"...until they begin to splutter..."...and the foodie blues...

Thursdays are now firmly established as Experimental Cooking Nights at Dave and Tina's house.  Every week I get increasingly excited as we pick a new recipe, then Tina sources the ingredients sorted, and I turn up after work to assemble the dish.  These weekly dinner party dates have definitely lifted me out of my foodie blues - I completely lost my cooking mojo there for a while, burning this, oversalting that...   

We made this recipe a few weeks ago, and agreed it had an almost Indo-Thai taste, probably because of the inclusion of coconut.  You could of course serve it with plain rice but the pilau was easy to make and definitely gave the dish a lift.

Indian Green Fish Curry with Pea and Mushroom Pilau

Serves 4.

Pilau

2 1/4 cups of basmati rice
1 tablespoon of oil
1/2 teaspoon of cumin seeds
2 black cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks
3 garlic cloves, sliced
1 teaspoon of salt
1 medium tomato, sliced
2/3 of a cup of button mushrooms
1/3 of a cup of petits pois (peas)
3 cups of water

1. Wash the rice well and leave it to soak in water for 30 minutes.

2. In a medium heavy-based saucepan, heat the oil and add the spices, garlic and salt.

3. Add the tomato and mushrooms and stir fry for 2-3 minutes.

4. Drain the rice and add it to the pan with the peas.  Stir gently, making sure that you do not break up the grains of rice.

5. Add the water and bring to the boil.  Lower the heat, cover and continue to cook for 15-20 minutes. 

Curry

1/4 of a teaspoon of ground turmeric
2 tablespoons of lime juice
A pinch of salt
4 cod fillets, skinned and cut into 5cm chunks
1 onion, chopped
1 green chilli, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
1/4 of a cup of cashew nuts
1/2 a teaspoon of fennel seeds
2 tablespoons of dessicated coconut
2 tablespoons of oil
1/4 of a teaspoon of cumin seeds
1/4 of a teaspoon of ground coriander
1/4 of a teaspoon of ground cumin
1/4 of a teaspoon of salt
2/3 of a cup of water
3/4 of a cup of plain yoghurt
3 tablespoons of finely chopped fresh coriander

1. Mix the turmeric, lime juice and salt together and rub over the fish.  Cover and marinate for 15 minutes.

2. Meanwhile, process the onion, chilli, garlic, cashew nuts, fennel seeds and coconut to a paste.  Spoon the paste into a bowl and set aside.

3. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based frying pan and fry the cumin seeds for 2 minutes or until they begin to splutter (with rage! Ha ha ha).  Add the paste and fry for 5 minutes, then stir in the ground coriander, cumin, salt and water and cook for about 2-3 minutes.

4. Add the yoghurt and the chopped fresh coriander.  Simmer gently for 5 minutes.  Add the fish fillets and gently stir in. Cover and cook gently for 10 minutes until the fish is tender.