The southwestern Indian state of Karnataka is huge. It's home to over sixty million people living in a variety of geographical environments. It's an ancient land, populated since paleolithic times, that has been part of different empires and cultures through the centuries. It's thus no wonder that there is no Karnatakan cuisine as such. Rather, there are seven main cuisines recognized within the state. As much as I would love to explore each one of them - this is the 23rd year of this project and I have not yet finished the "K" cuisines, so I had to choose just one dish to represent it.

Meen Gassi

Mangalorean Fish curry

The Karnatakan city of Mangaluru, better known as Mangalore, is located in the coast and thus features quite a bit of seafood as part of its cuisine. This fish curry made with coconut and tamarind, two beloved ingredients in the region. While kingfish, or Pacific king mackerel, is the the fish traditionally use in this curry, you can use any fish to your liking - some of the recipes I saw even used salmon. I used Pacific rockfish because that's what was on sale that week.

In Mangalore, you would use

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Mangalorean Fish curry Ingredients 7-8 dry red chili peppers 3 tsp coriander seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp black peppercorns 1/2 tsp mustard seeds 1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds 1 cup unsweetened grated coconut 1 Tbsp tamarind concentrate 2 tsp ginger garlic paste 1/4 tsp ground turmeric 1 Tbsp coconut oil 1 onion, chopped 3 green chili peppers, slit handful of curry leaves 1 cup of water salt to taste 1 lb fish fillets, cut into bite-size pieces Directions Remove stems from the red chilies and, if you prefer a less hot curry, remove seeds. Heat a skillet over medium-high heat and add the chili peppers, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, black peppercorns, mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds. Roast until fragrant. Transfer to a grinder or mortal and pestle and grind until powdered. Place coconut flakes, tamarind concentrate, ginger garlic paste, the spice mix and turmeric in a blender and blend until you have a smooth paste. Melt the coconut oil over medium-high heat in a saute pan. Add the chopped onion and green chilies and saute, stirring occasionally, until the onions are golden brown. Stir in the spice paste, curry leaves and water. Season with salt to taste. Cook for 3 minutes. Add the fish, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, covered, until the fish is cooked-through, 10-15 minutes depending on your fish.

Adapted from a recipe at Nish Kitchen

Other Indian cuisines I've cooked: Indian, Anglo-Indian, Assamese, Awadhi, Balti, Bangladeshi, Bengali, Bene Israel, Bodo, Chettinad, Cochin Jewish, Dogra, Dum Pukht, Garo, Goan, Gujarati, Haryanvi, Hyderabadi, Indo-Chinese, Kerala

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