Seafood Masala in no time

My food memories are filled with simple items being turned into something special. To date one of my favourite quick easy meals is a smoor, tomato based curry flavoured sauce. In collaboration with Lucky Star (visit their FB page here), I get to stretch my recipe chops and show you that there's more to a can of Lucky Star Pilchards than putting them on a piece of toast. 

Taking the Lucky Star Pilchards smoor up a notch and turning it into a wonderful seafood masala.

Now to get down to it!

Ingredients:

1 Can Lucky Star Pilchards in tomato sauce

1/2 Can of Lucky Star mussels in oil (optional)

1/2 small onion finely chopped

1 tsp chopped garlic

1 tsp grated ginger

1 hot chili deseeded and sliced

1 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp garam masala

1/2 tin coconut milk

small handful of chopped fresh coriander leaves

1 tbsp olive oil

Salt and a squeeze of lemon for seasoning

Preparation time: 10 minutes (I chop slowly)

Cooking time: 23 minutes

Serves: 2 big portions and 4 small portions.

Method:

• Heat a medium sized saucepan on medium heat, add the olive oil and saute the onions till translucent about 5 minutes. 

• Then add the fragrants; garlic, ginger and chilli saute for a further 3 minutes until the onions start to colour. 

• Add the dry spices; ground cumin, ground coriander and the garam masala mix thoroughly and allow the heat to build the flavour for a minute, add a little bit of water if the pan is too dry. 

• Add the can of pilchards in tomato sauce and the coconut milk to the masala mix. Bring to a simmer for 5 minutes then reduce heat and slow simmer for another 5 minutes. 

• Stir occasionally and lightly so as not to break up the pilcahards

• Add the mussels, salt  & a squeeze of lemon to taste and chopped coriander leaves, turn down the heat and simmer for a final 3 minutes. 

Serve over basmati rice.

Tip 1: I usually add some sugar to all tomato base dishes to balance the acidity. In this case I don't because the tomato sauce is quite sweet so adding sugar is not necessary.

Tip 2: If you prefer more heat feel free to leave the seeds in the chilli

Happy Eating In!