There are sev­er­al vari­a­tions of cur­ry fish, how­ev­er, to­day I will share the fried ver­sion. It’s re­quires a lit­tle more work, but to­tal­ly worth the steps to de­vel­op each in­di­vid­ual lay­er of flavour and achieve per­fec­tion.

In this ver­sion of cur­ried fish, the fish is first mar­i­nat­ed with green sea­son­ing and gar­lic. It is then light­ly floured and fried. Af­ter fry­ing, the fish is sim­mered in a fra­grant and fla­vor­ful cur­ry sauce which de­vel­ops its fla­vors from tart green man­go, toma­to, ochro, pi­men­to pep­pers and herbs in­clud­ing thyme, scal­lion, band­ha­nia. The re­sult is fiery (if you so de­sire), fra­grant and rich with fla­vors. The ten­der fish and it’s sen­sa­tion­al sauce poured over rice, corn, flour or cas­sa­va dumplings or boiled ground pro­vi­sions makes it a fill­ing and grat­i­fy­ing ex­pe­ri­ence.

To wash and sea­son fish

3 lbs fish steaks or small whole fish, (king fish, carite, red snap­per, croak­er, cat­fish, cut­lass)

Juice of a lemon, to wash fish

3 tbs green sea­son­ing

6 cloves gar­lic, minced

1 ½ tsp salt

To fry

2-3 cups of oil, for fry­ing

To cur­ry

6 leaves band­ha­nia

6 cloves gar­lic

Hot pep­per, sliced, to taste

3 pi­men­to pep­pers, op­tion­al

1/3 cup ex­tra vir­gin olive oil

1 onion, sliced and di­vid­ed

Hot pep­per slices, op­tion­al

4 tbs cur­ry pow­der

½ cup wa­ter

½ large green man­go, cut in­to thin strips, op­tion­al

4 sprigs thyme

1 toma­to, chopped

1 cup ochro, sliced (about 6)

Salt & pep­per, to taste

To fin­ish

1 scal­lion, chopped, op­tion­al

2 leaves cu­lantro, chopped, op­tion­al

Pi­men­to pep­per, chopped, op­tion­al

Di­rec­tions

1) Clean and rinse fish with cold wa­ter and the juice of a lemon; re­mov­ing scales and oth­er un­de­sir­ables.  If you are us­ing whole fish, cut each fish in­to two pieces (op­tion­al) or make di­ag­o­nal cuts on the sides. Drain.

2) Sea­son fish with green sea­son­ing (pre made) and salt. Mar­i­nate for a min­i­mum of 1 hr or overnight cov­ered in the re­frig­er­a­tor. If you don’t have pre made green sea­son­ing, just make a larg­er quan­ti­ty of the sea­son­ing blend be­low (add 3 scal­lions if you wish).

3) When ready to cook, re­move the sea­soned fish from the re­frig­er­a­tor and bring to room temp.

To make the sea­son­ing paste to add dur­ing the cook­ing process, mince band­ha­nia, gar­lic, hot and pi­men­to pep­pers in a food proces­sor or mor­tar and pes­tle. Set aside.

Heat oil in a wide saucepan over medi­um heat. Add onion (and hot pep­per if us­ing) and cook un­til edges be­come brown.

4) Add cur­ry pow­der, cook for 2 mins and then add ½ cup wa­ter and cook for 3-5 min­utes un­til the wa­ter has evap­o­rat­ed and the cur­ry is fra­grant and grainy.

5) Add man­go, if us­ing, re­main­der of the onion, sea­son­ing paste, hot pep­per and stir fry for a minute. Add 1 cup wa­ter and cook for an­oth­er 3-5 min­utes or un­til the man­go soft­ens and the wa­ter sep­a­rates from the oil.

6) Add 2-3 cups more of wa­ter, salt and stir well to mix. Bring to a boil and add fried fish pieces, okra and toma­toes. Add chopped scal­lion, pi­men­to and band­ha­nia to fin­ish and test for salt. Do not turn fish, but pour sauce over the fish in a bast­ing mo­tion dur­ing the en­tire process. Bring to a boil, re­duce heat and sim­mer for 7-10 min­utes, or un­til the sauce thick­ens slight­ly.

Video Tu­to­r­i­al:

How to make Cur­ry Fish and Man­go

Recipes and words by Cook­ing with Ria

I love mak­ing peo­ple hap­py and the best way I know how is with food. I be­lieve a plate of food is a cat­a­lyst for change and the ul­ti­mate ex­pres­sion of love and kind­ness. I am a Trinida­di­an (Tri­ni), orig­i­nal­ly from a small vil­lage in Cen­tral Trinidad. I moved to NYC more than 25 years ago in search of the Amer­i­can dream. I’ve al­ways made the ex­tra ef­fort to pre­serve my cul­ture and cui­sine and my blog and chan­nel is a re­sult of that pas­sion. I tru­ly hope you en­joy this recipe I’ve spent years per­fect­ing. If you wish to see more of my recipes, join me here the last Wednes­day of every month and con­nect with me on So­cial Me­dia.

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