Goan Fish Jeerem Meerem Curry is one of my favorite fish curries! This is a really easy fish curry, that doesn’t use coconut, yet is uber delicious nonetheless!
Hi guys! Sharing a very traditional yet delicious dish from the Goan cuisine, Fish jeerem meerem curry!
Jeerem meerem is basically pronounced as ‘jeerey-meerey’, the m is silent. ‘Jeerem’ means cumin seeds and ‘meerem’ means pepper in Konkani.
So as the name suggests, the dish consists of meat/seafood cooked in a paste prepared of cumin and peppercorns along with a few other spices.
The peppercorns and green chillies lend the required heat to this dish, which is well balanced with the tomatoes, tamarind, and vinegar.
Coconut forms an integral part of most Goan curries, but this dish doesn’t use coconut. This fish curry pairs well with plain steamed rice or even pav.
I actually prepared this dish during my vacations in Mumbai since we get some really fresh seafood there, especially these delicious sweet pomfrets!
We relished it along with some ‘thambdi bhaji’ (sauteed red amaranth leaves with freshly grated coconut). That made for such a soul-satisfying meal!!
Table of Contents
How to make Goan fish jeerem meerem curry – Step by step instructions
Step 1: Marinate the fish
Marinate the fish (about 2-3 medium pomfrets sliced into 1-inch thick slices) with a little salt, and set aside while you start prepping for the curry.
Step 2: Grind the spice paste
Make a slightly coarse paste of 18-20 peppercorns, 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, 5 cardamoms, 1-inch cinnamon, about 5 large garlic and 3/4 teaspoon turmeric powder using 1-2 tablespoons of water. Set aside.
Step 3: Saute onions and tomatoes
Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot, add 1/2 cup of finely chopped onions, saute until translucent.
Next, add chopped tomatoes (1 medium) and cook until the tomatoes are a little mushy.
Step 4: Saute the prepared spice paste
Add in the ground masala prepare in step 2, along with 2 slit green chillies, saute the masala well until it loses moisture.
Step 5: Add tamarind extract and vinegar
Extract and strain the tamarind juice (lemon sized tamarind ball soaked in 1/2 cup hot water) and add it to the above masala, mix well.
Add 1 tablespoon vinegar, 1/2 teaspoon sugar and another 1/2 cup of water, mix well and bring to a boil.
Step 6: Add the fish pieces
Add the fish pieces, and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. Check for seasonings, adjust with more salt, sugar or vinegar. Serve with steamed rice.
★ If you try this easy no-coconut fish curry recipe, I would love to hear from you! I’d appreciate it if you could rate and leave a review below in the comments. Your reviews help others know the recipe better too. Feel free to share your feedback and suggestions at [email protected]. Thanks so much 🙂
You can also follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram & Twitter
Goan Fish Jeerem Meerem Curry
Ingredients
- 2-3 medium-sized pomfrets or 2 large pomfrets or any other firm white fish
- 2-3 green chillies, slit lengthwise
- 18-20 peppercorns
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 5 green cardamom
- 1 inch cinnamon
- 10 small/5 large garlic cloves
- 3/4 teaspoon turmeric powder
- lemon sized ball of tamarind soaked in 1/2 cup hot water
- 1/2 cup diced onions
- 1 tomato, finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon vinegar
- 1/2 teaspoon sugar
- Salt, to taste
Instructions
- Marinate the fish with a little salt, and set aside while you start prepping for the curry.
- Make a slightly coarse paste of peppercorns, cumin seeds, cardamom, cinnamon, garlic and turmeric powder using 1-2 tablespoons of water. Set aside.
- Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pot, add finely chopped onions, saute until translucent.
- Next, add chopped tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are a little mushy.
- Add in the ground masala prepare in step 2, along with slit green chillies, saute the masala well until it loses moisture.
- Extract and strain the tamarind juice and add it to the above masala, mix well.
- Add the vinegar, sugar and another 1/2 cup of water, mix well and bring to a boil.
- Add the fish pieces, and cook for another 3-5 minutes or until the fish is cooked through. Check for seasonings, adjust with more salt, sugar or vinegar. Serve with steamed rice.
Notes
I would love to hear from you! Please feel free to share your feedback with photos and suggestions to me at [email protected]
You can also follow me on :
Have a great week ahead!
Regards,
Freda
normally I prepare jeerem meerem masala and preserve in fridge. Most of the time I used to use it for beef jeerem meerem. After a long time I will try with fish also. Have eaten a lot when I was small. Loved my mummy’s food.
Hi Lenin! Yes, that’s one handy spice mix to have at hand. Versatile for meat, and seafood!
Hi Freda, I tried this Jeerem Meerem fish curry yesterday it was very delicious. I felt that the quantity of curry was less could i use extra water or will it be watery please let me know
Hi Emy, thanks for your feedback. You can double the quantity of water for more curry, and can increase the masala paste by 1.5 times so that the taste isn’t diluted with more water.
I tried the recipe and it was delicious. Just like how my Grandma used to make
Hi Andre! So happy to hear this, appreciate your feedback:)
Hi Freda
I have seen whole pomfret fish at local asian stores. How do I ask the people there to prep the fish so it can be used in this curry?
Also, would love to try a fish fry recipe too if you have one.
Growing up in Delhi, we never had a chance to enjoy fish/seafood in local cuisine, it was all about tandoori chicken and butter chicken. I just started making fish and only know how to make pan fry salmon with salt n pepper. Definitely want to explore more indian seafood recipes.
Thanks!
Hi Shuchi, ask them to clean the fish by cleaning the insides. Pomfret is not really difficult to clean, a few times that I’ve got pomfret from the Asian stores, they were already cleaned inside, like all the organs and stuff were removed. Check for the freshness of the fish from the eyes, they should not be too red. If it’s clear it’s fresh! Instead of taking the trouble of making it with pomfret, you can use flounder, mahi mahi, or halibut or a good wild caught Tilapia. These tastes great in curries as the taste and texture is similar to pomfret, that’s what I feel. In Goa, we have masala stuffed fried fish, if you search the blog with ‘recheado mackerels’ you will get it. But you need to have the masala for that, you will find recheado masala recipe in my blog archives if you are interesting in making some, it’s a handy paste to have. You can also use regular green coconut chutney to stuff the fish and fry it. The most simplest thing what I do is apply some salt, pepper, red chilli, turmeric powder along with some ginger garlic, and lemon juice. Marinate it for 15 mins and coat it with fine rava and shallow fry. That’s all, it’s easy and tastes great 🙂
Jeerem Meerem or Jirem Mirem to me is a paste with hot red chillies,ginger,garlic, cumin, and other optional spices (mustard seeds,nutmeg, triphal etc) and toddy palm vinegar. You can store it in jars and use to stuff (rechear) fish like pomfrets or mackerel. In this way you save time.
Hi Carlos! Thanks for stopping by! As far as my knowledge about Goan cuisine is concerned, I think you are talking about Recheado masala, which is normally used for stuffing seafood like mackerel. I have a recipe for that in the blog and yes it uses the ingredients you mentioned. Jeerem meerem does not have red chillies in the spice mixture. Its more of jeerem-cumin, meerem-peppercorns along with few other spices and has a yellow hue.
Assume…I tried it…Very tasty
Hi Freda!Swapna here..love your poetic fish dear..it’s awesome..love your preparation. Awesome Jeerin meerim…so rhythmic, poetry..
Hi Swapna! Nice to see you here 🙂 Thanks a lot again!
Fantastic. Can v try this for egg also. Looks delicious
Thanks! Yes you can use it for egg too 🙂
Can we use it for kalwa
I’m not really sure, never had it with kalwa.
I have some home made jeera meera Freda. Those pomfret slices look amazing as is the entire curry and presentation. Those earthenware bowls, wow! are they from Goa?
Thanks Loretta, yes mum in law picked them up from the local market 🙂
What a fun name! 🙂 As usual, very beautifully presented dear!
Thanks a lot dear 🙂
I love fish! The colour looks so appetising, very well made?
Thanks Shreya 🙂
I love pomfret!! Can’t wait to try this delicious recipe soon!
Thanks Archana 🙂 Hope you like it 🙂
It’s such a satisfying dish . Lovely presentation as always.
Amentha, thanks sweetie 🙂