Last updated 17:54, Friday, 08 August 2008

LUXURY fish curry - this is what we refer to as a 'brown' curry.

By that, we mean that is has a traditional style and flavour similar to a masala.

In the first stage of this recipe what you are effectively doing is making your own curry paste.

Once you've tried our version you may decide that you would like to alter the proportions of spices, or even add other ingredients such as fresh chilli if you like things a little bit spicier.

We often use all spice to give our curry a more Caribbean flavour.

There are lots of ways to experiment.

The overall heat of our curry is medium.

If you want to alter this, use either mild curry powder or hot curry powder, depending on your preference.

Once the base of the curry is made, you simply drop the main ingredient into it to simmer in the sauce.

In this case it is fish, but it could just as easily be chicken, another meat or some vegetables.

You could add potatoes and other vegetables to make a one- pot dinner to save on the washing up.

Always a bonus!

Serves 4-6 (or two with leftovers in our house - we are shockingly greedy).

one large onion

two carrots, peeled

two sticks celery

six cloves garlic, peeled

Chop all of the above vegetables very finely. We use a food processor.

To the chopped vegetables add:

three tblsp medium curry powder

one tblsp ground cumin

one tblsp ground corianderone tsp ground ginger

one tsp ground tumeric

Pulse the food processor again to make a sort of paste.

Add a couple of tablespoons of oil to a large saucepan.

Gently fry the vegetable paste in the oil for around 10 minutes.

This will release the flavour from the spices.

Add:

one tblsp tomato puree

100g red lentils

one tblsp mango chutney

two pints of stock (you can use any flavour to suit your dish, we used two

vegetable stock cubes)

This is the base of the curry.

It will need to cook out for around 30 minutes on a medium simmer.

During this time you may need to top it up with a little water if it is reducing too much.

You can use most fish in the curry which means it can be budget conscious if it needs to be.

However, in this case we pushed the boat out and went for a luxury version.

Monkfish would be perfect for the white fish as it has a firm texture that would hold together when undergoing this type of cooking.

six-eight oz salmon, cubed

six-eight oz white fish, cubed

four oz raw king prawns

four oz scallops

Drop the fish into the curry base and simmer until just cooked.

This will take around six minutes.

Resist the temptation to stir it too frequently; it will do fine on its own.

Too much bashing around with a spoon will cause the delicate fish to break up, leaving the appearance shredded and messy.

There's nothing more satisfying than eating big chunks of moist fish.

Add a big handful of chopped coriander and you're ready to go.