Keralin Fish Curry

Ingredients

  • 1.25 kilograms firm white fish
  • salt
  • 2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 medium onions (halved and cut into fine half moons)
  • 2 long red chillies
  • 4 cm piece of fresh root ginger
  • 1 pinch of ground cumin
  • 1 x 400 ml tin coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind (or 2 tablespoons concentrated)
  • 1 tablespoon fish stock concentrate

Method

  1. Cut the fish into bite-sized chunks, put them into a large bowl, and rub with a little salt and 1 teaspoon turmeric. Heat the oil in a large, shallow pan and peel and tip in your fine half-moons of onion; sprinkle them with a little salt to stop them browning and then cook, stirring, until they’ve softened; this should take scarcely 5 minutes.
  2. Cut the whole, unseeded chillies into thin slices across (although if you really don’t want this at all hot, you can deseed and then just chop them) and then toss them into the pan of softened onions. Peel the ginger and slice it, then cut the slices into straw-like strips and add them too, along with the remaining teaspoon of turmeric and the cumin. Fry them with the onions for a few minutes.
  3. Pour the tin of coconut milk into a measuring jug and add a tablespoon of tamarind paste and the fish stock concentrate, using boiling water from the kettle to bring the liquid up to the litre mark. Pour it into the pan, stirring it in to make the delicate curry sauce. Taste and add more tamarind paste if you want to. And actually you can do all this hours in advance if this helps.
  4. When you are absolutely ready to eat, add the fish to the hot sauce and heat for a couple of minute until it’s cooked through but still tender.

Additional information – for gluten free make sure the fish stock concentrate is gluten free.