I would love to go to India, in particular the southwestern coast - Kerala. The landscape and food sounds like a technicolour dream. In Kerala, the dishes are light and fresh, flavoured with turmeric, ginger and mustard seeds. Coconuts grow everywhere so dishes are thickened with coconut milk & cream. This is my take on a Kerala style curry, it's very mild with perfectly just cooked fish and flavoured with tons of delicious spices. Add chilli if you can not forgo the heat.
Serves 4
Spice mix
2 tbl mustard seeds
1tbl turmeric
Tbl fenugreek
Tbl garam Masala
2tsp ground cardamon
A thumb of ginger grated
1tbl ground ginger
Curry:
2tbl vegetable or coconut oil
1 tin of coconut milk (full fat)
1 fish stock cube - dissolved in a little water
2 tbl coconut cream
1 tin of tomato
2 limes juiced
3 small or 1 large white onion
2 cloves of garlic
1 yellow pepper
3 white fish fillets of your choice (I used sea bass)
As many prawns as you can spare (frozen or fresh)
To serve
Parsley
Spring onion
Lime juice
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4/ 350°F
Thinly slice white onions
Finely chop garlic
Slice the yellow peppers
Heat oil in a deep wok style pan
Fry the onions & garlic on a low-mid heat with the dry spice ingredients, add a little extra oil to stop the spices burning
Cook the onions for a good 10-12 mins until softened
Add the peppers and cook for a further 3 minutes
Add the grated ginger
Add the tin of tomato, and stock cube dissolved in water
Cook for 5 minutes
Add the coconut milk/coconut cream - you could even add grated fresh coconut for an extra coconutty flavour
Taste and adjust any seasoning as required
Put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer for at least 15 minutes
Wrap the fish in a tin foil parcel, add limes, oil, salt and pepper and put on a baking tray in the oven for just 10 minutes (you may need to adjust this if you have big pieces of fish) - you want the fish to be ‘just about cooked’ about 5 minutes off cooked perfectly so it can finish off cooking in the steam of the hot curry
Take the lid off the curry and turn the heat down, then place the raw prawns on the top of the curry, carefully along with the whole pieces of fish - be careful not to break it up and don’t stir it in
Put the lid back on the curry, make sure the hob is on the lowest setting and leave for 5 minutes, remove the curry from heat and test the cooking of the prawns but cutting on in half to check
Take curry off heat, sprinkle with parsley, add lots of pepper, finely chopped spring onions and the juice of a lime
Serve with rice or naans!
