Jack Mackerel (Tinned Fish) Curry

The tinned fish or canned jack mackerel is a staple part of many a Sri Lankan's diet. Mainly because it is inexpensive, has a lot of flavour packed into it and can be made into a quick, satisfying meal accompaniment. There are many iterations of this dish that I personally grew up with. There's the "thel daala" version which is the dry fry, there's the cold salad version, the sandwich filling version, and my favourite, the curry. Funnily enough, jack mackerel is referred to as salmon in Sri Lanka. We call it "salmon thel dala" or "salmon curry". I brought this question up on Twitter several months ago and several helpful tweets brought to light that in pre 1960s times, salmon was the fish of choice for canning. However, through capitalism and cost cutting means, salmon was eventually replaced with the cheaper jack mackerel, but the misnomer stuck.

Of all the excellent curries my mother used to cook, this one was definitely a favourite. Her rendition was always so flavoursome and moreish and I just couldn't stop myself from eating an entire bowl if it was served in front of me. Many a time my mother has hand to slap my hand away from over eating this without leaving any behind for my sister. Whilst I do believe that all tinned fish curries are delicious, I am very particular about how I like mine made. I am not a fan of anything that smells too fishy, so I take a lot of steps to ensure that this doesn't smell too strong. So here are a few notes before we begin.

Recipe notes:

Washing and cleaning the fish: This sounds very odd but I do actually run the fish under cold water in a sieve to wash off the flaky bits of skin, and I remove the bony bits. Many people don't and that's fine, but this is what I prefer to do to get rid of the fishy smell. I also really don't like the bones in there, so I remove them.

Brining liquid: Do not throw the brine in the can away when you drain the fish! This is what adds a lot of depth of flavour to the sauce.

Fish sauce: Not an essential ingredient but honestly this adds so much zip and zing to the curry sauce, and I highly recommend using this!

Spiciness: If you want to make this super spicy, use only 150ml of thin coconut milk, add 150ml water and add 2 tbs of chilie flakes instead of 3 tsp of chilie flakes but use the same amount of chilie powder. All teaspoon measurements are STANDARD measured teaspoons, no dessert spoons or serving spoons. This curry is meant to be on the spicier side but you can adjust the chilie to your liking.

Recipe video below!

Ingredients

• 1 can of jack mackerel, drained and cleaned to your preference

• 1 medium onion, chopped

• 4 cloves garlic, chopped

• 1 cm piece of ginger, crushed

• 1 sprig curry leaves

• 2 cm pandan leaf

• 1 large or 2 medium green chilies, sliced

• 2 banana capsicums sliced (optional)

• 1 medium tomato, chopped

• 1 lime, juiced

• 1/2 stalk lemongrass, bruised

• 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds

• 4 cardmom pods

• 3 tsp red chilie flakes

• 3 tsp chilie powder

• 2 tsp black pepper

• 1 tsp tumeric

• 2 tsp unroasted curry powder

• 1 tbs fish sauce

• 300ml thin coconut milk

• 2-3 tbs oil

• Brine from can

• Salt to taste

Method

Prep all the ingredients and heat up a sauce pan or clay pot with oil. Add in the hard aromats such as ginger, garlic, pandan, curry leaf, lemongrass, green chilie, cardamom and fenugreek and fry off until the smell emanates.

Next add in the onions and fry for 2-3 minutes until lovely and translucent.

Add in all of the spices to the softened onions and fry off the spices really well without letting them burn in the pan. A lot of recipes add the fish in at this stage. I prefer to add the fish pieces to the broth because there's less damage you can do to the delicate fish if you're stirring it in a liquid base than a dry base.

Add in the brining liquid from the can as well as the fish sauce next, and cook until the water in the pan starts to bubble ferociously.

Next, add in 3/4 of the tomato, and the coconut milk. Bring up to a boil, constantly stirring as you go.

Once the sauce is at a boil, place the fish pieces into the sauce carefully. After this point, you need to stir the curry very gently because you don't want the fish to disintegrate. If possible, only agitate the top half of the surface of the liquid and don't actually stir the curry.

Gently agitate the sauce with a spoon. Let this cook on high for about ten minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Check for salt and other seasoning -- you may need more even if you've used the fish sauce. At this stage, add the rest of the tomato and banana peppers (if using) and cook for a further 8 minutes or so, or until the peppers have cooked, which takes about five minutes or so. The turn off the heat and add lime juice. Mix well with as much gentleness as you can, and check for salt one last time. And that's it. You're done!

And that's that! How easy was that! This can be served with rice, of course, as well as rotis, pittu, bread and milk rice!