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Fish Kulia

A fish curry with potatoes, onions, and a spice paste of ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, garam masala, and dried chillies.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 15 ingredients
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Why it works: Turmeric and cumin match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 1,698 recipes. Both carry eucalyptol, which smells eucalyptus, herbal. The science ↓

Fish Kulia

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare

  1. Make a paste of all spices and half the onions.

  2. Reserve half the turmeric and garam masala.

  3. Rub the fish pieces with the reserved turmeric.

  4. Rub the fish pieces with half the salt.

  5. Brown the potato pieces in oil separately.

Make the curry

  1. Heat half the ghee in a pot.

  2. Add the spice paste and stir constantly until it turns reddish brown.

  3. Add the curd and stir.

  4. Add water little by little as needed for about 15 minutes.

  5. Add the browned potatoes and stir for a couple of minutes.

  6. Add enough water to cover and bring to a boil.

  7. Add the fish and remaining salt.

  8. Stir in garam masala just before removing from heat.

  9. If not using onions, make a paste of boiled potatoes to thicken the soup.

Finish and serve

  1. Season the curry with ghee boiled with cassia leaves before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Turmeric + cumintop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,698 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  2. Ginger + turmerictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together2,776 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  3. Ginger + cumintop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together1,733 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Potato + oniontop 3% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,023 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  5. Onion + cumintop 6% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,498 recipes

    Shared aroma: coumarin (sweet, hay).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main protein of the curry, cooking through in the simmering liquid.
Potatoes
Browned first, then simmered, they add body and absorb the curry's flavour.
Onions
Form part of the spice paste, adding sweetness and body as they brown.
Curd (yogurt)
Adds tang and creaminess, and its acidity mellows the spices.
Ghee
Adds rich fat for frying the paste and a nutty aroma when used to finish.
Turmeric
Gives the curry its golden colour and an earthy, slightly bitter note.

The step that matters

Stirring the spice paste until reddish brown. Frying the paste in hot fat until it darkens toasts the spices and onions, deepening flavour. Stopping early leaves the paste raw-tasting, while stirring constantly prevents scorching.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, potato, ghee, yogurt, ginger, turmeric, cumin):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Tomatofits about as well
  3. Capsicumfits about as well
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, potato, ghee, yogurt, ginger, turmeric, cumin. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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