One of the three…

I don’t recall ever using this one…

…out of the three in their somewhat limited range of instant curry pastes, just the one for meat and the one for rendang. My missus did use it a number of times before though – for her fish head curry. She would buy the head of the ang chor (red snapper) for this and yes, it was very nice and could easily give the ones at the restaurants here, there and everywhere a run for the money.

I did not feel like having the head that day and there was this ikan tenggiri (bay kar/mackerel)…

…in the freezer, not a very big one but that was enough for the two of us for lunch and in the evening for dinner when my girl came home for the weekend.

As always, everytime we use the instant paste, these would the added ingredients…

– one Bombay onion, peeled and finely chopped, a few stalk of serai (lemon grass) and a few sprigs of curry leaves.

I went and bought these…

…that one would usually find in a dish of fish head curry at a restaurant – some ladies’ fingers, brinjal, pineapples, bean curd sticks and tofu puffs. I think they do add long beans at some places too but I did not feel like having any that day.

I fried the chopped onion in a bit of oil…

…before adding the serai and the leaves from one sprig of the curry leaves…

…and the instant paste…

Since it was not a very big fish, I just used half a packet and stored the rest in the freezer for use at a later date.

After adding a bit of water, I put in the head and tail of the fish and the vegetables…

I did not put in the rest of the fish for fear that it would disintegrate in the course of the simmering to cook the vegetables.

When I felt that the vegetables were more or less cooked, I added the pineapples, the bean curd sticks and the tofu puffs…and also the rest of the fish and curry leaves…

…before adding santan (coconut milk), half a can of it, to the gravy.

After bringing it back to boil, it was done…

…so I just dished it out and served…

I guess it could do with a nicer presentation but since it was solely for our own home consumption, I did  not bother about it. What would be more important would be the taste and yes, it was good. My girl, when she had it for dinner that evening, remarked, “Very nice curry, dad!” and that sure made up for all the effort that I put into cooking it.