Tony Jackman’s tamarind seafood curry. (Photo: Tony Jackman)
Tamarind and tomato make a fine backdrop for a flavourful seafood curry. Add quality fish stock and the taste of the sea deepens in the pot.
This makes for an easy weeknight supper for friends. You make the cooking broth first, and only add the fish once your guests have arrived.
The broth in which you are to cook the seafood needs some time for the flavours to develop. Onion and garlic add something special to almost every curry, and ginger is an option with those though I did not use any this time.
While fish stock and tomatoes combine to create a flavour profile on which everything else is built, tamarind — a sweet-sour pulp found in the seed pods of the tamarind tree — adds mystery and intrigue to any curry. It is a popular addition to seafood curries both in South India and KwaZulu-Natal and is used widely in Indonesia and Malaysia, yet is less a part of African cuisine than in the East, despite the tree’s origins being African.
You can find tamarind in the spice sections of most supermarkets, in rectangular plastic bags. It has a very long shelf life, or you can store it in the fridge.
Tarmarind is also useful with vegetables dishes, notably aubergines. You can also cook carrots in tamarind juice with herbs and spices, and something sweet to counterbalance it such as orange juice. When I say “tamarind juice” I mean the brown liquid that remains when you dissolve tamarind pulp in water.
As for the spices, I went with modest amounts of chilli powder, cumin, cardamom, fennel, turmeric, methi (fenugreek), cloves and a cinnamon stick. I did not add any chillies, but you can add one or two, chopped, if you like.
The sugar is added to offset the tartness of the tomato and tamarind.
Tony’s weeknight tamarind seafood curry
(Serves 4)
Ingredients
3 Tbsp coconut oil or other flavourless oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
500ml Woolworths concentrated liquid fish stock (3 sachets dissolved in 500ml water), or similar
2 x 400g cans whole peeled tomatoes
2 heaped Tbsp tamarind paste dissolved in 250ml cold water
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cardamom seeds
1 tsp ground fennel
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 cinnamon stick
4 cloves
A handful of dried curry leaves, crushed
1 tsp fenugreek/methi seeds
1 or 2 red chillies, diced (optional)
2 tsp sugar
Salt to taste
250g kingklip, filleted
250g gurnard, filleted
500g cob, filleted
250g calamari rings
6 Argentinian prawns
Chopped coriander to garnish
Method
Remove any pin bones from the fish fillets. Cut them into bite-sized pieces. Snip off the feelers of the prawns and devein them. (Slice down the soft underside of the tail and prise out the “vein”.) Refrigerate the fish, calamari rings and prawns until needed.
Melt coconut oil in a deep, heavy pot and add the onions and garlic; simmer until softened.
Add the fish stock and the cans of tomatoes. Use one of your older, blunt knives to chop up the tomatoes in the pot. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook gently for 10 minutes, covered. Salt to taste.
Remove about 2 large tablespoonsful of the tamarind pulp from its packet and put it in a small container. Add a cup/250ml water and rub the pulp between your fingers until you have a murky little bath of dark brown water. Strain this into the pot through a fine sieve. Discard the bits that remain in the sieve.
Add all the ground spices, the cinnamon stick, cloves and fenugreek seeds. Grab a handful of dried curry leaves and crumble them in with your fingers.
Add the chillies if using and stir in the sugar.
Bring to a boil, then reduce to the lowest heat and put the lid on. Simmer very gently for about half an hour for the flavours to develop.
Leave to cool if your guests are arriving later, or keep the pot warm.
About 45 minutes before you want to serve the dish, add the calamari rings and bring the pot back to the boil. Put the lid on and simmer very gently for 30 to 40 minutes.
Next, add all the fish and the prawns. Push them under the surface of the broth carefully, using a wooden spoon. Return to a simmer, put the lid on and cook gently for 10 minutes.
Taste the broth and adjust the salt if necessary.
Meanwhile, make basmati rice. Serve with basmati rice, garnished with coriander leaves. DM
Tony Jackman is twice winner of the Galliova Food Writer of the Year award, in 2021 and 2023.
Follow Tony Jackman on Instagram @tony_jackman_cooks.
This dish is photographed on a plate by Mervyn Gers Ceramics.