Curried Fish

More Lenten goodness, in what I imagine to be a kind of South Indian style.

The fish is bronzini coated in mixture of curry powder, turmeric, fenugreek, cumin, ginger powder, coriander, salt, pepper, and a little canola oil to make all those spices into a thick paste.  I never cook fish this way--it's always seemed to me that this kind of treatment was somewhat disrespectful to a nice piece of fresh seafood.  Normally it's just salt and pepper and maybe a bit of coriander--I figured heavy spicing was for the less fresh stuff--but it's clear I've been missing out on a really good thing.  The spice mixture formed an almost breading like crust that complimented the flavor from the super fresh fillet (from Kate's . . . always from Kate's) while makings things texturally interesting and keeping it all kind of healthy.

For cooking it was pretty simple too.  Super hot pan with some canola oil (a generous amount) and a pat of butter.  The fish went in skin side down while the flesh side got pressed down with a flat pot lid to crisp up the skin (the sizzling oil made it tough to press down on the fish with bare hands).  About two minutes on the skin side and another maybe two minutes on the flesh side and the fish was perfect.  The spice paste protected the fish from the intense heat while frying the ground spices at the same time.

For veg, it's a cauliflower curry.  First some onions got sweated in olive oil with salt and pepper, then in went curry powder, cumin seeds, ground cumin, ground coriander, and a bit of minced garlic.  Then in went some crushed canned tomatoes and fresh cauliflower with a little more salt.  That got covered and simmered for about 15 minutes while being stirred every now and again to break things up.

Really nice, healthy, quick meal.  Could have used a squeeze of lime, but it wasn't worth a trip to the store.  All in all, a whole new way to cook fish over here, and not disrespectful at all.