To me, fish curries are always a delightful surprise – they’re not often found on restaurant menus…. But this is just one example of a number of incredible Indian fish curries I’ve tried (and a great way to get your Omega 3s)!! The method for this recipe is a pretty radical departure from the one that inspired it, entitled “Bengali Fried Fish”, from The Food of India: A Journey for Food Lovers ( Priya Wickramasinghe & Carol Selva Rajah, Whitecap, ISBN 1-55285-678-X), but the ingredients are the same. This book is one of the most amazing cookbooks ever for those of us who were Indian in another life…. Serves 4.
- 600 g (1 lb 5 oz) rainbow trout or salmon filet
- 23 ml (1 ½ tablespoons) lemon juice
- 3 ml (½ teaspoon) ground turmeric
- 3 ml (½ teaspoon) salt
- 3 green chillies, chopped
- 3 large, ripe tomatoes, chopped
- 5 cm (2 inch) piece of ginger, chopped
- 60 ml (4 tablespoons) mustard oil or oil
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) panch phoron
- 3 ml (½ teaspoon) garam masala
Sprinkle the fish with the lemon juice and leave for 10 minutes. Rinse with cold water and pat dry. Skin the filet and cut into 1-inch cubes.
In a medium-sized bowl, toss the fish with the combined turmeric and salt.
Put the chillies, tomato and ginger in a food processor and chop until smooth, or finely chop together with a knife (in this case, wear gloves for the chillies).
Heat the oil in a heavy-based frying pan or sautoir over medium-high heat and add the panch phoron. Fry for 1 minute, until aromatic. Add the tomato mixture and fry for another 5 minutes, until some of the excess moisture has evaporated. Add the cubes of fish and slowly return to the boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for about 3 minutes. Sprinkle with the garam masala and season with salt, to taste.
Serve with basmati rice and wilted spinach or chard.
Notes:
When tomatoes are not in season, by all means use a 398 ml (14 oz) can of chopped tomatoes, instead.
Ideally, use Serrano chillies (but in a pinch, jalapenos will do).
Mustard oil, panch phoron (a whole 5-spice mixture) and garam masala (a ground spice mixture) are available at Asian markets.
This curry is relatively mild. Feel free to double the spice quantities if you prefer a more piquant curry.
Enjoy!!
~ One of Seven
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Now this is something completely different who would have ever thought about using salmon as a fish for curry I would have thought that rather using a white fish would be better as most are really not that full of taste, were as salmon is a really hearty tasty fish. This is going to be something interesting on the taste buds thats for sure.
Salmon is definitely a stronger-tasting fish, but remarkably, the spices and tomato are so complimentary that everything just mellows out. I hope you’ll love it!!