Recipes › Tomato (Beefsteak) › Beefsteak Tomato and Coconut Fish Curry
Beefsteak Tomato and Coconut Fish Curry
Thick wedges of beefsteak tomato collapse into a rich, gently spiced coconut broth with flaky white fish, making a curry that tastes deeply considered but comes together in under thirty minutes. The tomatoes do the heavy lifting here — their juices meld with coconut milk to form a sauce you will want to mop up with flatbread. A weeknight staple for late summer when the tomatoes are at their most flavourful.
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Ingredients
- 800 g beefsteak tomatoes, cut into thick wedges
- 600 g firm white fish fillets (cod, haddock or pollock), cut into 5cm chunksor use sustainable prawns, added for the last 3 minutes only
- 400 ml coconut milk
- 1 onion, finely diced
- 4 garlic cloves, finely grated
- 3 cm fresh ginger, finely grated
- 1 green chilli, thinly sliced
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil
- 1 tsp ground cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- ½ tsp ground turmeric
- ½ tsp kashmiri chilli powderor use mild paprika for less heat
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 1 tbsp fish sauceor use soy sauce for a pescatarian-friendly option
- 1 lime, juiced
- 20 g fresh coriander, roughly torn (optional)
Contains: fish, milk, mustard, nuts.
Method
- Set a wide, deep frying pan or sauté pan over a medium-high heat. Add the vegetable oil and, once hot, tip in the mustard seeds. Let them pop and splutter for about 30 seconds, then add the diced onion. Cook, stirring regularly, for 5 minutes until softened and lightly golden at the edges.About 6 min
- Add the grated garlic, ginger and green chilli to the pan. Stir constantly for 1 minute until fragrant — the mix should smell toasty rather than raw.About 1 min
- Add the ground cumin, ground coriander, turmeric and kashmiri chilli powder. Stir everything together for 30 seconds so the spices coat the onion and bloom in the residual oil.About 1 min
- Tip in the beefsteak tomato wedges and the salt. Stir to coat in the spiced onion base, then leave to cook undisturbed for 3 minutes so the tomatoes begin to collapse and release their juice.About 3 min
- Pour in the coconut milk and fish sauce. Stir gently to combine, bring to a steady simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low.About 2 min
- Nestle the fish chunks into the sauce in a single layer. Do not stir — just spoon a little sauce over the top of each piece. Simmer gently for 5 minutes, or until the fish is just cooked through and flakes easily when pressed with a spoon. Do not overcook.About 5 min
- Squeeze over the lime juice and taste for seasoning. Scatter with fresh coriander if using and serve immediately with steamed basmati rice or warm flatbreads.
Tips
- Use the ripest, most fragrant beefsteak tomatoes you can find — underripe tomatoes make a thin, acidic sauce. If yours are not fully ripe, add a pinch of caster sugar with the salt in step 4.
- Do not be tempted to stir the fish once it is in the pan. Letting it sit undisturbed means it holds together as it cooks rather than breaking into scrappy flakes.
- Fish sauce adds a deep savoury backbone without any fishy flavour. Do not skip it — but add it to the sauce before the fish goes in so the heat takes the sharp edge off.
Ring the changes
- Swap the white fish for 500g of raw tiger prawns, added for only the final 3 minutes of cooking.
- For a vegetarian version, replace the fish with 400g of drained chickpeas and the fish sauce with 1 tbsp of soy sauce or tamari — add both with the coconut milk and simmer for 8 minutes.
Keeping it
Store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 2 days. Reheat gently over a low heat — do not boil or the fish will turn rubbery. Not suitable for freezing once the fish is in.
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