LOVEANDSPICEINTHEVALLEYOFDEATH#1
This is gonna be rusty. Here goes, quick n easy...
Cheap Thrills Frozen Fish Curry
This is a super simple recipe for a fish curry, something my mum taught me ages ago. My Asian cooking has hopefully evolved past the point where I chuck everything into a pot, throw it over rice and call it curry but this one endures, works and even still impresses (well, me anyway). As the king of pimp, I often dress it up with little culinary touches (I think the twat chef word for this is 'elevate') or you keep it basic, eat it off your lap in front of whatever guilty streaming sin you're into, enjoy and move on.
So now I write some kind of instructions, yeah?
What I Did
- Damn, where did I start? That was one heavy Baileys. Uh, the onion, yeah. Chop the onion - I like thin slices for this instead of diced. Chop the ginger. That's about all the 'hard' work you need to do for this dish.
- Starting sauteing those. A word from the masters - the length of time you cook your onion for dramatically alters the taste of your curry. Keeping it simple, 5 mins until it's translucent, not crisping.
- For a bit of flair, I also added black mustard seeds and then coriander (good flavour for fish) and cumin crushed in a pestle and mortar. They cook down but still leave a little bit of crunch which I like.
- Then in with the generic curry powder. Don't hold back, it's basic shit and this is your flavour. Give it a swirl for 30 seconds then...
- Add the yoghurt, swirl
- Then add the fish. You did defrost that before didn't you? You should have enough yoghurt to cover the fish, if not add a bit more.
- Then the frozen spinach. You didn't defrost that before did you?
- This is pretty much it. You can add a few flavours and spices if you have them at hand and you can be arsed otherwise you're kinda done. I threw in some fresh chopped chillies (fresh works better this dish to give it a sharp zing) and some tahini. What I wanted to add was Asfoetida (Hing), which gives a lovely fresh and sour taste, similar to tahini and without the discolouration but, shucks, I was out. Oh, I also added ghee. Gotta love clarified butter. Buy it in a big tub and keeps forever. Buy some.
- So yeah, you're cooking the above for about 15-20 mins and the fish will be done. SO TAKE IT OUT, stick it in a bowl or something.
- The 'sauce' will still be a little thin so turn the heat up slightly and reduce for another 5 mins.
- Whoa, tied of typing now. We're there. Made it. Dish complete, mix it up, serve it up. What with? Rice but ppppplease I'm not going to talk you through that (although seriously there was a guy on MasterChef the other day who confessed to not having cooked 'fresh' rice before. Pleb)
Oh, there's more? Guess I need to list the ingredients now...
What I Used
Basic Bits
- Frozen fish - blocks work fine. Yeah they don't grow that way yet but they will, oh yeah they will. Iceland is good for this kind of shit or any other supermarket freezer. Don't even bother with fresh for this.
- Yoghurt - strained gets you extra points (thicker, less water) but can do normal (and then strain in a sieve if you're fussed)
- Generic, mild curry powder - the whole point of this dish is keeping it simple so the spice base is all-in-one packet powder
- Brown onions
- Fresh ginger
- Frozen spinach - you do fresh if you have but I'm not giving you extra points
- Lemon juice
To Pimp
- Fresh chillies
- Fresh spices (I used black mustard seeds, coriander and cumin)
- Ghee
- Tahini or Asfoetida
- Garam masala or any other fresh spice to add as an aromatic at the end
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