Thursday, May 21, 2009

CEIMB - Thai Style Bocourti with Coconut Curry Broth


My mother is from Malaysia and my father is English. I love curry (and steak and kidney pies) and grew up eating this and other glorious malay food. I only wish i could cook malay food like my mum can. So its no surprise that when i told Mum i'd be cooking a thai fish curry she looked skeptical. You see, as well as being hopeless at cooking malay cuisine, i'm not fond of fish. I love shellfish, but not fish. I'm not allergic, its just that i don't like a strong tasting or smelling fish, and i don't like it cooked soft. It has to be really done before i'll eat it - no sashimi for me!

Its funny how things have different names in different countries. I don't know how many times i have an ingredient list in hand and i'm walking around the supermarket looking for something only to find its called something else. I had no idea what cilantro was and figured it was some sort of vegetable. The supermarket staff didn't know so i had to call my husband and he didn't know, but he did google it for me. Ahh... coriander. I did know it, just by a different name. Here are some others, eggplant - aubergine, capsicum - peppers, scallions - spring onions. THere are more but i can't think of them right now.

Only a couple of changes, i couldn't find light coconut milk so just used normal, and the halibut was a little expensive so i bought bocourti fish instead. Also, i didn't steam the baby spinach, i just added this into the sauce.



Mum did keep a watchful eye over me and was concerned a couple of times. Apparently there are different kinds of curry powder for meat and for fish. Well i didn't know (i bought the meat curry powder), oh well. She also said that tamarind would be a much better sour taste than the lime juice. She was also wondering where the chillies were. A curry with no chilli, she couldn't believe it. I had to add a teaspoon of sugar as the sauce was just too sour.

I really liked this, mum did too but she did say it would be much better with some chilli, i agree :)
The fish was good, firm and boneless (thank goodness). I really enjoyed it.



Big thanks are due to Liz from The Not So Skinny Kitchen for this great choice. Please check out her blog and her recipes, i think i'm going to try and make her cinnamon crumb cake :)

13 comments:

Leslie said...

Great call to add the spinach in with the broth! How nice to have your mom there to give suggestions. We loved this one, too!

What's for Supper? said...

It looks great!

Sara said...

Looks fabulous. Glad you enjoyed it, fish and all.

Anonymous said...

I agree that the recipe could use some heat; not having curry before, I was under the impression that the curry was spicy. I would definitely like to experiment with it more in the future, especially making it spicy. I really like your idea of adding the spinach to the broth! I'm not a fan of spinach, but I bet that gives it more flavor.

Anonymous said...

Looks great. I love your mothers input. She questioned just the right things and next time... I'd go with her suggestions. Didn't know about the curry powder variation though.

Aggie said...

I like how you added the shrimp right to the sauce, I was thinking too that would be good. Where were the chilis! Was thinking the same thing...I needed heat for sure! Yours looks great!

Pamela said...

Looks wonderful. I didn't have any spinach, but if I did I would have tossed it into the sauce, too. Great job!

nick said...

It appears as though yours came out great!

Also this:

"I had no idea what cilantro was and figured it was some sort of vegetable"

Made me yearn for a simpler time when I didn't know what that God awful disease of an herb was too...

Marthe said...

I have never heared of bocourti fish... I used chicken instead of fish and absolutely loved this dish!!!

Maria said...

What a tasty meal!

Mary Ann said...

Looks delicious! I am glad that you liked it.

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