the combo normally incorporates mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fennel seeds, fenugreek seeds, and typically nigella seeds. It is a mixture that can be purchased ready-made at outlets, usually known as “panch phoron.”

It is a method I exploit on this recipe, during which eggplant are first fried in oil till golden, then the entire spices are bloomed within the scorching oil earlier than diced onion and a paste of garlic and ginger and fried till candy and aromatic. The curry is constructed on high of that with tomato, tamarind, coconut milk, curry leaves, and a home made mixture of floor spices. After that the fish heads go in with okra and the fried eggplant and simmered till the fish is cooked and the greens are tender.

The mushy textures of the fish and greens married with the boldness of the curry and the occasional crunch of entire spice make for a sensorial, lick-your-fingers meal that you just gained’t quickly neglect.