Sri-Lankan Fish Curry

A few years ago we were fortunate enough to live in England for a few months. One long weekend we stayed in Cornwall. We hired bikes and road along the water to visit the little town of Padstow. 

It was a lovely sunny day (well most of it, it did rain a couple of times!), and I remember sitting by the water enjoying Cornish tea, which is scones with jam and Cornish clotted cream. I am reminded of this as we bought our Cornish tea from Rick Stein's little Deli in Padstow. 

This is the first of Rick Steins recipes that I have ever cooked, and I only happened to stumble upon it whilst looking for a fish curry recipe.

The onion is softened in oil with garlic, curry leaves and pandan leaves.

Then in goes the freshly ground spice mix (cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, cinnamon, cloves cardamon, pepper), some turmeric and chilli.

After a minute or so add the tomatoes, salt, tamarind and coconut milk allowing this to simmer away for about 15 minutes.

Finally add the salmon covering with the  curry sauce and cook for about 5 minutes. Cover the pan and allow this to sit for almost 30 minutes. I actually left it for 20 minutes and then turned the heat on for a couple of minutes before serving.

I also made some eggplant chutney using this recipe except I added a handful of sultanas with the eggplant and tomato. It was really delicious, made with a base of mustard seeds, curry leaves, chilli and turmeric.

I really loved this dish, the salmon was so juicy and flavoursome. The curry sauce was gentle and the eggplant chutney sweetened the dish up, complimenting it perfectly. I will definitely have to cook some more of Rick Stein's recipes.