Sri Lankan fish curry

Ingredients

• Tuna or mackerel — in steaks900 g
• Goraka or tamarind3
• Coconut milk500 ml
• Roasted curry powder3 tbsp
• Chilli powder2 tsp
• Turmeric1 tsp
• Onions2
• Garlic6 clove
• Ginger30 g
• Curry leaves15
• Pandan leaf1
• Cinnamon stick1
• Fenugreek seeds1 tsp
• Red rice — to serve400 g
• Saltto taste

Salt and spices grow more slowly than the rest: doubling a dish does not double the pepper.

Weight converts to ounces and volume to cups. Grams of flour are not turned into cups, because that depends on how tightly it is packed.

Method

1. 1

   Soak the goraka in a cup of warm water for twenty minutes and keep the water.

   22 min

2. 2

   Rub the fish with salt, turmeric and half the curry powder and leave it fifteen minutes.

   18 min

3. 3

   Fry the onion, garlic, ginger, curry leaves, pandan, cinnamon and fenugreek until fragrant.

   10 min

4. 4

   Add the remaining curry powder and chilli and warm them a minute without letting them scorch.

   3 min

5. 5

   Add the thinned coconut milk with the goraka water and bring it to the boil.

   6 min

6. 6

   Lay the fish steaks in a single layer, add the goraka and cook twelve minutes, rocking the pan.

   14 min

7. 7

   Add the thick coconut milk and warm it five minutes without boiling. Serve with red rice.

   8 min

About the dish

Sri Lankan curry powder is roasted dark, almost black. That is what separates it from the Indian kind: the roasting gives a depth raw spices do not.

Goraka — dried Garcinia cambogia — supplies the sourness and the dark colour. Tamarind stands in partly, but the colour comes out lighter and the taste milder.

The coconut milk goes in twice: thin at the start for the stewing, thick at the end. The thick milk must not boil or it splits.

Worth knowing

• — Do not turn the fish. Rock the pan instead: the steaks fall apart at any touch of a spatula.
• — Make roasted curry powder in quantity: coriander, cumin, fennel and rice toasted dark and ground. It keeps a month.
• — Take the goraka out before serving. In a bowl it looks like a lump of black resin and is not meant to be eaten.

Nutrition

Per serving at the base yield, calculated from the ingredients rather than measured in a lab.

Calories

620 kcal

Protein

48 g

Fat

26 g

Carbs

48 g

More from Sri Lanka

• Kottu roti — Godamba roti chopped on the griddle with vegetables, egg and curry, worked with two cleavers.
• Pol sambol — Fresh coconut pounded with chilli, onion and lime. Five minutes to make and served with everything.
• Hoppers — Thin bowl-shaped pancakes from fermented rice batter with coconut milk, often with an egg.