Photo: stu_spivack · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Meen Molee
Delicate white fish fillets poached gently in a golden, mildly spiced coconut milk gravy — Kerala's most elegant fish curry, beloved by Syrian Christian families in Kottayam and served with appam at dinner.
🧺 Ingredients
👩🍳 How to make Meen Molee
- Heat coconut oil.
- Add onion, ginger, garlic; sauté until onion is soft and translucent, about 4 min.
- Add green chillies and curry leaves; stir 1 min.
- Add turmeric and pepper; stir 30 seconds.
- Pour in thin coconut milk.
- Add tomato and salt.
- Simmer gently until tomato softens, about 5 min.
- Slide in fish pieces.
- Do not stir — gently spoon gravy over fish.
- Cook on low heat 5–6 min until fish turns white and just begins to flake at the edges.
- Pour in thick coconut milk.
- Heat gently — do not boil or it will split.
- Stir in lemon juice.
- Remove from heat immediately when wisps of steam rise.
📖 Cultural notes
|---|---|---|---|---| | 310 kcal | 30 g | 7 g | 18 g | 1 g | Meen Molee is the centrepiece of Syrian Christian dinner tables in central Kerala, particularly in Kottayam and Ernakulam. The name "molee" derives from the Portuguese "molho" (sauce), a legacy of 16th-century Portuguese influence on Kerala's Christian coastal communities. It is always paired with appam — the lacy rice crepe whose bowl shape is designed to cradle the delicate white gravy. ---
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