The first time I cooked this, it was only because I had to cook a quick curry for my husband for Eid day, and I didn't want to go shopping, so I searched my deep freezer and found 1 piece of basa fillet, and 1 piece of cod fillet. I also found a bag of prawns, but I didn't include this because as soon as I opened the bag, the smell - I'm gagging just thinking about it! They were off basically. I just thought let me try blending the fillet pieces, and making little koftas from them, and adding them to a curry sauce and see what they turned out like. Needless to say, it was delicious (humble ol' me!)
One unusual thing I have started to use a lot of recently is Kashmiri red chilli powder, or namely MDH Kashmiri Mirch powder. I like my curries to have a distinct red colour, for which I used to use just blended tomatoes before. However since using Kashmiri mirch in a curry and I saw that the colour was so beautiful, I started to use that as well as normal red chilli powder. Kashmiri mirch is not as hot as normal chilli powder, but it gives a beautiful colour, so I use half and half in my curries now. Because I do not use normal chilli powder in todays recipe, I have substituted green chillies to get the heat instead.
So I remade the fish kofta curry today, using cod fillets only, and it turned out exactly the same! you can of course use any fish for this, just remove the bones first, and blend!
For this, I used:
3 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. panch puran (a mix of cumin, methi, fennel, nigella and mustard seeds)
3 small bay leaves
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch ginger, minced
2 small onions, finely sliced
Salt to taste
Coriander stalks
1 tomato, blended
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tsp. Bolsts Hot curry powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. Kashmiri red chilli powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. cumin powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. coriander powder
4 cod fillets, thawed
7 green chillies
Coriander to garnish
In a wok, I poured in the oil, and after heating it I added the panch puran and bay leaves. Once the oil is infused, add your minced garlic and ginger, and fry until brown. Then add your finely sliced onions, salt and coriander stalks. Fry this under cover for about 10 - 15 minutes until onions are soft, and starting to mush down.
To this, add your blended tomato and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the oil starts separating. Once oil has separated, add in your powdered spices (turmeric, curry powder, red chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder), and a little bit of water and stir well. Put the heat down, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add about 250ml of water to this, stir well again and leave to cook on a low heat.
In a blender, take your cod fillets, and blend until the fish is fully broken down. Then take a small amount of the fish in your palm, and squeeze out the water. Shape into a bowl and put on a plate to one side. Repeat this until you have used up your blended fish. By this time, your spice masala should have separated from the oil. Add a little bit more water, and carefully put in your fish koftas. Do not stir the curry, just gently cover the wok, and poach the koftas in the sauce for 5 minutes, before removing the lid and gently turning them over. Check that the kofta does not break (they should be 3/4 cooked by now and shouldn't break), and turn them all over and allow to cook in the sauce for a further 5 - 7 minutes. Adjust the water consistency now if you would like it more saucy, but if it's fine as it is, then add your green chillies. Gently shake the pan, then turn off the heat. garnish with coriander. And serve!! This would be lovely with just plain basmati rice.
I hope you enjoy, and keep those requests coming.
Yaz
No comments:
Post a Comment