Keralan fish curry

To celebrate National Curry Week (7-13th Oct 2019) here is a great coconut fish curry from Meera Sodha’s book ‘Made in India’.

This recipe is a Keralian dish, famous for its coconuts and fish Kerala is on the south-west coast of India.

Meera’s suggestion is to use hake because its strong, sweet flavour complements the delicate but luxurious coconut curry, but you could easily use any other firm white fish.

Ingredients

Serves 4

5cm ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
4 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1 fresh green chilli, roughly chopped (deseeded if you prefer less heat)
Salt
3 tablespoons coconut or rapeseed oil
Optional: 20 fresh curry leaves
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
2 big ripe tomatoes, quartered
3⁄4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1⁄2 teaspoon chilli powder
300ml coconut milk
4 fillets (150–180g each) of MSC-certified firm white fish such as hake, pollack, haddock or cod, skinned
1 lime, quartered

Method

Put the ginger, garlic and green chilli in a pestle and mortar, along with a pinch of salt, and bash to a paste.

Put the oil into a wide-bottomed, lidded frying pan on a medium heat. When it’s hot, add the curry leaves if you are using them, followed by the onions, and stir every now and then for 8 to 10 minutes, until the onions are pale gold.

Add the ginger, garlic and chilli paste and cook for another 2 to 3 minutes. Then add the tomatoes, 11⁄2 teaspoons of salt, the turmeric and the chilli powder. Put the lid on the pan and cook for a couple of minutes.

Meanwhile, dilute the coconut milk with 100ml of water and add to the pan. When the milk starts to bubble, add the fish fillets, turn the heat down a little, cover with the lid and cook for approximately 5 to 7 minutes, or until the fish is cooked through.

Serve with a big squeeze of lime and some rice.