from Santa's kitchen
INGREDIENTS
Serves: 4-6
1ΒΌ kilograms firm white fish
salt
2 teaspoons turmeric
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
2 medium onions (halved and cut into fine half moons)
2 long red chillies
4 centimetres piece of fresh root ginger
1 pinch of ground cumin
1 x 400 millilitres tin coconut milk
1 tablespoon tamarind (or 2 tablespoons concentrated)
1 tablespoon fish stock concentrate
Cut the fish into bite-sized chunks, put them into a large bowl, and rub with a little salt and 1 teaspoon turmeric. Heat the oil in a large, shallow pan and peel and tip in your fine half-moons of onion; sprinkle them with a little salt to stop them browning and then cook, stirring, until they’ve softened; this should take scarcely 5 minutes.
Cut the whole, unseeded chillies into thin slices across (although if you really don’t want this at all hot, you can deseed and then just chop them) and then toss them into the pan of softened onions. Peel the ginger and slice it, then cut the slices into straw-like strips and add them too, along with the remaining teaspoon of turmeric and the cumin. Fry them with the onions for a few minutes.
Pour the tin of coconut milk into a measuring jug and add a tablespoon of tamarind paste and the fish stock concentrate, using boiling water from the kettle to bring the liquid up to the litre mark. Pour it into the pan, stirring it in to make the delicate curry sauce. Taste and add more tamarind paste if you want to. And actually you can do all this hours in advance if this helps.
When you are absolutely ready to eat, add the fish to the hot sauce and heat for a couple of minute until it’s cooked through but still tender.
Kerala, a state on India’s tropical Malabar Coast, has nearly 600km of Arabian Sea shoreline. It’s known for its palm-lined beaches and backwaters, a network of canals. Inland are the Western Ghats, mountains whose slopes support tea, coffee and spice plantations as well as wildlife. National parks like Eravikulam and Periyar, plus Wayanad and other sanctuaries, are home to elephants, langur monkeys and tigers.
Lemon Rice
1-2 teaspoons vegetable oil
250 g (1 1/4 cup) Basmati rice
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon dried mint
zest and juice of 1 lemon
500 ml (2 cups) water
pinch of salt
Heat the oil in a medium saucepan.
Stir through the Basmati rice and coat it in the oil.
Add the turmeric and dried mint.
Add the zest and juice of the lemon.
Stir through the water and pinch of salt.
Give everything a good stir.
Cover the saucepan with a tight-fitting lid.
Turn the heat down to very low.
Cook the rice for about 30 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all of the liquid.
Fluff the rice with a fork before serving.