I am a big fan of curry. As a fish lover, naturally, Fish Curry becomes one of my favourite dishes. Fish curry with rice never fails to make a good dinner. I like my fish curry quite spicy until it makes me sweat while eating this yummy dish. For those who can’t take spicy food, don’t be put off by the spiciness of fish curry, you can reduce the spiciness by putting less chilies.

In Malaysia, fish curry is a popular dish. At mamak stall, fish curry is always a must have, if not the curry sauce with roti canai. As there’s no such thing as mamak stall in London, the only way to enjoy fish curry is to make it at home. Malaysian-Indian dishes are greatly influence by the Southern Indian way of cooking. Thus, this fish curry inherits the Southern-Indian spiciness. So, it’s not a usual dish that you can spot on the menu at Indian restaurants in this country as they serve mostly Northern Indian dishes that I find them too creamy for my liking.

Recipe for this simple yet scrumptious dish, here you go.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

2 fillets of haddock, cut into big chunks (or your choice of any white fish)
1.5 onions (cut into rings)
1 clove of garlic
1cm chopped ginger
1-2 red chilies sliced thinly, lengthway (use only 1 or 0.5 chili for less spiciness)
some curry leaves (either fresh or dry)
3 tomatoes (cut into wedges)
2-3 tbsp of fish curry powder (I use ready mixed fish curry powder, Malaysian brand e.g.: Babas, Alagappa etc)
4 tbsp of coconut milk
300ml of water
10 okras
salt to taste
2 tbsp of tamarind juice (mix a chunk of the tamarind paste with hot water and stir, then squeeze to obtain the juice)
some olive oil

Method:

Pre-cooking:
Mix the curry powder with water to make it into a paste.

1. Heat a small pot at medium heat with some olive oil and throw in a pinch of mustard seeds. Once the mustard seeds start to pop, lower the heat a bit and add in some curry leaves and wait till they start to release their fragrant.
2. Start to add the onions, ginger, and chilies. Cook until onions start to soften.
3. Once onions are soften, add in the curry paste that has already been prepared. Make sure all the ingredients in the pot are well coated with the paste. Stir for about 5 minutes for the curry paste to release its fragrant.
4. Add in tomatoes. Stir well.
5. Once tomatoes start to soften, add in coconut milk, tamarind juice and water, stir well and let it come to the boil.
6. After that, add in the okras and fish fillets, season with salt. Put the lid on and cook for about 15-20 minutes under low to medium heat.
7. Finally, serve this dish with boiled rice.