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South East Indian Fish Curry with Lachha Paratha
Recipe by Tessa Boersma
This fragrant Fish curry is made with beautiful snapper fillets and served with Basmati rice and crispy Paratha flatbread to soak up all the flavours
- Steps
- Ingredients
Ingredients
Lachha Paratha
Basmati Rice
Spice Mix
South Indian Fish Curry
Fried Curry Leaves
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Steps
- For the Lachha Paratha, place the milk, water and 1 tablespoon ghee into a saucepan until ghee is melted. Remove from the heat.
- Add to the flour, salt and sugar and knead until a smooth dough is formed, about 5 minutes. Cover and set aside for 30 minutes.
- Divide into 8 portions. Dust the bench lightly with flour. Roll each portion into a circle 2mm thick. Brush with melted ghee and sprinkle with a little plain flour.
- Lift one edge of the dough and fold and pleat the dough, lifting the dough while moving across the circle until you have a rectangle of pleated dough with about 10 layers. Curl the pleated dough to form a scroll. Sprinkle with a little plain flour and then use a rolling pin to roll out into a 2mm thick circle. Repeat with remaining portions of dough.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium high heat. Place paratha into the pan and cook for about 2 minutes on the first side or until it starts to bubble and caramelize. Flip the paratha over and brush with some ghee. Cook for another 1-2 minutes. Flip again and brush with ghee and then remove from the heat and serve. Wipe out the pan occasionally and adjust the heat as needed to prevent burning. Repeat with remaining dough. Place onto a wire rack on a tray in a very low oven to keep warm.
- For the Basmati Rice, place rice into a large fine strainer and rinse 4-5 times or until water runs clear. Transfer rice to a bowl, cover with water and set aside for 30 minutes. Drain well.
- Place rice, salt and 2 ¼ cups water into a saucepan. Cover and bring to the boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer until rice is tender, about 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and set aside for another 2 minutes, to allow to steam. Fluff with a fork and stir through ghee.
- For the Spice Mix, place all spices into a frypan over high heat, swirling pan continuously until very fragrant, taking care not to burn them. Transfer to a spice grinder and process to a smooth powder. Set aside.
- For the South Indian Fish Curry, place the fish, turmeric and salt into a bowl and massage until fish is evenly coated. Set aside at room temperature.
- Heat a large wok over a high heat and add the ghee. Add the mustard seeds and curry leaves and cook until no longer sizzling. Add the Spice Mix and stir briefly. Add the tomatoes, onion, garlic, ginger and chilli powder. Reduce the heat to medium and cook until reduced, stirring occasionally, about 10-15 minutes.
- Add jaggery, chilli, salt and water and stir to combine. Cook for another 10 minutes. Add the native ginger stem, tamarind puree and cook for a further minute. Season with salt to taste.
- Add the fish and simmer gently for 4 minutes or until just cooked. Remove from the heat.
- For the Fried Curry Leaves, heat the oil in a medium saucepan to 180C. Add the curry leaves and cook until crisp, about 10 seconds. Remove from the oil and set aside on paper towel.
- To serve, place curry into a large serving bowl. Transfer rice to a serving bowl and top with curry leaves. Serve with paratha on the side.
