I know, I didn’t blog on Friday. Put it down to a moment of madness. Being Malaysia, the kids didn’t have the day off but we did! Can you imagine? A morning and part-afternoon alone with my husband? We haven’t had time together like that for a couple of years now. So we made the most of it by having breakfast outside together, then doing some leisurely shopping before heading home in time for the school bus to drop off our kids. It was sheer bliss. But that meant I missed Friday’s blog. So, without further ado, here it is ….

We’ve been letting the kids help us cook off and on for the past few years now. But only recently, J and I took the decision to get a bit more systematic about this, recognising that we’ve perhaps been a little too protective of our darlings in the kitchen. To this end, The Wast cooked his first curry on the weekend. It’s very simple and tastes lovely … and will hopefully encourage him to become a bit more adventurous in his own culinary adventures, although I really can’t complain — he already reaches for the chilli sauce in restaurants now instead of the tomato sauce (ketchup). So, if you’d like a dead-easy curry recipe, here’s one for you too.

Oil
1 large onion, halved and sliced into half-rings
1 teaspoon black mustard seeds
Small handful of curry leaves
8 small to medium okra, washed and trimmed but left whole
3 whole chillies (serrano or jalapeno work well) Optional
1 pouch fish curry paste
1 oval tin of sardines in tomato sauce (around 400g)

1. Heat oil in pan. Add onions, mustard seeds and curry leaves. Stir. Be careful as the mustard seeds will pop.
2. When onions are soft, add okra and, if using, chillies. Stir-fry for a few minutes.
3. Add curry paste and mix vegetables in this. If you find the mix too thick, add up to a cup of water to make the gravy thinner.
4. Simmer, with lid on, for 6-8 minutes.
5. Open tin of sardines and add juice to the simmering curry. Stir.
6. Switch off the heat. Carefully add sardines to the curry, being careful not to break the fish. Replace saucepan lid to let fish warm through in the curry sauce.
7. Keep in the fridge overnight after cooling. Heat the next day and have with the flat bread of your preference, preferably for breakfast.

Here’s a picture of it:

If you can’t source pouches of curry paste, use curry powder. Mix two to three tablespoons of powder with enough water to form a paste. You may have noticed that I haven’t mentioned salt at all. The amount you use depends on the paste/powder. If I find a curry needs salt, I add it either while cooling down after cooking or while warming up before serving for the first time. (I’m careful with salt because J has high blood pressure.) Also, ALL my curries are made the day before they’re eaten.