Neythili Meen Aviyal (Anchovies in Coconut based Gravy)

Neythili or Anchovies are one of the food which I enjoyed the most in my childhood.  Whenever I visit my grandma's place or aunt's place, these anchovies are must in their regular diet.  Even though when I was not a big fan of fish in my childhood, I used to love these gravies even still now.
After a very long time, I had these anchovies, that too prepared by me.  Last week when I got these, the immediate thing which I done was called my mom and asked for the recipe. Except the cleaning part of the fish, the recipe by itself is quite easy. If you can get cleaned fish directly, then that makes your life much more easier . I have used raw mango for this recipe, if you couldn't find raw mango, you can also replace it with tomatoes.  Try this recipe, I'm sure you'll love it.

Preparation Time: 10 minutes (excluding cleaning the fish)
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients:
Neythili or Anchovies- 500 g
Shallots- 6 finely chopped
Raw mango- 2 small sized (sliced)
Garlic- 4 pods
Grated coconut-  5 tbsp
Green chilly- 2
Turmeric powder- 1 tsp
Chilly powder- 1 tsp
Cumin powder- 1/2 tsp
Mustard  seeds- 1 tsp
Fenugreek seeds- 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves- 10 leaves
Oil- 1 tbsp
Salt as required

Method:
Remove the head and tail part of the anchovies and clean it well in water.  Grind together coconut, turmeric and chilly powder by adding little water.  Heat oil in a pan or kadai,  add mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds, curry leaves, garlic pods and green chillies.  Then add the chopped shallots and saute it for 2 to 3 minutes until it looks translucent. Now add the ground coconut mixture, sliced raw mango and the fish.  Add very little water to this and salt as per taste.  Give it a gentle stir, without breaking the fish.  Cover the pan with a lid and cook for about 20 minutes.  Then open the lid and cook for further few minutes, until the water gets dried out completely.  In the middle of cooking give it a gentle stir.  Once the water gets dried out completely, take it off from heat and serve it with plain rice.

Sending this to Kerala Kitchen Event