Our family loves curries. My son Eric makes an incredible, all-from-scratch butter chicken that is fantastic and totally worth the time and effort he puts into it. This recipe is not that, but it’s almost as good and less work – perfect for times when you’re craving something extra satisfying but don’t have a lot of time and/or energy.
For the fish, we get beautiful fillets of pickerel and haddock from Larry’s Catch. To serve four people, we use two fillets of pickerel or three of haddock for this recipe. We cut the pickerel in four chunks and the haddock in three.
Be sure to use Patak’s spice pastes and not a sauce. The hot peppers on the label tell you how spicy it will be, we feel they’re accurate and always have these on hand. They last a long time in the fridge and are so delicious!
We love this in a bowl with basmati rice and will add steamed green beans to the bowl. A simple green salad with vinaigrette would also go well.
Ingredients:
- One large onion, chopped
- 1 tbsp butter (you could use olive oil or ghee instead)
- 2 tbsp Patak’s mild or Korma curry paste
- 2 tbsp Patak’s spicy curry paste (Madras or Vindaloo are great)
- ½ cup plain Greek yogurt, the thicker the better (we use Oikos Pro)
- ¾-1 cup coconut milk
- 1.5 cups frozen green peas
- Approximately 500 g of pickerel, haddock or enough of any kind of white fish to feed four people, cut into good sized chunks
Sauté the chopped onion in the butter over medium-low heat in a large frying or sauté pan. Cook them slowly, you don’t want the onions to brown too much but you want them to become translucent. This takes about 10-15 minutes and is worth being patient.
With the heat still on medium-low, add the curry paste. You can use different proportions of mild and spicy depending on how spicy you want it. Cook the pastes for a few minutes and then turn the heat to low and add the Greek yogurt and coconut milk, stir well. It’s important to turn the heat down to low before you add the yogurt, and to stir it well with the coconut milk. I started with ¾ cups of coconut milk and kept the remaining ¼ cup aside, adding only if the sauce got too thick.
Cook the peas separately, drain well and stir into the sauce. Add the pieces of fish to the pan, cover with a lid and bring the heat back up to medium-low. Cook for 8-10 minutes and then turn the fish to coat it in the sauce and give the sauce a good stir at the same time – being gentle with the fish. It may be flaky and ready to serve now, or you can continue for a few more minutes if the fish needs it. As soon as you can see it start to look like it could flake at the edges, it’s ready to serve – and should be served right away.
YUM!
Home on the Ridge 