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KERALAN FISH CURRY

KERALAN FISH CURRY

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Serves: 4-6

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  • Express Recipe
  • Gluten Free
  • Nigella Recipe

This tamarind-tangy curry makes for a perfect dinner on a hot night; light enough not to knock you out, but spiced enough to prompt a heat-drowsy appetite. And it is such gloriously easy food to make.

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Ingredients

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  • 1.25 kilograms firm white fish
  • salt
  • 2 teaspoons turmeric
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 medium onions (halved and cut into fine half moons)
  • 2 long red chilli
  • 4 cm piece of fresh root ginger
  • 1 pinch of ground cumin
  • 1 400 ml tin coconut milk
  • 1 tablespoon tamarind (or 2 tablespoons concentrated)
  • 1 tablespoon fish stock
FOREVER SUMMER

As featured in

FOREVER SUMMER

Method

  1. Cut the fish into bite-sized chunks, put them into a large bowl, and rub with a little salt and 1 teaspoon turmeric. Heat the oil in a large, shallow pan and peel and tip in your fine half-moons of onion; sprinkle them with a little salt to stop them browning and then cook, stirring, until they've softened; this should take scarcely 5 minutes.
  2. Cut the whole, unseeded chillies into thin slices across (although if you really don't want this at all hot, you can deseed and then just chop them) and then toss them into the pan of softened onions. Peel the ginger and slice it, then cut the slices into straw-like strips and add them too, along with the remaining teaspoon of turmeric and the cumin. Fry them with the onions for a few minutes.
  3. Pour the tin of coconut milk into a measuring jug and add a tablespoon of tamarind paste and the fish stock, using boiling water from the kettle to bring the liquid up to the litre mark. Pour it into the pan, stirring it in to make the delicate curry sauce. Taste and add more tamarind paste if you want to. And actually you can do all this hours in advance if this helps.
  4. When you are absolutely ready to eat, add the fish to the hot sauce and heat for a couple of minute until it's cooked through but still tender.

Additional information - for gluten free make sure the fish stock concentrate is gluten free.

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  • Hi Nigella, You could try adding coconut oil instead of the vegetable oil. Always tastes better with coconut milk. Athila

    Posted by aadhiaziz on 8th Aug 2011 at 12.31

  • I tried this recipe last night and it was utterly divine!! Possibly the nicest curry I have had ever - and that's saying a lot as I am a HUGE fan of the prawn and red Thai curry by Nigella. I used Monkfish which was perfect. I used enough fish for two although I follwed the measurements for the sauce as per the recipe which is for 4-6 people as I like a lot of sauce. I urge everyone to make this! It is SO easy too!

    Posted by irish on 7th Oct 2011 at 12.29

  • we love this dish, always a great weekend standby, I sometime use Hake instead of Monk Fish.

    Posted by cassie cat on 19th May 2012 at 20.45

  • Being a chap from Kerala ( India ) and one who loves fish curry i can vouch for this recipe. Goes to show Nigella's keenness for authenticity. I know its hard to come by outside India, but if one can manage to get hold of kodampuli (www.kodampuli.com) and substitute it for the tamarind concentrate / paste, the curry will be something to die for ! :-)

    Posted by cksajan on 2nd Jun 2012 at 3.42

  • Would just like to say what a wonderful dish, cooked this last night for my family. My young boys who two of them don't really like fish loved it, the misses said the best fish curry she has ever had. Big thank you Nigella.

    Posted by k.kelly on 30th Mar 2013 at 12.44