So I’ve discovered that juggling life as a wife and new mom is rather time consuming. One has very little time for cooking anything elaborate, if anything at all! Trying to shuffle between watching over a tiny baby and spending time in the kitchen is almost impossible. This inspired me to create a really quick and easy one-pot-wonder which your hubby will love.
For this recipe I used a slow cooker. It really is the best piece of equipment that any mom can own. It is very inexpensive and easy to use. This is a quick curry and only requires about 2-3 hours in the slow cooker, which is perfect to quickly whip together once you get home from work, and then leave simmering in the pot to soak up all those delicious coconut and Thai flavours until dinner time.
If you don’t want to spend time chopping fresh ginger, garlic cloves and chilli, I discovered that Woolworths sells crushed garlic, ginger, chilli and tumeric in a single tub which is ideal for this recipe and will save you even more time!
Use a whisk to combine your coconut cream and spices. This ensures that the spices are dispersed evenly into the sauce, which then turns into a lovely golden colour.
This recipe works best with a nice firm white fish. I have used Greenfish kingklip fillets cut into bite size chunks. Using a firmer fish allows the squares to stay intact during the cook instead of disintegrating into the sauce.
When adding the lime leaves, I find the easiest method is to put them in a porous bag. This can then easily be removed from he curry at the end. You can throw them in loose but these will need to be removed once your curry is done and they can be time consuming to find. The ideal tool to use is a spice infuser which you can buy at most kitchen shops. However if you are like me and haven’t yet acquired one you can also use muslin, a stocking or any other porous material. Pour boiling water over the material to cleanse it before use. Then place the lime leaves onto the material and tie it up into a ball. Place your homemade spice infuser into the curry along with your fish and vegetables, remembering to remove the spice bag at the end before serving.
Your curry is ready when your fish turns from opaque to white, which I find usually takes approximately 2 and a half hours. I start on a high setting for the first hour to get the curry bubbling. I then reduce to a low temperature setting for the remaining hour and a half, allowing the flavours to infuse. Each slow cooker will vary, so just keep an eye on it until you discover what works best for you. You don’t want to over cook the fish and have it disintegrate into your curry, but rather have lovely chunks that break away into flakes when eaten with a fork. Season with a good sprinkle of salt and lemon juice and enjoy over a bowl of hot steamed rice.
Slow Cooker Coconut Fish Curry
Ingredients
- 600g Greenfish kingklip fillets
- 4 garlic cloves
- 1 thumb fresh ginger
- 3 small green chillis
- 2 tsp tumeric
- (or one tub of Woolworths crushed garlic, ginger, chilli, tumeric mix as discussed)
- 2 tins coconut cream
- 80-100g mange tout
- 120 - 150g broccoli stems
- lime leaves
- salt
- lemon juice
Served with
- rice
- coriander
- 5 small red chillis
Instructions
- Cut your kingklip fillets into bite size chunks.
- Pour the coconut cream into your slow cooker.
- Peel and finely chop the ginger. Deseed the chillis. Add the garlic, chillis, ginger and tumeric to the coconut cream. Alternatively, use one tub of the Woolworths crushed garlic, ginger, chilli, tumeric mix to save time.
- Use a whisk to combine the spices into the coconut cream, until a lovely golden colour.
- Add the kingklip chunks, spacing evenly in the sauce.
- Add the mange tout and broccoli stems evenly in the sauce and gently press down until everything is submerged in the coconut sauce.
- Place some lime leaves in a spice infuser by either using a piece of porous material (as previously demonstrated) or using a shop bought spice infuser. Add your spice infuser to the pot.
- Season with a good pinch of salt and a generous dash of lemon juice.
- Switch your slow cooker on high for the first hour.
- After an hour has passed, reduce heat to a low setting and cook for a further hour and a half.
- Your curry is ready when your fish has turned a lovely white colour and flakes evenly with a fork.
- Garnish with coriander and chopped red chilli and serve in a bowl over some steamed rice.
Notes
- You can cut the ingredients in half to make a curry for two, just remember to adjust your cooking time accordingly.
Hi I tried your recipe tonight and it came out watery instead of creamy. The cream split. The flavour didn’t carry through either. I think it’s down to us having to guess the measurements of some of your ingredients. Would be great if you could update to include measurements for all ingredients. i.e the coconut cream cans – they come in many sizes and saying 2x cans isn’t very specific.
Thank you.
Good day I hope you don’t mind I want to share your recipes on my companies Facebook page, if you don’t have a problem with it. I will share it as is. Thank you. Regards Riaan Botha