Panna Karuvadu – Dried Croaker

What is Panna Karuvadu – Dried Croaker?

Panna Karuvadu is a traditional Rameshwaram karuvadu — fish that's salted and sun-dried whole or in cut pieces, with a few bones that separate easily from the flesh. It's commonly known in English as dried croaker. It's known for a mild flavor that takes on the taste of your kuzhambu or curry and a texture that's soft flesh that absorbs gravy well.

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

Product details

Category

Daily Essentials

Texture

soft flesh that absorbs gravy well

Bone note

a few bones that separate easily from the flesh

Ingredients

Fresh Panna Fish, Sea Salt

Preparing Panna Karuvadu – Dried Croaker

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.

Soak for 15–20 minutes. Its soft flesh soaks up gravy, making it a natural choice for kuzhambu and thokku.

A croaker variety from the Rameshwaram coast (not related to true cod, a cold-water fish that doesn't occur in Indian waters), Panna has a soft, mild flesh that takes on whatever flavors it's cooked in — a dependable choice if you want the fish to blend into a curry rather than dominate it. It works especially well for thokku, kuzhambu.