Fish Curry but with Aubergine!

Recipe taken from: Telegraph - Rick Stein - Fish Curry

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 1 tbsp yellow mustard seeds
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, crushed
• 30 fresh curry leaves (from ethnic shops)
• 2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder
• 1/2tsp hot chilli powder (see above)
• 2 tsp ground coriander
• 2 tsp turmeric
• 14oz/400g can chopped tomatoes
• 3 1/2floz/100ml tamarind water (see below)
• 2 green chillies, each sliced lengthways into 6 pieces, with seeds (leave these out if you are chilli-sensitive)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• lb 9oz/700g snapper fillets, or other white fish, cut into 5cm chunks or 2 aubergines to make it veggie.

Method

• Heat the oil in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. When hot, add the mustard seeds and fry for 30 seconds, then stir in the onion and garlic, and fry gently for about 10 minutes until softened and lightly golden. Add the curry leaves, chilli powder (if using), coriander and turmeric, and fry for 2 minutes, then stir in the tomatoes, tamarind water, green chillies (if using) and salt. Simmer for about 10 minutes until rich and reduced. Add the fish, cook for a further 5minutes or until just cooked through, and serve with plain rice.

For the tamarind water:

• Supermarkets stock small jars of tamarind paste which can be diluted about 50-50 with water and used in this recipe. But it is better to prepare tamarind water by steeping tamarinds (usually available from ethnic shops in a block, a bit like dates) with water. For 3 1/2floz/100ml liquid, put 2oz/60g of tamarinds in a bowl with 4floz/120ml freshly boiled water. Leave to steep for about 15 minutes, then work everything together with your fingers, until the tamarinds have broken down. Push through a sieve, leaving behind the seeds and fibrous strands.

TIP

• You can freeze this dish as it is, as long as you are careful when you reheat it, because the fish will break up if you fiddle with it too much. Even better would be to just freeze some of the sauce – that way you can just defrost it and add some fresh fish. The sauce is also versatile enough to work with chicken or grilled vegetables.