This recipe has come straight out of our Sri Lankan cooking experience. After winding through the manic streets of Kandy, Sri Lanka’s second biggest city, we started to descend into the most beautiful privately owned estate. The owner had had the land in his family for hundreds of years and it now functions as an almost completely self-sufficient estate.  After a tour of the beautiful house, we made our way into the traditional Sri Lankan kitchen where we rustled up fresh coconut milk and six different curries. Each one tasted incredible but this one was one of my favourites. It is so quick and simple to make but it is bursting with flavour and texture.

The Sri Lankan’s don’t seem to ‘bulk out’ their curries as much as we traditionally do, instead focusing on one main ingredient in each dish. If you would like to, feel free to bulk out the recipe below by adding mushrooms, peppers or even spinach.

You can use most white fish in this recipe. We used tilapia in Sri Lanka but when I made this last night I used some of the red mullet I got from Ocean Classics. The flavour and texture of the fish worked perfectly and really added something to the dish.

I served this curry with my Lentil Dhal (1sp) and a small portion of basmati rice (4sp) for 8sp in total.

Sri Lankan Fish Curry

Serves 2 = 3sp per serving (Flex) 

½ red onion, finely chopped

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

5 or 6 dried curry leaves (fresh if you can find them)

2 tsp roasted curry powder (if you can find it, if not normal is fine)

1 tsp chilli powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp turmeric

A few shavings of a cinnamon stick

1 x tomato, dicecd

250g white fish (I’ve used cod, red mullet and tilapia fillets)

125ml light coconut milk

Pinch of sugar

Method

Spray a medium sized sauce pan with coconut 1kal (or regular 1kal if you don’t have the coconut one), heat and then fry the onions, garlic and curry leaves for 5-6 minutes until the onions have softened. Add the spices, tomato and salt and fry for another minute or two. Then add 100ml water and 1 tbsp coconut milk. Stir and then add the fish. Simmer for ten minutes until the fish is cooked through but retains its shape. Finish with the rest of the coconut milk, some black pepper and a pinch of sugar, simmering for 2 minutes to heat through.

Enjoy!

The post Sri Lankan Fish Curry – 3sp first appeared on Slimming Kitchen Secrets.

I gave it a whirl last night for the first time and I was thrilled when I sat down to eat it and it tasted almost exactly the same as in the restaurant! It’s actually quite a simple curry to make with limited ingredients. The only thing that I found difficult to get hold of was the curry paste itself. Big Tesco’s usually do it and I have since found out that some of the Chinese supermarkets sell it but for easiness I bought it online from amazon. The tub is HUGE and is actually quite cheap so good value for money in my opinion. If you are feeling adventurous you could try and make your own paste but I didn’t have the time!

Ingredients

Serves 2 = 13sp (previously 11p) each including rice

2 tbsp Panang curry paste (if you can’t get any you could do it with red Thai curry paste, the texture will be the same but the flavour won’t)

200ml light coconut milk (half a tin)

2 x 165g chicken breasts, diced

2 peppers, roughly diced into large chunks

1 tbsp fish sauce

1 tbsp soft brown sugar

4/5 kaffir lime leaves (fresh if you can find them, I got some in Tesco in the fresh herb section)

Pack of green beans, trimmed

80g basmati (or jasmine) rice

1 lime, quartered

Handful of basil (Thai Basil if you can get it) (Optional), shredded

Method

Take a large frying pan and add the coconut milk. Once it has warmed slightly, add the curry paste and fry for a few minutes on a medium heat until the aromas start to release. Add the chicken and peppers, stir to coat with the paste mixture and fry until cooked through (about 10-12 minutes). During this time the coconut milk will reduce a little so the sauce has a dryer consistency. If you think the pan is getting a little dry, add a little splash of water.

Pop the rice on when the chicken starts to cook.

Once the chicken has cooked through add the fish sauce, sugar and kaffir lime leaves and cook for another few minutes.

Meanwhile, pop the green beans in a microwaveable bowl, pour over 1 tbsp of water and microwave for 2 minutes. Drain and then add to the curry. Stir in the green beans and simmer for another minute.

Finish with the juice of ¼ of the lime and stir through some fresh basil (Thai basil if you can get it).

Serve the curry on top of the rice with a quarter of lime for squeezing.

Enjoy!

The post Thai Chicken Panang Curry – 13sp including rice first appeared on Slimming Kitchen Secrets.