Lady Fish Curry (Kaane or Sand Whiting)

'TIS CHRISTMAS IS THE SEASON FOR A RICH KAANE (pronounced: Kaa-neigh) CURRY. A fish curry that is nostalgic and sticks out the most when I see kaane (whiting) at my local fish shop is this 'Lady Fish Curry' (kaane or sand whiting). The taste of this fish curry is still in my memory. Growing up, the amount of choices in my diet were limited compared to today. A taste of this curry will reveal that I was raised on a very Mangalorean diet, all home cooked by my mum. To this day, I believe this is one of the best fish curries!

Lady fish/kaane (aka whiting or sand whiting in Australia) is a beautiful white fleshed silvery looking fish and is Mangalore’s tastiest fish. It is also one of my most favourite fishes and was available in plenty when I was growing up. As far as I can remember, it was always an expensive fish. Kaane fish are found in freshwater and salt water although the kane from freshwater taste truly amazing.

Have you ever wondered why this fish is so tasty? The unique taste of kaane is attributed to the fact that kaane fish is believed to be a meat eater unlike some other fish which have a vegetable-based diet. The choicest fishes weigh between 150gm and 170gm each and this weight range was what my mum hoped to find each time she sourced this fish. This fish was available throughout the year in Udupi and Mangalore and the best kaane are caught in the waters around Mangalore. However, the ones my mother used to buy were caught in Malpe (an important port and a major fishing harbour on the Karnataka coast) which is about 49km away from Mangalore.

I grew up eating this fish as my mum used to make this fish very often. I enjoyed cleaning this fish because it was simple to clean with one main bone in the centre and the fins were not sharp. My mum made many preparations with this fish such as, kaane coconut curry, kaane jeeri meeri curry (with cumin and pepper), fried kaane with roce curry (kaane fried and then cooked in a coconut- based curry), kaane pepper curry, kaane bafat curry, kaane indad curry etc. The curry bases for each of these curries were very different and made by blending a combination of spices, each of which are unique.

Whichever the preparation, every curry was relished by me and my siblings. Occasionally, there were leftovers for breakfast to have with conji or chapati and me and my siblings always hung around for the leftover curry. As such, we could not have enough of this fish then and funnily, even now. The kaane we get in Australia are around 400g each and although fleshy, they taste much different to the ones from Malpe. Having said this, they are still a delight to cook and we buy them regularly.

My husband absolutely loves kaane fish. One evening last week when I came back from work, my husband had a cheeky grin on his face, and I could sense he was up to cooking something special for me. Exactly as I thought, he had bought beautiful kaane fish from the local fish shop and had made a delicious curry for dinner. I had a look at the fish on the platter, quickly took some photographs before we sat for dinner. During dinner, I suggested to him that we should post this new recipe on my website and he kindly agreed.

My husband is not a fan of blending the masala as it is time consuming and hence resorts to using only powder masala to make his curries. Bingo! My opinion of a perfect week night fish curry.

Here is an extremely simple kaane curry made from basic pantry staples and mimics a kaane curry that my mother used to make. The taste comes from marinating the fish with some simple spices, then frying the fish gently for a few minutes before adding to a coconut-based sauce.

If you do try this recipe, please make sure to post on my Facebook Deliciously Indian along with a link or if it’s Instagram, drop a story and tag us on #deliciouslyindian. I would love to see what you create.