Fish Moilee
Chunks of white fish poached in a mild coconut milk sauce with turmeric, ginger, green chilli, onion and curry leaves.
Photograph credit: Fish Moilee Kerala Style (aka KeralaFish Molly) (lead image of the bn.wikipedia article… by Drsoumyadeepb · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Build the Meal Around Fish Moilee
- Appam
- Steamed rice
- Idiyappam
- Cucumber salad
Sides from the same cuisine on this site: Gluten-Free Naan, Idiyappam, Kerala Appam.
How to Cook Fish Moilee
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Heat the oil in a wide pan. Add the mustard seeds and curry leaves until they crackle.
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Add the onion, ginger and green chillies and cook for 5 minutes without browning. Stir in the turmeric and tomato for 2 minutes.
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Pour in the thinned coconut milk and salt and bring just to a simmer.
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Lay in the fish, cover and cook gently for 6 minutes until opaque.
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Pour in the remaining coconut milk and warm through for 2 minutes. Stir in the lime juice.
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A Few Notes
Keep the heat low; boiling coconut milk can split.
Do not stir the fish; tilt the pan to mix the sauce.
Add lime juice off the heat so the sauce stays smooth.
Changing the Recipe
- If coconut is a problem, a cooking cream (dairy or plant-based) can stand in for the coconut milk in a sauce; the dish will lose the coconut flavour and taste noticeably different.
- Dried chilli flakes can stand in for the green chillies. Heat varies a great deal between chillies and between jars, so start with a small pinch and add more to taste.
- Lemon is the everyday swap for lime in this kind of dish — the acidity plays the same role even though the flavour is not identical.
Keeping What's Left
Best eaten the day it is made. Keeps in the fridge for 1 day.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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