“My Favourite Curry Sauce with Fish” from Happy Days with the Naked Chef

We’ve moved house! Our new place is much bigger, though with a smaller kitchen. I’m still getting used to the flow of how everything works. So far, I can’t say I’m madly in love with my new ‘hood; I now have to catch the train to work and from recent experience, it’s pretty bad; and I don’t have Bourke St Bakery or Remy and Lees in spitting distance any longer. But, the positives include now having a large balcony I’ll actually be able to use, with space and sun for plants and herbs, our new HUGE bedroom, an accurate oven, and the wonderful quiet and a feeling of spaciousness of our little lovenest in the sky…

Remember at the beginning of the year I said I was going to cook at least one recipe from each cook book I had? And how I haven’t? I’m going to try and get back into it. Now I have a mortgage, I don’t have the cash to splash in fancy restaurants in the same way I did before, so cooking at home now HAS to take priority.

The last few weeks have  also been pretty mental, moving, then going away for work for 4 days, and coming back unwell have left me pretty tired and in dire need of home-cooked comfort, with lot’s of veg and nutrition. The weather is warm and I wanted a curry, but not something heavy, and I wanted seafood too. So a light fish curry it is.

This Jamie Oliver recipe is great: simple and really tasty, and able to be adapted to a chicken or veg version.

I didn’t have any Turmeric, and only had a tiny can (140ml) of coconut milk, I also added some frozen chopped spinach.

• 2 tsp Mustard Seeds
• 1 tsp Fenugreek Seeds
• 3 fresh green chillies, deseeded & thinly sliced
• 1 handful of curry leaves
• 2 thumb sized pieces of ginger, peeled & coarsley grated
• 3 onion peeled and chopped (he suggests using a food processor for this, I agree)
• 1 teaspoon chilli powder (I used dried chilli flakes)
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 6 tomatoes, chopped (again, food processor)
• 1 x 400 ml can of coconut milk
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 225g firm white fish ( I used blue-eyed cod)
• 200g green prawns, peeled and cleaned (or cooked)
• 1 handful of fresh baby spinach or 5 cubes of frozen spinach

Heat the oil in a pan and when hot add the mustard seeds. When they start popping, add the fenugreek seeds, fresh green chillies, curry leaves and ginger. Stir and fry for a few minutes.
Add the chopped onions and continue to cook until light brown and soft, then add chilli powder and turmeric.
Add the chopped tomatoes, cook for a couple of minutes then add coconut milk and 1 or 2 wineglasses of water.
Simmer for about 5 minutes until the sauce thickens, then add salt to taste.
Add the fish/seafood,  tamarind and spinach if using and simmer for another 5 minutes.
Serve with rice and condiments!

This isn’t a hot curry, it’s really light and fragrant, perfect for the warmer weather. If you want to adjust the heat, reduce the chilli powder. I think if I used the whole amount of coconut milk it may have actually been too rich, but that might be fine for Winter. I have also replenished my stock of turmeric, so next time the colour will be quite different. I really enjoyed the curry leaves too, as they fried with the other spices, they crisped up, and mostly retained their texture until reheating. I don’t think this is freezable with the seafood, but shouldn’t be a problem with the chicken or veg version.