Fish Curry with Mango

What do I like about Fish Curries? The tender flesh of fish, in spicy, sourish curry. It's a whole different taste than Chicken or Beef Curry. In my opinion, fish dishes are normally cooked with that tangy sourish taste to it - with lime/lemon, asam jawa (tamarind juice), lemongrass, belimbing, and etc, with a hint of spiciness. Even fried fish is served with a squeeze of lime juice. This is the reason why I love fish. I LOVE SOUR dishes. :-( It gives me that "aahhhh" satisfaction that I enjoyed the food!

My mum's fish curries are always perfect. The sourness is just right. What more, with mangoes... It is the local fruit season here in Malaysia, where durian, manggis, langsat, rambutan, mango - are all available. We have 2 types of mango tree in our house - those sweet medium-sized ones, and those small "egg" like ones. During this season, my mum put in some mangoes in the fish curry. It's a beautiful taste to the curry.

Enough of my much unrelated curry talk up there, here's the recipe:

:: Fish Curry with Mango ::

4 fish cutlets
2 small green mangoes, halved
4 ladies finger
2 large green chili, halved
1 large red tomato, cubed
3 shallots, cubed
2 garlic, chopped
1 packet fish curry powder, add with a little hot water to form paste.
1 cup fresh coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup tamarind juice
fresh curry leaves (a pinch-full)
1 tablespoon spice mix (fenugreek, mustard seeds, coriander seeds, cumin)
pinch of salt

1. Heat up a large pot with about 1/3 cup of oil. (Even if you're cooking smaller portion, use big pot cos it's so much easier to stir & not break the fish into pieces!). And medium heat will do, no vigurous heat required for curries! :-)
2. Fry the spice mix until aromatic. Add shallots, garlic & curry leaves, continue to stir until lightly browned.
3. Pour in the curry paste & stir lightly until you see some "oil" forming.
4. Add the ladies finger, tomatoes, chili, mango, let it cook until soften a little - about 10 minutes or so, before adding in the fish cutlets.
5. Pour in coconut milk, tamarind juice & water, stir lightly to combine. Add salt as you like it to taste. Cover with lid and simmer until the fish is cooked.

Enjoy with steamed rice and - save some for tomorrow - believe me, it tastes better the next day! :-)