Cod and Chickpea Coconut Milk Curry, Pil Pil Style, made with SN2

A rich curry sauce that draws the savour out of cod slowly, pil pil style. Springy texture. A winter spice curry.

SPICE CURRY SPICE PACK [Spice Curry Spice Pack Symphony No.2 / SN2] makes this Cod and Chickpea Coconut Milk Curry, Pil Pil Style.

Pil pil is a traditional dish of the Basque Country in Spain. Cod is cooked slowly in olive oil over a long time, drawing out its savour and its gelatine. It is delicious, and it goes rather well with a drink. We wanted to take that pil pil method, which leaves nothing of the cod’s flavour behind, and build a good fish spice curry on it. It worked, and the result is a fine plate of food.

When your spice curry turns out watery Are the whole spices in the starter bag meant to be eaten? Which spice do you add when you want more heat?

Ingredients (serves 4)

• SN2 / starter spices (the bag of whole spices): 1 bag
• SN2 / powder spices (the bag of ground spices): 1 bag
• Onion: 1
• Tomato: 1
• Garlic: about 2 cloves, sliced
• Cod: about 200–300g (we used the supermarket fillet cuts)
• Chickpeas: 1 can
• Nam pla (Thai fish sauce): 2 tsp (soy sauce also works)
• Coconut milk: 200ml
• Water: 100ml
• Extra virgin olive oil: enough in the pan to half-submerge the cod fillets. Too much and the dish turns oily, so take care.
• Lemon: to taste (use as you like if you want more acidity)
• Coriander: to taste (use as you like as a topping)

Preparation

• Slice the garlic
• Slice the onion (halve it, halve those again, then slice)
• Cut the tomato into rough chunks
• If the cod has bones, remove them, and rub in a little salt (not counted in the quantities above).

Method

This time you use a pan and a frying pan to make the cod pil pil and the spice curry sauce separately, then bring them together at the end. Both take about the same length of time, so work on them side by side if you can.

Making the spice curry sauce

1. Put the olive oil in a frying pan over high heat, and once the oil has warmed, add the onion and cook for about 12 minutes until amber, splashing in water as you go.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Once it is amber, add the tomato, cook it down to a paste and stir everything together.
   
   
   
   
   
3. Once it has become a thick paste, add about two thirds of the powder spices and cook them in, thinking of it as cooking the powder itself through.
   
   

   Holding a little of the powder back and adding it at the end gives you a curry with the aroma of the spices standing out.

   
   
   
   
   
4. That is the sauce done. Take it off the heat.
   
   

Making the cod pil pil

1. Put the extra virgin olive oil (enough to half-submerge the cod fillets) in a pan over low heat, and once the oil has warmed, add the starter spices (the bag of whole spices).
   
   
   
   
2. When bubbles start to fizz up from the fennel (the green seeds), add the sliced garlic and cook for about 60 seconds.
   
   
   
   
3. Add the cod and warm it slowly over very low heat. Keep it at the point where white foam and liquid come popping out of the cod skin. If it gets too hot, lift the pan off the heat to bring the temperature down.
   
   

   Very low heat is the key. You are agitating the cod’s moisture and the olive oil into an emulsion, and the cod’s gelatine sets the sauce.

   
   
   
   
4. Cook the cod for about 15 minutes over very low heat, then lift it out of the pan for the moment.
   
   
   
   
5. Stir the olive oil and the juices left in the pan well with cooking chopsticks until they emulsify properly. (As you stir, it gradually turns cloudy white and sets.)
   
   
6. Add the spice curry sauce you made in the other pan and stir it in.
   
   
   
   
   
7. Add the chickpeas: 1 can, nam pla: 2 tsp (soy sauce also works), coconut milk: 200ml, water: 100ml and the remaining powder spices, stir them in, set it over medium heat, and once it comes to the boil, lower the heat to low and return the cod to the pan.
   
   
   
   
   
   
8. Cover the pan and simmer for 3 minutes, and it is done.
   Taste it, and if it needs more salt, adjust with salt.

A squeeze of lemon adds a freshness against the richness of the sauce, and we recommend it. Finish with coriander or black pepper as you like.

Inspice spice curry spice sets contain none of the chilli, cayenne or red pepper that usually carries the heat, so add as much as you like to suit your taste.