Thai Green Fish Curry
This Thai green curry is wonderfully fragrant and is prepared with a homemade curry paste. Serve the fish curry with rice and a side dish of Chinese cabbage or broccoli florets stir-fried with garlic and a little reduced-salt soy sauce.
2 tablespoons sunflower oil
2 1⁄3 cups fish stock (reduced-salt if possible)
2 tablespoons fish sauce (optional)
2 tablespoons sugar
300 g new potatoes, halved
1 red pepper, seeded and cut into strips
500 g white fish fillets, sliced across into medallions
110 g small snow or sugar snap peas
1⁄3 cup reduced-fat coconut milk
juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon chopped fresh coriander to garnish
Thai Green Curry Paste
2 tablespoons finely grated fresh galangal
2 teaspoons finely chopped lemongrass
4 lime leaves, shredded
1⁄2 cup finely chopped fresh coriander
6 shallots, very finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 small red chili, seeded and finely chopped
finely grated rind of 1 lime
- Mix together all the ingredients for the green curry paste and stir in 1⁄2 cup water. (If you have a food processor, you can save chopping time by using the machine to blend all of the paste ingredients with the water until smooth.)
- Heat the oil in a nonstick pan. Add the curry paste and fry for 5 minutes, stirring frequently, until the water has evaporated and the shallots have softened and are starting to colour.
- Pour the fish stock and fish sauce, if using, into the pan and stir in the sugar, potatoes and red pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover and cook for about 10 minutes or until the potatoes are almost tender.
- Add the fish, snow or sugar snap peas and coconut milk, then cover again and cook gently for 5 minutes or until the fish flakes easily. Remove from the heat, stir in the lime juice and scatter over the coriander to garnish. Serve hot.
Thai green fish curry variations: To make a speedy Thai shrimp curry, fry the shallots and garlic in the sunflower oil until softened, then pour in the fish stock, fish sauce, if using, and sugar. Add 2–4 tablespoons ready-made green curry paste from a jar (compare brands to find the one with the lowest fat) and stir well. Simmer for 10 minutes. Add the snow or sugar snap peas and cook for 3 minutes, then add 200 g peeled raw shrimp. Cook for 1–2 minutes or until the shrimp turn pink. Add the lime juice and 5 tablespoons chopped fresh basil and serve.
preparation time 25 mins
cooking time 20 mins
serves 4
PER SERVING
378 calories
34 g protein
16 g total fat
4 g saturated fat
77 mg cholesterol
24 g total carbohydrate
12 g sugars
4 g fibre
552 mg sodium
Shallots tend to be milder and more subtle in flavour than onions. Like onions, they contain some vitamin C and B vitamins. Galangal is a rhizome, similar to ginger, with a hot peppery flavour. It is usually available at grocery stores.
