Fusion Fish Curry

This recipe is more about the sauce, and the fusion of cooking styles, and less about the type of fish that is used. It draws on Malaysian, South Indian, Jamaican and Sri Lankan curry to come up with a unique tasting sauce. The sauce has a lot of ingredients, which gives it tremendous depth and complexity of flavor. The fish should be in small pieces so that it can readily absorb the sauce. I used a whole Red Snapper, cut into 3 pieces, which was not ideal. This recipe could be used with any fish fillet, sliced Kingfish, chunks of fish meat, and even frozen fish fingers for a really quick meal! I’ll try it with Catfish meat next time. 

Ingredients

1 lb any kind of firm fish meat or fillet

Grace Caribbean Traditions Fish Seasoning

2 tbsp cooking oil

1 tbsp Jamaican or any type of Caribbean curry powder

1 tsp Garam Masala

½ tsp salt

1 thumb sized piece of fresh ginger root, peeled and finely grated

3 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 medium sized shallot, chopped finely

Few sprigs of thyme

1-2 green onions, only green part, thinly sliced

2 small plum tomatoes, pureed

1-2 tbsp coconut milk

1-2 tbsp water

½ tsp sugar

1 tbsp Pickapeppa sauce or similar Tamarind based sauce

1 tbsp tomato chili sauce

2 tbsp chopped red bell pepper

1-2 tsp finely minced habanero pepper or 1-2 Thai Chili peppers, chopped

Method

1. Season the fish meat liberally with the salt and Fish Seasoning. If you have a good kitchen exhaust fan system, you can opt to brown the fish chunks in oil. I coated them with the cooking oil and put them under the broiler for about 5 minutes rather than frying. The idea is to just brown the outside with the seasoning to flavor the oil. Remove from oil.
2. Saute in the cooking oil, the shallots, garlic, green onions, thyme, grated ginger, curry powder, garam masala, minced Habanero pepper, cubes of red bell pepper, until it starts to smell fragrant, and the seasonings release their flavor. Add the Pickapeppa sauce, tomato chili sauce, coconut milk, sugar and water. Simmer the sauce for about 10 minutes until the coconut milk starts to separate into oil.
3. Place the browned fish pieces in the sauce, cover and simmer until the fish is cooked (about 10-15 minutes depending on the thickness of the fish meat).