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Swordfish and tomato curry
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 2tsp sea salt flakes
- 2tsp turmeric
- 4 x 200g swordfish loin steaks, skin removed and each cut in half across
- 2tsp yellow mustard seeds
- 1tsp cumin seeds
- 1tsp black peppercorns, roughly crushed
- 550g tomatoes, peeled and deseeded
- 120g pink banana shallots, cut in half lengthways and finely sliced across
- 2cm piece ginger, peeled and grated
- 6 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 4 bird’s eye chillies, stalks removed
- 3 cardamom pods
- 2tsp sunflower oil
- 1tbsp tomato purée
- 400ml coconut milk
- 20 curry leaves
- 2tsp tamarind purée
Method
Grind together 1tbsp of the sea salt flakes with 11⁄2tsp of the turmeric and rub into the swordfish pieces, then set aside while preparing the other ingredients.
Grind up half the quantity of mustard seeds, cumin and black pepper and put into a mini processor with 1 of the tomatoes, half the shallots and all of the ginger, garlic and chilli. Whizz to a paste.
Put the remaining unground spices and the cardamom in a dry frying pan over a medium heat and leave until the mustard seeds are beginning to pop. Add the rest of the shallots along with the oil and stir in the paste and the rest of the turmeric. Cook on a low heat for around 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and tomato purée and stir for a minute. Stir in the coconut milk, curry leaves and the remaining 1tsp of salt. Simmer gently for 8 minutes.
Stir the tamarind into the bubbling mixture. Dust any excess turmeric salt rub from the fish and add to the pan. Turn the heat right down and cook the fish for a maximum of 4 minutes, depending on how you like the fish cooked. It’s nice if it’s slightly pink in the middle. Serve in bowls with cooked plain basmati rice.
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