🇸🇬 SingaporeCatalog recipe
A whole snapper head simmered in a tangy tamarind-tomato curry with okra and eggplant — a Singaporean-Indian invention built for sharing straight from the claypot.
For 4 servings.
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Toast the curry powder with the mustard and fenugreek seeds in the oil until the seeds pop and everything smells nutty.
Add the onion, garlic, ginger and curry leaves and fry until the onion collapses soft and gold.
Add the tomatoes and tamarind and mash down into a thick, sour base, about 5 minutes.
Pour in the coconut milk and 400ml water and bring to a simmer.
Slide in the fish head, eggplant and okra; simmer gently, spooning sauce over the top, until the fish is opaque and flakes easily, 20–25 minutes.
💡 Don't stir once the fish is in — a spoon breaks it apart. Baste with a ladle instead.
Taste and adjust with more tamarind or salt until the sourness is bright, not shy.
Serve straight from the pot with rice — the cheeks are the first thing to disappear.
The dish is widely credited to M.J. Gomez, a Kerala-born cook who opened a restaurant in 1950s Singapore and began serving the fish head, prized for its collagen-rich cheeks by Chinese customers, in a South Indian-style curry that appealed to everyone else at the table. It remains one of the clearest examples of Singapore's cross-community cooking, still ordered whole for the table rather than portioned like most curries.
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