Recipe of the Week: Indian-style Fish Curry

Are you a friend of our blog on Facebook? A couple of days ago I had shared on our FB page that my cousin Gillian (who splits her time between Singapore and Princeton, NJ while her husband works on his PhD) sent Zach and I some really cool spices. She had raved about this awesome spice shop so much that when I received her package in the mail and everything looked and smelled so good, I went online to see what other kinds of spices this place had.

To my surprise, they had dried curry leaves! I urgently bought a bag of it. Curry leaves are not the same as curry powder. Curry leaves are used to infuse the oil you cook with, and they add a distinctively fresh, aromatic, herbal flavor to your food. The smell is addictive. And if you jazz it up with some mustard seeds, you may just find yourself in culinary heaven.

dried curry leaves

On Sunday night, I made beef ularthiyathu according to this recipe on my new favorite food site AmatuerGourmet.com. Zach helped out in the kitchen and he made the thoren and yogurt rice. These were altogether an unbeatable combo. So delicious we just sat and stared at each other; speechless in the presence of such gastronomical bliss. Zach joked that he'd never eat green beans and carrots any other way. And later that night, we were online searching for a way to grow our own curry plant so we would always have curry leaves on hand. If you're interested, Logee's Greenhouses carries the curry plant (Murraya koenigli). I'm not sure it would survive the Indiana climate, but we are going to try and see what happens.


Last night, Zach and I came up with a recipe for fish curry that we thought was to die for. It is similar to the one for beef ularthiyathu, but the taste is, in our opinion, a lot better, and lighter.

Ingredients

3 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp mustard seeds

a handful (slightly less than 1/4 cup) dried curry leaves

1 shallot, sliced thinly

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbsp grated ginger

1 tbsp chili powder

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp tumeric

2 roma tomatoes, chopped in wedges

1 (15oz) can of coconut milk

1 lemon, juiced

3 cod fish filets

1/4 cup chopped cilantro

Directions

In a large pot, heat coconut oil and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop (be careful here!), add in the dried curry leaves and cook until brown (about 30 secs to 1 minute).

Add shallots, ginger, garlic, tomatoes, and a pinch of salt and cook until shallots soften.

Add fish and stir in coconut milk, chili powder, garam masala and tumeric. 

When the liquid comes to a boil, cover and lower heat to simmer for 15 minutes.

When fish is done, stir in lemon juice and cilantro.

Serve over rice.

For Yogurt Rice:

Ingredients

3 cups cooked basmati rice

2 tbsp coconut oil

1 tbsp mustard seeds

handful of dried curry leaves

1/3 cup of plain greek yogurt

Directions

In a large pot, heat coconut oil and mustard seeds. When the mustard seeds start to pop (be careful here!), add in the dried curry leaves and cook until brown (about 30 secs to 1 minute).

Turn heat off, then add rice.

Mix in yogurt.

Big yums.