This fragrant tomato-and-coconut curry with pieces of flaky white fish is a staple at chef Meherwan Irani’s dinner table. At home, he likes to make double or triple batches of the coconut milk curry (see his recipe for All-Purpose Coconut Curry here) and freeze it in two-cup portions. Then, when he’s ready for dinner, all he has to do is defrost a portion and sear pieces of spiced whitefish that finish cooking in the reheated curry. If you want to prepare this recipe with premade curry, bring 2 cups curry to a gentle simmer in a saucepan over medium-low heat, then add the seared fish to the pan and simmer until the fish is opaque and flakes easily.
Ingredients
Fish:
- 1 ½ pounds firm white fish - such as grouper, tilapia, or cod, cut into 2" pieces
- 1 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt - or ½ teaspoon Morton
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri chile powder - or ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
Curry and assembly:
- 3 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
- 3–4 curry leaves - fresh or dried, optional
- ½ teaspoon asafetida - optional
- 1 3-inch piece ginger - peeled, finely grated
- 5 cloves garlic - finely grated
- kosher salt
- 1 large red onion - chopped
- 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
- 1 14-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk - not low-fat
- 1 cup low-sodium vegetable broth - or chicken broth
- thinly sliced red onion, cilantro leaves with tender stems; cooked basmati rice, wild rice, or warm naan; and lime wedges (for serving) - cilantro leaves with tender stems; cooked basmati rice, wild rice, or warm naan; and lime wedges (for serving)
Instructions
Brown the fish:
- Combine the fish, salt, chile powder, and turmeric in a medium bowl and, using your hands, gently toss the fish to evenly coat in the spices.
- Heat the oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.
- Working in batches to avoid crowding, cook fish pieces until lightly browned, about 2 minutes per side (the fish won’t be cooked all the way through).
- Transfer the fish to a plate.
Bloom the spices and cook the onions:
- Heat grapeseed oil in a medium Dutch oven or other heavy pot over medium-high heat.
- Add a few mustard seeds to the pot. When seeds start to wiggle and pop, reduce the heat to medium and add curry leaves, asafetida, and remaining mustard seeds.
- Cover the pot and cook the spices, swirling, until mustard seeds start popping more gradually, about 30 seconds.
- Uncover the pot and return heat to medium-high.
- Add ginger and garlic and cook, stirring constantly, until beginning to brown, about 1 minute.
- Add chopped onion and a big pinch of salt and cook, stirring often and reducing heat if needed to prevent burning, until the onion is golden brown and jammy, 7–9 minutes.
Cook the tomatoes:
- Stir in turmeric, then tomatoes and bring to a simmer.
- Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring often, until tomatoes are glossy and darkened in color and oil starts to separate around edges of pot, 5–7 minutes.
Finish the curry:
- Add coconut milk and broth and stir to combine.
- Season with salt.
- Bring the curry to a simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low.
- Cover and cook, stirring occasionally to prevent sticking, 10 minutes.
Finish and serve:
- Add the fish to the curry.
- Return to a gentle simmer and cook until the fish is just cooked through and flakes easily with a fork, about 4 minutes.
- Taste and season with more salt if needed.
- Divide the fish curry among bowls.
- Top with sliced red onion and cilantro.
- Serve with rice and lime wedges for squeezing over.