After a recent visit to Mowgli I was blown away with the flavours of this dish. I’ve had a number of Goan fish curries from a number of restaurants but nothing as tasty as this!! Goan curries usually have a hot and tangy heat running through them however this was tangy and sweet….and I now know why….it’s secret ingredients….molasses / black treacle and light brown sugar. Honestly, these two ingredients pack so much flavour it’s unreal!!

Ingredients- 1/3 of a cup of vegetable oil, 2 tsp of mustard seeds, 1 tsp of nigella seeds, 1 dried chilli, 2 onions finely diced, 2 heaped tbsp of garlic & ginger paste, I used Basa fillets as it’s cheap and sustainable – 7oz, 1/2 tsp of turmeric, 200g (1/2 a tin) of chopped tomatoes, juice of 1/2 a lemon, 1/4 of a tsp of chilli powder, 1 tbsp of black treacle or molasses, 1 tbsp of soft brown sugar & a small bunch of coriander leaves & stalks finely chopped.

Method- put about 1/4 of the cup of oil in a large heavy based pan over a medium heat. When it’s visibly hot add the mustard and nigella seeds until they start to pop. Then turn the heat down slightly adding the red chilli, onions plus the garlic & ginger paste plus I added some matchsticks of ginger frying for about 8 minutes until the onion has a nice colour.

Mix the cubed basa fillets with the turmeric ensuring the fish is nicely coated. In a separate pan heat the remaining vegetable oil. When it’s hot add the fillets flash frying them for 1-2 minutes then set aside.

Add the chopped tomatoes to the garlic bin mix. Gently cook until the liquid has almost evaporated.

Add the chilli powder, treacle, lemon juice and the sugar mixing well coating everything.

Add two cups of water bring it back to a simmer then allow this to simmer for a further 3 minutes or so. Add the fish back in and cook for a further 8-10 minutes.

With this dish for the first time I cooked black cardamom & cumin rice.

To serve add the chopped coriander.

I’m going to start to post a little more on here now for my own benefit. Even though I have over 7100 followers on Instagram most are not connecting as they I’m guessing are becoming a little fed up of my constantly curry related posts. A number of friends don’t even engage which is disappointing. I enjoy the writing and how the site looks so I’m hopefully going to build on it.

Thanks for reading my ramblings.