Mathi Curry

Sardine curry — small, fresh sardines (mathi) cooked in a thin, intensely sour-spiced gravy of shallots, green chilli, ginger, kudampuli, red chilli powder, turmeric, and coconut oil in an earthen pot. Unlike the more elaborate meen curry, the mathi curry is made with the sardine's own fat and needs no coconut milk; the sardines are small enough to cook through in the thin sauce within minutes. The kudampuli imparts the characteristic Travancore sour and the sardine's rich, oily flesh absorbs the gravy. Sardines are the fish of Travancore's coast: cheap, abundant, and available daily; they are the fish that every family ate regardless of social standing. The mathi curry with kappa or rice is the most democratically eaten meal in Travancore. Leftover sardine curry thickens overnight and is eaten at breakfast with kappa the next morning.