Vegetable & fish curry
grownandgathered
As I write this, I am sitting on the banks of a river (terrified I am going to get sand in my computer, not going to lie). It's just us (Matt, me and Pepper), a fire-pit and our little van behind me.
We hit the road a week or two ago, as a part of our plan for 2017 to start to take things a bit slower, to be more present and make sure we are only doing things we care about everyday.
Since being on the road it's taken me 3 hours to make and eat breakfast + coffee daily, and I have realised that I am not a morning person - and I don't care. We have also taken up playing squash (you know, that game from the 80's where you hit a small not-so-bouncy ball against a wall?), I have started taking photos with my film camera again, swimming often, and our meals have been increasingly inventive based on what we have at the time. Turns out these are the things I care about.
At any one time in the car, our food consists of a mixture of: food from the farm (preserves, ferments, and other stable foods such as - potatoes, pumpkins etc); vegetables/fruit/eggs from the roadside, a local market we pass by or a friends garden; and local/seasonal foods from wherever we are (if we are at the ocean, we eat fish, in the tropics, we eat coconuts - you catch the drift).
We just hit the northern coast of NSW, and it's all about oysters, fish and sub-tropical fruits. It's hot, and perfectly, this is what our bodies are craving. So we got some fish, coconut (not quite that far north but this is about as close as we're gonna get this trip!) and limes (turns out there really aren't lemons around here, it's all about the limes!) locally, we had some pumpkin and spices from the farm, our friends gave us loads of tomatoes and chillies from their garden - and we used it all to make this simple curry. We have made many things on the road, but this is the favourite dish so far.
It's just a well balanced mid-week curry really, a little spicy, a little tangy and full of vegetables. It's a little soupy, so serve with rice, or don't, whatever you please. It's really easy and you should have most of the ingredients at home. Not into meat? Make it vegetarian! And you of course don't need a camp fire - it works just as well on the stove.
Serves 4 // Time approx. 1 hour, 15 min
Recipe.
INGREDIENTS
"Paste"
Good olive oil
7-8cm fresh tumeric, finely chopped
1 bunch (about 12) green onions/shallots, finely chopped
Just the stems from 1 bunch of basil (we'd used most of the leaves in a different dish already!), finely chopped
4 large garlic cloves, crushed
2 teaspoons ground coriander seeds
2 hot thai chillies, finely chopped
A big pinch of freshly ground black pepper
3 pieces of lime skin, about 3-4cm long
The rest
400ml (1 can) of responsibly sourced coconut milk
Juice of 1 lime
1 tablespoon unrefined sugar
A big pinch of unrefined salt
1kg tomatoes, diced if they are large, if they are cherry tomatoes leave them whole
2 medium zucchinis, cut into cubes
1 medium sweet potato, finely sliced
100g (roughly) pumpkin, finely sliced
250ml (1 cup) responsibly sourced coconut water
300-400g (one large) local fish fillet (we used local Mangrove Jack), cut into large chunks
To serve
Fresh basil (any variety)
Rice (optional)
Method
Place a large pot over a medium flame. Add a a big splash of olive oil and all of the "paste" ingredients. Fry for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally and adding oil as needed. Fry until fragrant and just starting to stick.
Add a splash of coconut cream, lime juice, sugar, salt, and a handful of tomatoes. Fry for a further 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add remaining tomatoes, zucchini, sweet potato and pumpkin, fry for another 5 minutes.
Add coconut water and remaining coconut milk, bring to the boil. Reduce to a summer, place the lid on and continue to simmer for about 30 mins - 1 hour, stirring occasionally.
It should now be a bit soupy and have a nice oily layer on the top. Add fish and continue to simmer for about 2-3 minutes until fish is just cooked. Remove from the heat. Season to taste.
Your curry should be soupy and super fragrant. Feel free to add more coconut cream or coconut water if it's not soupy enough for your liking! Serve as is or over rice and tear fresh basil over the top.
P.S. We are giving away 5 DVDs of the movie "Captain Fantastic" which may in fact be our favourite movie ever made! It is about living life, living it well, and living off the land.
All you have to do is head TO THE SHOP PAGE, add an entry to your shopping cart and when you're done shopping, head to the check-out! Easy as.
Movie details: A father devoted to teaching his six kids how to live off-the-grid in the forests of America is forced to bring his family back into mainstream society, challenging his idea of what it means to be a parent. Viggo Mortensen stars in the hilarious and heartfelt Captain Fantastic.
You can watch the trailer/read more about the movie here.