A New Beginning...: Fish Curry

It has been a while since I cooked anything Malaysian. With all the farewells and birthdays the past few weeks, I have been eating out quite a bit. Since most places serve extra large servings, that also means lots of left-overs for the week day or just eating simple stuff if it gets too busy at work.

Today, was in the mood to cook something 'home-cook'. First, what is in the fridge? Tomatoes and okra! (surprise, surprise, okra is in the same family with hibiscus!! Hmmm...wonder in what sense..). Okra is more commonly known as 'Lady's Fingers' (Malay: kacang bendi/Hokkien: or gui tao, which literally translates to black ghost nuts) to M'sians. Am not a big fan of slimy vegetables (ie. squash) but okra is actually one of my favorite vege!

I have always thought that okra is a Chinese ingredient as it is very common in our household. I tried to explain it to Fan, who is from China, but she could not picture it at all. Just remembered about the conversation with Fan a while ago when I was talking to mum and found out that it is not available in China as a 'regular' vegetable at all. According to Wikipedia, it originated in the Middle Eastern countries and was introduced to US at the SouthEast. As for why we have it, it is well likely to be from the Portugese influence (or not?). Anyway, even if it is not found in China, they still have a name for it - 秋葵(qiu1 kui2). I wonder if the hokkien 'gui' is actually from the mandarin 葵 instead of the 鬼.

Next, what is the best way to cook okra and tomatoes? Fish curry! So off I went to Goodrich to get fish! Back at home...

First stir-fry the okra (with the head removed) and tomatoes (quartered) with the curry paste. Used my last packet of A1 Fish Curry paste. With such products, cooking curry in US is soooo simple and quick!

When the tomato and okra is very well stir-fried into the sauce, I added some water and coconut milk. The fish is then added last because it is typically the fastest to be cooked.