Nethili Karuvadu – Dried Anchovies

What is Nethili Karuvadu – Dried Anchovies?

Nethili Karuvadu is a traditional Rameshwaram karuvadu — fish that's salted and sun-dried whole or in cut pieces, with fine, soft bones that are easy to eat once cooked. It's commonly known in English as dried anchovies. It's known for a bold, salty-savory coastal flavor and a texture that's small and crunchy once fried.

Like all our karuvadu, Nethili Karuvadu comes from the day's catch on the Rameshwaram coast: cleaned by hand the same day, with no added salt, and dried in the open sun with no chemical whiteners or preservatives. How we make our karuvadu

Product details

Category

Small Fish

Texture

small and crunchy once fried

Bone note

fine, soft bones that are easy to eat once cooked

Ingredients

Fresh Anchovies, Natural Sun-light

Preparing Nethili Karuvadu – Dried Anchovies

Remove any unwanted portions, rinse away surface salt and loose particles, and drain thoroughly. A short soak can help with thicker or tougher pieces; small fish often need only a careful wash. Taste a cooked piece before adding extra salt to the recipe. Step by step: how to clean karuvadu and how to reduce the salt.

Rinse and soak for about 10 minutes. Fry until crisp, cook down into thokku, or add to a tamarind kuzhambu.

Small, headless dried anchovies with a bold, salty-savory bite — one of the most recognizable karuvadu varieties in a Tamil kitchen. The fine bones are soft enough to eat once fried, which is part of why this one's a household regular. It works especially well for fry, kuzhambu, thokku.