About this recipe
A whole large fish head simmered in a South-Indian-style tamarind-and-coconut curry with okra, aubergine and tomato, red with chilli and dried spices and sharp with tamarind. It is a Singapore dish born from Indian Singaporean cooking — the fish head, a cut prized for its gelatinous cheeks and collar, treated with the curry techniques of a South Indian kitchen — and it is not a generic fish curry. The head is the point: the cheek meat and the soft collar are the best eating, and the dish is served to be shared with rice or bread.
Recipe facts
- Yield
- 4 servings
- Prep
- 30 minutes
- Cook
- 40 minutes
- Total
- 70 minutes
- Difficulty
- Advanced
- Spice
- Hot
Allergens Contains fish and coconut; may contain shellfish if belacan is used (it is not, here). Halal as written; contains no pork or alcohol. Not vegetarian.
Development draft. This is an untested development recipe from the cookbook project. It has not been kitchen-tested, and the quantities and timings are the author’s working draft rather than a verified result.
Ingredients
The fish
- 1 large fish head, about 2 lb (900 g), from a red snapper or grouper, cleaned and halved
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground turmeric
- 1 tsp (6 g) salt
The curry base
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) neutral oil or coconut oil
- 1 tsp (3 g) black mustard seeds
- 1 tsp (2 g) fenugreek seeds
- 12 fresh curry leaves
- 2 onions, sliced
- 6 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 in (5 cm) fresh ginger, minced
- 3 tbsp (24 g) fish or meat curry powder
- 1 tbsp (8 g) chilli powder, or to taste
- 1 tsp (2 g) ground turmeric
- 3 ripe tomatoes, quartered
- 3 tbsp (45 ml) tamarind concentrate, or 1/3 cup (80 ml) thick tamarind water
- 2 cups (475 ml) water
- 1 1/2 cups (360 ml) coconut milk
- 1 1/2 tsp (9 g) salt, or to taste
The vegetables
- 8 okra, trimmed
- 1 Asian aubergine, cut into wedges
- 2 fresh green chillies, slit
To serve
- Steamed rice, or roti / French loaf for mopping
- Lime wedges
Equipment
- Large wide pot or claypot, at least 6 qt (5.7 L)
- Small pan for the tempering
- Blender or spice grinder
Method
- Rub the halved fish head all over with the 1 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp salt and set aside 15 minutes.
- Heat the oil in the wide pot over medium heat. Add the mustard and fenugreek seeds and let them pop and colour, 30 seconds, then add the curry leaves and stand back — they spit.
- Add the sliced onions and cook 6-8 minutes until soft and golden, then the garlic and ginger and cook 2 minutes more.
- Stir in the curry powder, chilli powder and turmeric and fry 1-2 minutes until the raw spice smell goes and the paste darkens; add a splash of water if it catches.
- Add the tomatoes and cook 4 minutes until they collapse, then the tamarind, the 2 cups water and the 1 1/2 tsp salt. Bring to a simmer and cook 8 minutes to build the gravy.
- Add the okra, aubergine and slit green chillies and simmer 5 minutes, until the vegetables are nearly tender.
- Slide in the fish head, spooning gravy over it. Cover and simmer gently 10-12 minutes, until the cheek meat is opaque and pulls easily and the collar is soft. Do not stir hard or the head will break up.
- Pour in the coconut milk and warm through 2-3 minutes without boiling hard. Taste and adjust salt and tamarind — it should be sour, hot and savoury.
- Carry the pot to the table and serve with rice or bread and lime wedges, letting people take cheek meat, collar and vegetables from the shared pot.
The Complete Edition
Fish Head Curry sits in the Singapore chapter
The book carries this recipe in full alongside the rest of the Singapore chapter, the pastes and dips it is built on, and the twenty-seven pantry studies that open the collection.
In review with Amazon KDP
Both editions have been submitted to Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing and are currently in review. Submitted prices are $9.99 for the kindle edition and $49.99 for the paperback. Neither is on sale yet, and prices are as submitted rather than final.