Finger Licking Chepala Pulusu

Chepala Pulusu or Fish Pulusu is a famous traditional seafood preparation of  both Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. An extremely popular fish curry prepared in most households, this is not just simple to make but packed with flavour from the tamarind, aromatics and spices.

The recipe is very easy and a very commonly made gravy down south. Here, in this gravy we can not only add fish but we can add several other vegetables too like drumsticks, cucumber and eggs. There are a lot of iterations of the traditional fish curry, the way it is cooked differs so much if you compare the North Indian, the Bengali way, of course and the South Indian varieties, you are very likely to get lost figuring out which one is the best to try out first. Fear not, this easy recipe is the answer to your prayers. Quick and easy to prep, and delicious and finger licking good.

Everyone knows that fish is good for you. The fats in fish, especially fatty fish like salmon, tuna, and mackerel, are thought to help prevent heart diseases and can even aid in preventing diseases like Alzheimer’s and Strokes.

Cooking fish can be daunting for amateurs and even in the professional kitchen it is regarded with some apprehension. People avoid cooking fish for lots of reasons, top of the list includes the irrational fear that it will stink up the house. But the main reason people don’t cook fish is because they don’t know how. But that doesn’t mean it’s not doable. As always, a little care and simplicity is key and of course my recipe 🙂

Ingredients:-

To marinate:
6 Fish steaks, cleaned and cut to required size
1 teaspoon of red chilli powder
½ teaspoon turmeric
Salt to taste

To roast and grind:
Cinnamon stick- 1 inch
Cloves- 2
Coriander seeds- 1 tsp
Sesame seeds- 1 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds- 1 tsp
Peanuts- 2 tsp
Pepper- 1/2 tsp

Other Ingredients:
Onion- 1 large
Garlic pods- 10
Chilli powder- 2 tsp
Turmeric powder- 1/2 tsp
Garam masala- 1 tsp
Salt to taste
A sprig of Curry leaves
Tamarind pulp soaked- 1 cup
Finely chopped coriander for garnishing

Method:-

Marinate the fish with ingredients under marination and set it aside for about 20 min.

In a kadai, fry onion and garlic together till they slightly change colour. Once they cool off make a fine paste of them and keep aside.

Now dry roast all the ingredients mentioned under grind and make a fine powder once they cool off.

In a wide pan, add oil and saute green chillies and curry leaves for a minute. Now add the onion and garlic paste. Let this cook for few minutes until you see the onion paste colour changing a bit.

 

Next add the freshly made masala powder with other spice powders also- chilli, turmeric, garam masala and salt.

Mix everything and cover it with a lid and let this cook slowly. Once you see oil seperating from this masala paste and floating add the tamarind juice with 1 cupe of water. According to the sourness of the tamarind add more water if needed. Once the pulusu boils add the fish pieces and let them cook slowly to absorb all the flavours.

Ta da! Simple and easy chepala pulusu is ready! Serve this spicy, tangy chepala pulusu with hot steamed rice and enjoy 🙂

PS- Also you can follow this recipe and make a vegetable pulusu with drumstick, yellow cucumber, ladies finger. Just saute them in oil with some chilli powder, turmeric and salt for few minutes and then add in pulusu and I use the same recipe for egg pulusu also and make it similar way.