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Fish with Tamarind

Fish seasoned with spices, coated in a tamarind sauce, and gently cooked.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 14 ingredients
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Why it works: Cinnamon and clove match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 14,189 recipes. Both carry ethyl cinnamate, which smells sweet, balsamic. The science ↓

Fish with Tamarind

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare the fish

  1. Rub the fish with oil, salt, and saffron.

  2. Let the fish sit for 1 hour.

  3. Wash the fish off.

  4. Rub the fish with chennah flour.

  5. Wash the fish off with lemon juice.

Make the spice coating

  1. Mix aniseed and zeera with water.

  2. Rub the mixture on the fish.

  3. Grind the spices into a paste.

  4. Mix the paste with the fish.

Cook and serve

  1. Heat ghee in a pan.

  2. Add the fish to the pan.

  3. Gently shake the fish in the pan.

  4. Grind tamarind.

  5. Pour the tamarind over the fish.

  6. Cover the pan.

  7. Cook on low heat.

  8. Stir gently to avoid breaking the fish.

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. Cinnamon + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together14,189 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  2. Ginger + cinnamontop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,380 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  3. Ginger + clovetop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together6,038 recipes

    Shared aroma: estragole (anise, licorice).

  4. Onion + garlictop 1% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together29,058 recipes

    Shared aroma: furaneol (caramel, strawberry).

  5. Tamarind + cinnamontop 2% of all pairs
    Smell alikestrong
    Cooked together98 recipes

    Shared aroma: cinnamyl acetate (sweet aromatic, cinnamon).

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

What each ingredient does

Fish
Forms the main body of the dish, which holds its shape when cooked gently.
Ghee
Adds fat for frying and a rich, nutty flavour to the fish.
Tamarind
Provides sourness that gives the sauce its tangy character.
Onion
Adds sweetness and body as it softens into the base of the dish.
Garlic
Adds pungent aroma that deepens the savoury base of the dish.
Lemon
Adds acidity that brightens the fish and helps cut its richness.

The step that matters

Stir gently to avoid breaking the fish. Fish flesh is delicate and breaks apart when cooked and handled roughly. Gentle shaking and stirring keep the pieces intact while the sauce penetrates and thickens around them.

Swap the onion

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (fish, ghee, ginger, tamarind, garlic, cinnamon, clove):

  1. Carrotfits better
  2. Sweet potatofits better
  3. Capsicumfits better
  4. Onionthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against fish, ghee, ginger, tamarind, garlic, cinnamon, clove. 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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