Living away from home can sometimes make you want weird things. Things that you normally would pass if you were back home. Like fish head curry. That’s in my case. I know some people who just couldn’t get enough of fish head curry. You know who you are.
It’s not as if I’ve been craving for fish head curry lately. No, far from it. I was getting some fresh prawns at See Woo yesterday when I saw they had some salmon heads. I was like, “Hmmm… I’ve not eaten fish head curry for a long time.” Duh, that’s because you normally don’t want it. But at that moment, the words just flew out of my mouth. “Can I also have one salmon head, please?” So, yeah. Now I have a salmon head in my fridge, so fish head curry for dinner it will be.
I’ve said this before. Some people may claim that their family recipe is the best ever. I can’t say the same. Not that what mom and grandma cook aren’t delicious. It’s just that there’s no “secret” recipe. Heh, there’s no specific measurement to even begin with. That’s just typical of my mom. Learning how to cook from her is understanding what the basic ingredients that make up a dish. How much of each ingredient that goes into the pot is a rough estimation to say the least. So I watch her cook and took mental notes. I learn to experiment with recipes and tweak them along the way to cater to my taste bud. In our home, curry makes it to the dining table very often so yes, it’s tried and tested – many times. Today, I’ll need to jot down the ingredients that I am using so that I can complete this post later.
Off to the kitchen now.
What I used:
- 1 salmon head, cleaned
- 1 tbsp mustard seeds
- 1 tbsp fenugreek seeds
- 1 tbsp fennel seeds
- 1 tbsp cumin seeds
- 3 shallots
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 inch ginger
- 1 onion
- 3 tbsp curry powder
- 1 tbsp chili powder (if you like it extra hot, if not, please omit)
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes, optional
- 2 sprigs curry leaves
- 1 tin coconut milk
- tamarind pulp, add water to make into paste, makes about 3 tbsp paste
- 1 tomato, quartered
- 15 okra, I used frozen ones
- 1 red chili
- 3 green chillies
- 5 tbsp oil
- salt to taste
How I made my curry:
Thinly slice the shallots, garlic and ginger.
Combine the curry powder and chili powder. Add some water to make a thick paste.
Heat the oil in a big pot. Add the mustard seeds and wait until they splutter. Add the fennel seeds, cumin seeds and the fenugreek seeds. Fry for a minute or two. You want the spices to impart the aroma but you need to be careful not to burn them, else they will make your curry bitter.
Add the sliced shallot, garlic, ginger and onion. Fry until they are golden brown. If you like and you have in stock, you can use ginger garlic paste instead of the sliced garlic and ginger. You could also opt to blend the shallot, ginger, garlic and onion if you prefer.
Add the curry/chili paste. Add the curry leaves. Stir. Add the tinned chopped tomatoes. Add also a bit of water, about half a cup. Add some salt. Reduce the heat, add the chillies and let it simmer until the oil separates, stirring occasionally to avoid the paste sticking to the pan and burning. This will perhaps take 15 to 20 minutes.
When the oil has separate and floating at the top, add the coconut milk. I also added another half a cup of water. Increase the heat and let it come to a boil.
Add the fish head, reduce the heat and let it simmer for a few minutes – about 10 minutes. You don’t want to move the fish too much as it is delicate and will break. If you can, have the fish head submerged in the gravy so that it cooks evenly without having you to turn it the other side.
When the fish is almost cooked, add the quartered tomato and the okra. Add the tamarind paste, gently stir and have a taste. Adjust that taste to your liking, adding a bit more salt and tamarind paste if needed. I like my curry to have the sour/tangy taste so I added two more tablespoons of tamarind paste. I also added a bit more salt.
Let it simmer for another 10 minutes or so on low heat.
Your curry should be ready now. Serve hot with rice or roti.
Personally, I like to prepare my curry in advance and let it sit for a few hours to give time for the flavours to mingle. I’ll re-heat before serving as I definitely want my curry hot.
Enjoyx
