Sheila prepared West Sumatran fish curry. Served with flatbread. Wonderfully spicy and colorful. Firm Cod cooked perfectly. Moist & translucent.
The sauce is a Madhur Jaffrey recipe and would go superbly with prawns and salmon and even with lightly poached chicken.
Delicious
INGREDIENTS Serves 4
1.2 litres coconut milk
8-12 dried hot red chillies
2 sticks fresh lemongrass
4cm cube fresh galangal
15g candlenuts or cashew nuts
100g red pepper
100g shallots or onions
2.5cm cube fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon paprika
1kg fish steaks about 2.5cm/1in thick
1 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoonsp lime juice
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4-5 fresh kaffir lime leaves
10 fresh curry leaves
15-20 fresh mint leaves
8-10 cherry or very small tomatoes
METHOD
Leave the coconut milk to stand for a while until the cream has risen to the top.
Crumble the red chillies into a small bowl. Add the nuts. Add enough water just to cover and leave to soak for 1 hour.
Cut about 15cm off the lemon measuring from the bottom and discard the rest. Crush the bulbous bottoms lightly with a hammer or other heavy object and set aside.
Remove the seeds from the red pepper and chop it coarsely. Peel the shallots, ginger, galangal, and garlic and chop them coarsely.
In an electric blender combine the soaked ingredients and their soaking liquid, the red pepper, shallots, ginger, garlic, turmeric and paprika. Blend thoroughly, adding another 1-2 tablespoons of water if necessary.
Rub the fish steaks with ½ tablespoon of the salt and 2 tablespoon of the lime juice. Set aside.
Coconut cream should have risen to the top of the coconut milk. Spoon it off and set aside. Add enough water to the remaining thin coconut milk to make it up to about 1.5 litres.
Put the oil in a large, preferably non-stick frying pan and set it over a medium-high heat. When the oil is hot, put in the paste from the blender. Stir and fry until the paste turns dark red and separates from the oil. (Turn the heat down a little if neccessary while you do this.)
Put in the diluted coconut milk and add the two whole sticks of fresh lemongrass.
Bring to the boil, scraping up any hardened juices stuck to the bottom of the pan. Turn the heat to low and simmer gently for 15 minutes. Remove the lemongrass and set aside.
Empty the contents of the pan into a sieve set over a bowl and push the sauce through. Return all but 4 tablespoons of the sieved sauce to the frying pan and bring it to a simmer.
Put the lemon grass back in along with the lime leaves, curry leaves, mint, the remaining 1 tablespoon lime juice and the remaining 1 teaspoon salt. Stir.
Lay the fish steaks in a single layer in the pan and bring its contents to a simmer again over a medium-low heat. Cook gently for about 10 minutes or until the fish is done, spooning the hot sauce over the steaks frequently.
Put the thick coconut cream into a bowl and stir it well. Slowly add the 4 tablespoon of reserved sauce and mix it in. Pour this over the fish.
Halve the tomatoes and add them to the pan. Cook until everything is just heated through, then serve.
Original recipe Madhur Jaffrey
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