Thai Fish Curry and Sticky Rice.

Hello again blog buddies!

This week I fancied cooking something a bit different for the recipe blog and, as I haven't done any fish dishes yet, I thought I'd share with you a dead easy recipe for a Thai style curry using one of my favorite fish, Hake.

To be honest, I've never done this recipe with fish before, I have done it many times with chicken, or oriental veg ( mini corn, water chestnuts, shittake mushrooms etc.) but I spotted some nice looking steaks of hake on my trip over to Caldmore Road in Walsall at the weekend so I thought I'd give them a Thai makeover and I've got to say I am very pleased with the results!

Pakora selection.

You can actually use any kind of fish in this recipe, from salmon to cod, sea bass to monkfish, whatever you fancy! I'm using Hake though as it has a great mild flavoured creamy firm white flesh which holds its shape well when cooking and only has a large central bone so no picking stray needle-bones out whilst you eat. Its usually pretty cheap as well, compared to cod or salmon, and its sustainable so no worries about the impact on the environment!

There are a couple of unusual ingredients in this curry which may be difficult to get from your average supermarket, but I've written down some alternatives if you can't get hold of them. On the subject of that I'd like to ask you to go and find yourself a good Asian supermarket. Where I live, in Cannock, the closest Asian supermarket to me is in Walsall, on Caldmore Road, known locally as "karma". It's a great place to get all of your curry ingredients as there are quite a few Asian shops along the road, as well as a few genuine Polish shops and Caribbean shops. There are also some fantastic little Indian sweet shops and shops selling dozens of different types of genuine authentic treats like pakora and freshly made samosas. I'm going to be doing a blog on "Karma" in a couple of weeks as its a fantastic place to shop for all curry-lovers!

Right then, lets get down to business!

Thai Fish Curry ( 2 good portions, with sauce left over.)

Equipment:

Food processor or stick blender.

Wok or deep frying pan.

Ingredients:

2 Whole steaks of Hake, approx 400g, or 400g of boned skinless salmon steaks, cut into large 2-bitesized pieces or whatever fish you fancy!

5 spring onions, including green stems, roughly chopped.

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped.

1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped.

1 large bunch of fresh coriander, including stems, roughly chopped.

2 table spoons of fish sauce.( nam pla.)

3 fresh birds-eye chillis, roughly chopped. ( you can use more if you like it spicy, or remove the seeds for a milder curry.)

1 teaspoon coriander powder, or you can grind your own coriander seeds.

1 teaspoon turmeric powder.

A handful of basil leaves, picked from the stems.

1/2 a teaspoon of shrimp paste, or an extra slosh of fish sauce if you cant get hold of any shrimp paste.

1 tablespoon of "gur shakar" ( unrefined Indian brown sugar.) Or Jaggery goor. ( a different type of indian solid sugar.) ( either of these sugars is great as they have a really treacley taste. They both come in solid blocks and are available at Asian supermarkets.) OR palm sugar, or soft brown sugar if you cant get any of those.

Juice and zest of half a lime.

1 sweet red pepper, de-seeded and cut into a medium dice.

1 regular tin (or 2 small tins ) of coconut milk.

200g of chestnut mushrooms, sliced.

A splash of vegetable or sunflower oil.

Method:

 Chuck the stem parts and half of the coriander leaves along with all of the ingredients, apart from the fish, mushrooms and red pepper dice into your food processor or into a jug to blend with a stick blender and whizz up together.

 

You may have to stop the processor a couple of times to scrape down any non-blended ingredients.

Heat the splash of oil ( this is the only fat you will need for this curry, it's very light and healthy!) in the wok or frying pan and add half of the curry sauce. The rest of the sauce can be frozen to use when you like in the
future.

Bring to the boil, then add the mushrooms, diced pepper and fish.

Bring back to the boil, then turn down the heat and allow to simmer for 15 minutes, Turn the Hake over half way through the simmering. ( if you're using salmon or cod  it will only take about 5-8 minutes, so put in the mushrooms and pepper dice first, then the fish 5 minutes later.)

Have a taste. you can change the character of the curry by adding a bit more fish sauce, or more lime juice to sharpen it up, or more sugar, or more chillis if you like it hot hot hot!


Add a few more chopped coriander leaves and you're done!

Sticky Thai Rice:

You can get Thai sticky rice from most supermarkets these days, It's simple to cook as it comes part-cooked and then dried. allow about 60g of dried rice per person and add 125ml of water per portion, bring to the boil, cover and remove from the heat and allow to stand for about 15 minutes to absorb the water, then serve with the curry and a wedge of lime.

And that's it! Sit back, relax and enjoy the fruits of your labour.

There you go then fellow food-lovers. Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week for another recipe blog.

Watch out for my latest review blog which will be published on Friday 11th April, It's a review of Phat Pacs Mexican Diner in Rugeley!

Until then, 

Happy Cooking!

 

Mat.