Keralan Style Fish & Butternut Squash Curry

Serves: 2
Calories: 319 per serving (with my exact food weights)

(sorry, not a great photo)

This dish is like a fish chowder but with a good kick of spice and very aromatic. I love Keralan dishes, especially with fish.

As with my previous recipe, I have rounded up or down the measurements but have also included in brackets, if different, the exact measurements I used for the calorie account above.

If I was to award this dish a number of chillies out of 3 to indicate spiciness, I’d probably go with 2 but you can easily adjust the level of spice to suit your own tastes.

I also used frozen haddock but you can use any firm white fish (skinned & boned), frozen or fresh. King prawns would also be nice. If you use fresh fish, just hold off adding it to the dish for a further 5 minutes and for prawns, I’d recommend using raw and adding 5 minutes before the end.

Ingredients:

250g Frozen haddock (not smoked) cut into inch size chunks
200ml reduced fat/light coconut milk (we used Kingfisher – different makes have different calorie count)
330g Butternut squash, peeled & cut into bite size chunks (328g)
6 cherry tomatoes, halved
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 green chilli, seeds removed & finely chopped
1 flat tsp/10g of easy ginger paste (can use fresh ginger)
1 clove of garlic
1 tbsp dried curry leaves
1/2 tsp chilli powder
flat tsp turmeric
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
8 sprays of sunflower fry-light
Cup of spinach (sorry I forgot to weigh it)
10 spears of asparagus

Spray a saucepan with the fry-light and, when hot, add the mustard seeds. When they start to pop add in the curry leaves, shallot, garlic, ginger and chillies. Fry while stirring until shallot is soft then add the butternut squash.

Tip: you need to keep stirring if you are using fry-light and on a lowish heat otherwise the oil evaporates and the ingredients burn

Mix the chilli powder & turmeric with a little water to form a paste then add to the pan. Stir for another 3-5 minutes then add the cherry tomatoes, the coconut milk then the fish.

Tip: I poured the coconut milk into the vessel I used to mix up the paste to not waste any of the spices

If the sauce is a little shallow add some water, I added approx.. 100mls.

Bring to the boil then simmer for 15 minutes or until the squash is soft.

Stir in the spinach then serve.

I served with the steamed asparagus (included in the calorie count), mainly because it was in the fridge and needed using but it worked together quite nicely. Feel free to substitute for your own preferred veg if you wish but remember to check the calorie count. If not keeping to a calorie controlled diet, you could probably share this between 3 and add rice.

If you try this dish (whether dieting or not, I’d love to hear how it went so please comment).