Dry Anchovy/Unakka Netholi/Netholi karuvaadu curry

I had bought a packet of dry anchovy from the local Chinese market a few weeks' backs. I had this intense desire to try and cook the dry fish curry like the way my mom always did. Again, this the result of my yearning for her cooking I guess. Even if I make a visit back home nowadays, my mom is too weak because of her ailing and her advanced years to make all that she would like for me and my kids. So I mostly rely on my sister's -in-law for a chance at tasting some of the old luxuries I had enjoyed in my younger days, which I have since lost.

Anyways, today after a very tiring day, having spent the whole day outside, wandering around at the Dogwood Arts festival @ downtown Knoxville and mostly eating the hotdogs, the BBQ ribs and so on, and having not cooked an Indian meal in probably 24 hours, I started salivating for some rice and curry. It's then that I saw the packet of dry fish tucked in a corner. I had originally meant to make a sambhar, some rice and some kale mixed with black channa as a side. Seeing the brinjal( eggplant ), gave my husband the idea of why not a Karuvaadu (dry fish) curry? I begged him to do his mom's recipe. No way, he said. So I ended up doing this, my mom's recipe.

                                                   Mixed and ready to be cooked
Ingredients:

1: A Packet of dry medium-sized anchovies or 250 gm

2: Shredded Coconut         -      1 cup or one-half shredded

3: Dry red chilies -     8 no.s

4: Cumin seeds                   -     1 tbsp

5: Curry leaves                   -     2 sprigs

6: Turmeric powder            -     1 tsp

7: Tamarind ( Vaalan Puli,
    the long variety)              - rolled into the size of a small lemon

8: Shallots( small red onion) -     3 numbers

9: Brinjal(eggplant)               -    3 small ones, sliced into cubes or cut laterally

10: Plantain (green, raw)        -    1/2 part, cubed

11:Salt                                   -    as required

12: Oil ( favorably coconut oil)- 11/2 tbsp for garnishing with curry leaves in the end

                                            Cooked Dry Netholi/Karuvaadu Curry
Procedure:

Grind all the ingredients from 2 to 8 into a fine paste and leave aside. Remember to leave a sprig of curry leaves for later garnishing. Clean and wash the anchovies/dry Netholi, so it is free of any sand or dirt.  Preferably in an earthen pot, (I used a steel vessel to cook), mix the ground paste adding enough water and the anchovies with the brinjal/eggplant and the plantain and check for salt. Mix it all well and cook it closed on the stove top for 20-25 minutes on medium heat. Once the vegetables and fish is all cooked, turn off the heat and garnish with coconut oil and curry leaves. This goes well with rice. Hope you enjoy it, we did tonight!

                                                  Kale & Channa Thoran/Poriyal