Category Archives: Curry

Red Prawn & Mango Curry

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I bought myself Nigella Express from Cook the Books on a weekend jaunt to Auckland last year. I haven’t made loads from it yet, but as is my usual experience with Nigella Lawson’s recipes, every one that I’ve tried has been delicious.

This is a really easy little curry that cooks up quickly and is super tasty, plus it’s pretty healthy so ticks all my boxes. I’ve adapted the recipe below to allow for ingredients more available in New Zealand and picked the healthy substitutes where possible. Fingers crossed Nigella doesn’t mind my sharing it with you. If you like it, I recommend you pick one of her beautiful books up!

Red Prawn & Mango Curry
Serves 2
Adapted from Nigella Express

1 Tbsp canola oil (or if you prefer, a spritz of cooking oil spray)
1 spring onion, finely sliced
1-2 Tbsp red Thai curry paste, to taste
200ml light coconut milk
1 cup reduced-salt chicken stock
2 tsp fish sauce
350g kumara or pumpkin*
200g frozen prawns, thawed
1 tsp lime juice
150g mango cubes**
3-4 Tbsp chopped fresh coriander
rice or noodles, to serve

* I used pumpkin, and I think I zapped it in the microwave for a couple of minutes before starting the curry to speed the process up.
**I used a fresh mango, but I think (drained) canned mango would also work

Heat the oil in a wok or large frying pan, and fry the sliced spring onion for a minute, then add the curry paste. Whisk in the coconut milk, chicken stock and fish sauce, and bring to the boil. Tip in the pumpkin or kumara (possibly microwaved, as per above). Simmer, partially covered, for about 15 minutes, or until tender.

Drain the prawns and run them under the cold tap if you need to get any last bits of ice off. Add them to the pan, letting the sauce come back to the boil. When it does, add the lime juice and mango and cook for another minute or two, until the prawns are cooked through.

Serve over noodles or rice and sprinkle with chopped coriander.

Bengali-style fish curry

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I’m not sure if “Hot and Sour” or “Bengali-style” to describe this fish curry caught my eye first. How interesting, thought I.

I came across it in a magazine-y book thing that Dish magazine put out late last year, I think called “everyday”. I believe it was a collection of their best recipes – simple and fairly quick ones you can cook on weekdays.

I’ve adapted their fish recipe here. It’s a curry sauce that you pour over grilled or pan-fried fish, rather than cooking fish pieces in the curry itself. It’s pretty easy and super tasty. It’s good for you, too!

Hot & Sour Fish – Bengali-style Fish Curry
Adapted from Dish magazine’s “Everyday” issue

2 tsp yellow mustard seeds
2 tomatoes (truss is nice), diced – or you could use ½ tin of chopped tomatoes
4 green chillies, 2 chopped and 2 left whole (you can reduce quantity if preferred)
1 shallot, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp turmeric
½ cup flour (plain or chickpea, if you have it)
4 firm white fish fillets (about 600-800g) – I used lemonfish which was perfect for the job
1 Tbsp rice bran or canola oil
2 small bay leaves
some fresh, frozen or tinned veges (optional)
¼ cup lemon juice
¼ cup water
1-2 tsp finely grated palm sugar
sea salt

First, lightly grind the mustard seeds in a mortar and pestle – not too vigorously, take it easy, tiger – and set aside.

Put the tomatoes, chopped chillies, shallot, garlic and turmeric in a food processor and blend to a coarse paste. Also set aside.

Put the flour in a shallow dish or on a plate, and season with salt. Dust the fish in the flour, and shake or pat off the excess. You want a nice thin coating of flour all over the fish.

Heat the oil in a large frypan and cook the fish over medium to medium high heat until just cooked through and golden brown. Remove to a clean plate and cover with tin foil to keep warm (or put it in a warm oven).

Add the lightly ground mustard seeds and bay leaves to the hot frypan and sizzle for a few seconds. Adjust the heat to medium. Add the tomato paste mixture and cook, stirring, until the paste is fragrant and most of the liquid has evaporated. Add the whole chillies, lemon juice and water. Add any veges you’re using, too (I had half a tin of baby sweetcorn so threw that in, worked well! And anything that increases vege content is good; I think green beans would be good here).

Season and simmer for a few minutes, or until the mixture has reduced by half. You might need to leave it longer if you’ve added frozen veges (unless you zapped them in the microwave first, which would have been smart). Add the first teaspoon of palm sugar, taste, and add more if needed – it should still taste a bit sour, though. You can add the fish fillets to the sauce in the pan – or, I preferred to plate the fillets up and pour the sauce over top. Good served with wild rice.

Simple Tomato & Chickpea Curry

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I actually made this um, months ago, and had completely forgotten about it have been saving it up specially.

I like to have a few tricks up my sleeve to make a filling, healthy, comforting meal at short notice, and to make said meal from a few cheap ingredients that are always in my pantry. These recipes are my best friends on hungry and/or grumpy and/or flustered and/or busy evenings when I just need to Eat. Something. Now. Or. Will. Fall. Over. I think that no matter how amazing your life is, you always have days like this. And if you don’t, you really ought to share the secret with the rest of us in the comments section.

There are loads of tomato and chickpea curry recipes out there – I can’t claim this as an original idea. Most recipes are a variation on tinned tomatoes + chickpeas + spices = good. So as long as you have those things in the cupboard, and bonus points for an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, you can be munching through this in a lot less than half an hour.

Tomato & Chickpea Curry
My recipe notes that this is supposed to serve four, but from memory, that assumes you are serving it with bread or rice. Serving just the curry, Mr. J and I got through the whole lot on our own! So if you have a large and hungry family, it would pay to at least double the recipe. If you end up with too much, you can always welcome it back for lunch tomorrow, or freeze it and enjoy it on another hungry,flustered and busy day.

Another note – if you’re missing one or two of the spices, don’t worry, just press on ahead!

small dash of rice bran or canola oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chilli powder (or adjust quantity to taste, or leave out altogether)
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp garam masala
1x 400g tin chickpeas, drained and rinsed (or dried chickpeas, soaked)
1x 400g tin chopped tomatoes
5cm piece of fresh ginger, finely grated
chopped fresh coriander, to serve
Heat the oil in a large saucepan or frying pan. Add the chopped onion and garlic, and cook gently until softened, and just turning golden. Add the spices and stir for a couple of minutes, coating the onion with the spices.
Add the drained chickpeas, and stir to coat them in the spices too, then add the tomatoes. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the ginger and stir through.
Serve with crusty bread or, ideally, brown rice, and garnish with chopped fresh coriander. You may also like to add a dollop of low fat natural yoghurt.