Fish Curry

A spicy fish curry recipe i found in the great indian cookbook 1000 Indian Recipes and modified a bit to my taste. Serve it with some steamed rice and maybe a yoghurt type salad to balance the spices.







For 2 people:

For the marinade:
2-3 dried red chile peppers ( i still have the ones from Thailand, so i only use 1!)
1/2 tablespoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1 small onion, roughly chopped
2 large cloves garlic, peeled
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt

The fish and the sauce:
3/4 pounds of any firm fish ( i used a pink grouper)
1/4 cup coconut milk (best bought in a can)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil, use walnut or peanut oil for different flavor
1 onion, thinly sliced
1/2 inch piece fresh ginger, finely cut into thin sticks
1 tablespoon white vinegar
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped


I went a little overboard and tried to create the coconut milk from scratch. First and last time! It was fun, but it's not worth the effort. It took about one hour to get 1/2 cup of coconut milk. If you really need to know how to do it, email me, otherwise just buy a can!




Instructions:

Put all the ingredients for the marinade into a mortar and pound them into a smooth paste. If you don't have a mortar, you should really buy one! It's great for so many things. Silom Supermarket sells really nice ones imported from Thailand. I found that out after i brought a 15 pounds heavy mortar in my luggage from Thailand!


Cut the fish into about 1 1/2 inch pieces, put them into a bowl, add the smooth marinade and mix everything well without ruining the shape of the fish. Cover and let it marinate in the fridge for at least 1 hour.

After marinating is done, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a non-stick pan. Medium heat. Cook the sliced onion and ginger sticks for about 10 minutes without burning them. Put the onion/ginger mix into a bowl.

Add another tablespoon of oil into the pan and fry the fish pieces on all sides until golden, about 4 minutes.
Add the coconut milk and simmer over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Slowly mix in the vinegar. Stir very gently only! Let the flavors blend for another 2-3 minutes on low heat. To check if the fish is done, cut a piece. It should be opaque inside.

Serve it on a nice dish and sprinkle the cilantro on top.

Beer goes well with it. I had this nice beer in the fridge that was given to me by a co-worker. It's 8.5 % with a strong flavor and a slight honey after taste. Mmmm!