Goan Fish Curry

So I came home today and could smell something was up before I opened the door... curry was already cooking!

I had phoned yesterday and warned him not to start cooking until I got home but when I moaned he said... "but baba you know how to do this, you've done it before, if you want to bother you'll make it" he's right, but I don't bother incase I get it wrong, so I still insisted on him recapping what he'd done. So I'm writing up anyway and the first post is a bit of a cheat.

It was GOA-CURRY

It's a glossy orange colour really.

So already one medium onion had been finely chopped. PaPa then puts it in the microwave to soften.

He would have added about 4 good tablespoons of freshly ground gira (cumin), a little ground dhania (coriander) and about 6 Kashmiri chillies soaked for about 30 min in malt vinegar (only enough to cover them)

BUT, actually today he just used 4 tablespoons of an old packet of 'goan fish curry powder' made in Goa. It was 100% spices. No preservatives, no flour at least. the ingredients list just said (gira, chillie, spices!)

He then added ginger and garlic. 1 spoon each.
1 whole packet of coconut cream (soften this in the microwave too.)

Half a can of peeled tomatoes.
Whizz the whole lot with a hand blender.

Then gently fry this in 'not too much' cooking oil (that's not olive, groundnut or sunflower instead) a low flame, till the oiliness of the coconut starts to separate a little, 'it comes on top'

Swish out the whizz-jug with some water and add boiling water. Lots.

Now boil. PaPa threw in some curry patta (curry leaves). While I'm writing this the curries boiling. It's been at least an hour, but probably nearly 90 min. If the masala has been finely ground you can get away with less boiling but if you have ground fresh gira keep boiling so it doesn't stay in your mouth when you eat it. The curry had thickened. This all happened quite quickly in the last 10 minutes though.

In the last 30 minutes of boiling it's time to start balancing...
Depending on the fish your using maybe add some salt. He did.
For Khatas (sour) add: balsamic vinegar - we did this time or: tamarind or coccum.
We could have added red peppers or bhindi ( I love bhindi in goa curry) but we didn't have any.

Then the filleted smoked haddock was cut in chunks and dropped in. Any firm white fish will do. We often put coley, or big cleaned prawns.

After getting a little annoyed with my questions and typing papa reminds me "baba, finally, the truth is in the eating" reminding me the important part is to try and balance to taste.

We ate the fish curry with white rice and come chunky chopped cucumber that had been salt and peppered.

Here's PaPa dead grumpy from all the fuss.

I'm finishing this off now and heading back across LDN.