Easy Goan Fish Curry

The Lonely Planet probably best sums up Goa: ‘sun, sand and spices’. Located in the south-west coast of India, Goa is the perfect destination for beautiful beaches, great nightlife and spice farms! However, having visited Goa a couple of times, one aspect of Goa sticks out for me – and that is the food! Meals are mostly comprised of rice, fish and coconut – and the way that Goans’ can bring together all of these ingredients punctuated with fragrant spices and flavour is out this world.

The dish that Goa is most famous for if the Goan fish curry – a coconut based dish flavoured with chili and fresh fish or prawns usually served with fluffy rice. There are many variations of this dish – but the key elements are – fish or prawns, spices, a touch of sour and coconut. I’ve tried several recipes, but here I’ve created a recipe that captures the taste and flavours of a traditional Goan fish curry, whilst making it easy and accessible for us all to cook – where most traditional recipes call for the use of Kashmiri red chillies, hot chilli powder can more or less serve the same function! I’ve also added veg into this recipe – mainly because this is a time where keeping our immune system strong and healthy is of utmost importance, and increasing the amount of vegetables in our diet can only do good.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

1 red onion, finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
Thumb piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp curry powder
¼ tsp hot chilli powder
2 sea bass fillets (or any white fish), cut into bite-size chunks
1 red pepper, cut into 1cm pieces
Punnet of cherry tomatoes, cut in half
300ml vegetable stock
1 tbsp tomato purée
3/4 can coconut milk
Handful of fresh coriander, chopped
Juice of 1 lime

Method:

Grab a large sauce pan, and heat a glug of vegetable oil over a medium heat.
Once hot, add the chopped onion and cook got 3-4 minutes until softened. Once softened, add the ginger and garlic to the pan and cook for 1 minute or until fragrant.
Then add the curry powder, chilli powder and turmeric to the onion and cook for a minute until fragrant. Add the tomato purée and cook for a further minute.
Then add the cherry tomatoes, red pepper, vegetable stock and coconut milk. Give this a good stir, bring to the boil and cook for 1-2 minutes or until starting to reduce.
Stir in the chopped sea bass and cook, covered for 4-5mins or until the fish has cooked through. Your fish is cooked when it turns opaque and flakes easily.
Stir through the chopped coriander and serve!