Fish Curry

A good thing about moving out (I would say one of the best but one of the best things would be not having to listen to Phantom of the Opera 3 times in a row) is having our own kitchen. This has meant we have all started cooking more than a bowl of pasta or whatever. Last night I cooked a Nigella Lawson fish curry and, frankly, it was delicious. Matt managed to force some down even after 5 Wispas.

To serve 4 people (or, like, 3 people who refill their bowls) you need:

2 onions
2 chillis
Tumeric
Salt
Oil
Tamarind paste
Ginger
400 ml coconut milk
Cumin
Some fish. I prefer white fish and used 4 big pieces of cod.
Fish stock - smallest amount you can find as you only need a tablespoon

The good thing about this recipe is, once you can cook it, you can mess around with it. This is the second time I have cooked it and so decided to throw in some prawns. These have to be uncooked. The minging looking grey ones.

Preparation:

1. Either buy skinless and boneless fish or prepare to spend WatchDog deboning and deskinning. Chop your fish up into bite sized lumps and put in a large dish. I used the lid of a long casserole dish. I don't really think it matters. It is just where you put your fish whilst you wait to cook it. Rub some salt into your fish and some tumeric. I use about a teaspoon of tumeric or enough so that most of your fish has orangey patches. Whatever fish you are using goes in this bowl and gets rubbed with some salt and tumeric (eg, my prawns were in this bowl too).

2. Cut up your onions. Mine were finely sliced.

3. Slice your chillis. Either deseed them or don't. I prefer to deseed. If you do, too, I recommend NOT scraping them out with a fingernail. This way leads to biting your nail later, rubbing your eye and then madness.

4. You need about 4cms of peeled ginger. Slice it thinly.

5. Tip your coconut milk into a jug. Add a tablespoon of tamarind paste and a tablespoon of fish stock. Boil some water and fill the rest of your jug up with it until you get to the litre mark. The litre mark makes a soupy curry. Less liquid makes it thicker, obviously. I topped my jug up about 20 ml or so under a litre.

Cooking

1. Heat some oil in a shallow pan. I used our largest frying pan. It seemed to work.
2. Add your onions and a little salt to stop them browing.
3. Cook your onions for about 5 minutes and then add the chilli and ginger.
4. Add a pinch of cumin and another of tumeric.
5. Carry on cooking for a couple of minutes.
6. Tip in your jug of coconut milk, tamarind, fish stock and water
7. Let it all simmer for a bit.
8. When you are ready to eat, add the fish and whatnot.
9. The fish doesn't even really take 5 minutes. And neither do the prawns. The fish goes kinda flaky and the prawns turn pink.
10. Serve.

This is a pretty delicious recipe and if I can make it, a monkey could.