South Indian Fish Curry

Ok, today a Chinese girl teach you how to make Southern Indian Fish Curry.

Can only happen if this Chinese girl grew up in India or Malaysia. Btw, got this Chinese guy at my workplace who so totally grew up in India and speaks with an Indian accent, so dun pray pray w Chinese. LOL.

Ingredients:

1. Garlic

2. Onion

3. Mustard seeds

4. Asafoetida

5. Oil

6. Chilli (and chilli powder)

7. Tomatoes

8. Ladies finger/Okra

9. Salt

10. Fish curry powder

11. Tamarind/Lemon

12. Fresh fish of any kind... just not the canned ones or preserved ones

Optional:

Anything else you think you would like to eat in the curry cos I'm quite cing cai bo cai (easy going)

Step 1: Prepare your ingredients. Clean and wash. Slice in any way you are happy for you vegetables to exist in. Flower shape also can.

Step 2: Heat oil. Throw mustard seeds and asafoetida in. It's very satisfying to see the mustard seeds jump about in the hot oil, just like pop corn. Then add the garlic and half the onions.

Step 3: Add the fish curry power. Baba's is a pretty good brand. Fry it a bit but don't let it burn.

Step 4: Add water. Actually this step is wrong, read on to see why. But if you do this, it's not a disaster also la ok. Don't worry.

Step 5: Add the tomatoes quite early on. The goal is for it to basically boil to pulp and it adds flavour to the curry. All you should hope to see is the skins left. Sometimes, I hold back some tomatoes right till the end cos I do like half-cooked tomatoes in my curry.

Step 6: Add remaining onions and chillis. I added the other vege a little later so it won't be boiled to pulp.

Step 7: Added the okra just as the curry is almost done (i.e. the tomatoes almost gone) cos if you over-cook okra you might get a gloopy, slimey curry!

Step 8: Add curry leaves right at the end. An Indian aunty thought my mum this. I'm not sure why but I guess if you overcook the leaves, the flavour will wither with the heat?

Step 9: Salt to taste, stir.

Step 10: Add fish and push it right to the bottom when it is still raw and firm. Let simmer for 5 minutes and turn off fire.

Step 11: Say "Voila! It is done"
Verdict: FAILED (bold, underline and highlight) taste test. WHY???!!!?!?!?!! Doshite!!?!?!???! T_T

Troubleshoot: forgot tamarind juice le.... So for Step 4, use tamarind water and not water. Even lemon or lime juice works fine in the event you have no tamarind.

Step 4 corrected: Pour in tamarind water as opposed to clear water. Add boiling water to dried tamarind and let it rehydrate. Then, get a woman or a professional male chef to do as depicted in the picture. This is because regular guys, even the gay ones (I know this cos I dated one for four years) do not have asbestos hands. Generally you can add more water to the pulp and milk as much goodness as possible out of it.

YAMI YAMI YAMI, RUBBY RUBBY MY TUMMY!
PASSED

In you are an expert in South Indian cooking, I would appreciate any constructive criticism and comments!