Fish Curry

Old news: went back to India on my birthday 2 years ago, arrived with some kind of flu, though not very well at all, shivering with high fever, I still managed to attend every meal, that was not tooo hard, and convinced my host to give me a cooking lesson.

When you look at a curry recipe, it is very daunting, all these spices, all these steps. In fact, I learnt a valuable lesson that day. Cooking a good curry is a matter of organisation.

a) you need to get all the spices out  and drop them in little piles on a plate

b) if there is a spice you don't have or you don't like "forgeeet about' t"

so let's start
You will need fish, white fish fillets are the easiest.

4 green cardamom pods, crushed

4 cloves (I don't do that it reminds me of the dentist)

3 small bay leaves

2-3 green chillies, pricked with a fork

2 rounded tbsp ginger paste

2 large garlic cloves, blended to a paste with 1 tbsp water

1 tbsp ground coriander

2 tsp ground cumin

½ tsp ground turmeric

¼ tsp red chilli powder

pinch paprika, optional

salt, to taste

this is it, job  done. Next,

heat some oil in a small pan, medium heat, drop each powered spice one at the time

then add the rest such as the bay leaves, the cardamon

reduce the heat,  chopped finely an onion, add this in, cook it until transparent.

and then the choice is yours

add either a glass of water or

a cup of cream or

1/2 tin of chopped tomato or

200ml of coconut milk

Leave it to reduce while

In another pan,

Fry lightly the fish chopped or not

Add fish to sauce

done serve with rice