Basa Fish Curry with Coconut Milk, and flavored with Curry leaves and Bengali Five spices aka Panch Phoron. How does it sound? Easy or complicated? Well, if you ask me I would say neither as it is not clear to me whether the recipe is easy or not!
Jump to:
Easy Basa Fish Curry
You must be wondering why this particular recipe of Fish curry cooked with Basa fish is easy. The answer, my friend is many-faced. First of all, I do not fry fish while cooking the curry. Secondly, I use easily available ingredients such as store-bought coconut milk, packaged Indian Curry Powder, and Panch Phoron to cook it. Thirdly, I pick a few curry leaves from my kitchen garden and use those. Having a kitchen garden or curry leaves plant is not mandatory though 🙂 .
However, having a small kitchen garden or a balcony garden, or a window garden (if possible) helps a lot if you have a few spice plants over there. Or you can have flowering or decorative plants as well. However, these are personal choices.
Watch how to make Basa Curry Recipe
Quick-fix easy Fish Curry
Let me get back to the easy fish curry recipe again. I cook this Basa Fish curry mostly during the weekdays and mainly for dinner. We carry the leftover the next day as working lunch along with a little rice to the office. The recipe calls for hardly 30 minutes and the marination time. In addition, almost no chopping, cutting, or frying is needed to cook this light fish curry with coconut milk.
Why Basa Fish?
I use boneless Basa chunks to cook it. Basa is not a personal favorite though both Mehebub and Pasta love Basa. I prefer Bhetki over Basa. However, considering the price of Kolkata Bhetki, Basa is budget-friendly. Moreover, Basa takes less time to cook. You do not need to deep-fry it while making a curry and hence, it is a less-calorie option. Last but not least, with coconut milk Basa works quite well.
A mix of Southern and Eastern flavors
While cooking Basa curry (this particular recipe); I use Coconut milk, Curry leaves, and Panch Phoron. Believe it or not, Panch Phoron works amazingly well with curry leaves. Along with that, I use Indian Curry Powder. It gives another layer of flavor to the curry.
Basa Fish Curry with Coconut Milk
Basa Fish Curry cooked with Coconut Milk, Curry Leaves, and Bengali Five spices aka Panch Phoron. This is a super easy Indian fish Curry recipe which is comforting as well.
Ingredients
- 350 g Basa Fish boneless; 6 pieces
- 1 Cup Coconut Milk
- 3 Green Chilles
- 20 Curry Leaves
- 4 Tbsp. Vegetable Oil
- 1 Tsp. Red Chilli Powder
- 1 Tsp. Indian Curry Powder
- ½ Tsp. Panch Phoron aka Bengali Five Spices
- ½ Tsp. Salt if needed
Marinade:
- 2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice
- 1 Tsp. Salt
To make the Spice mix:
- 100 g Hung curd
- 1 Tbsp. Ginger Garlic paste
- 1 Tsp. Turmeric Powder
- 1 Tsp. Indian curry Powder
- 1 Tbsp. Sugar
- ½ Tsp. Salt
Instructions
- Marinate boneless Basa fish chunks with 2 Tbsp. Lemon Juice and 1 Tsp. Salt for 30 minutes.
Spice Mix
- Take Hung Curd in a bowl.
- Add Ginger garlic paste, turmeric powder, Indian curry Powder. Sugar and also salt to it.
- Mix well and keep it aside.
Cooking Basa Fish Curry
- Now heat 4 Tbsp. Oil in a pan.
- Temper the oil with curry leaves and Panch Phoron.
- Cook for a minute and add the spice mix to it.
- Mix and cook for 2 minutes on low flame.
- Now add half of the coconut milk and mix well.
- Keep cooking on low flame.
- Now add remaining coconut milk.
- After mixing add marinated fish and also the remaining marinade.
- At this point add green chillies, red chilli powder and salt if neede.
- Give a light mix.
- Cook for 10 minutes after putting a lid on low flame.
- Once done, switch the flame off.
- Serve the fish curry hot with steamed rice.
- Top it with chopped green chillies and lemon juice for added flavour.
Video
Notes
- Panch Phoron is a mixture of five spices, Black Mustard Seed, Cumin Seed, Fenugreek Seed, Nigella Seed, and also Fennel Seed. This is a typical Bengali spice mix.
- Curry leaves are mostly used in South India (some other parts of India as well); I like the blend of Curry leaves and Panch Phoron in this particular curry cooked with Basa.
- I do not fry fish while cooking the Basa Curry with coconut milk. The recipe calls for basic ingredients and a simple cooking style.
Nutrition
Related Recipes
Pairing Basa Fish Curry
Fish Recipes
- Maach Makha | Bengali Fish Salad | Maach-er Bhorta
- Piajkoli ar Aloo diye Tangra Macher Jhol (Bengali Light fish curry prepared with Tyangra Maach, Onion Stalks and Potato)
- Kumro diye Ilish Macher Jhol (Hilsa fish curry with Pumpkin)
- Aam Shol aka Shol Macher Tawk
- Magur Macher Rosha
- Ilish Beguner Jhol (Hilsa Fish and Eggplant Curry)
- Chitol Macher Kaliya
- Shorshe Bata diye Parshe Macher Jhal | Mullet Fish in Mustard Gravy
- Biye Barir Macher Kalia
- Kolkata Style Chilli Fish
Have you tried the easy fish curry with Basa fish recipe from Debjanir Rannaghar!
I would love to see a picture if you are making it following my recipe. You can share here on dolonchttrj@gmail.com. You can use my hashtag #debjanirrannaghar and share it through Instagram as well. and in addition, you can tag me at @foodofdebjani.
Priyanka Ghosh says
Love the way you make cooking so easy peasy. great help for lazy cooks like me..love the music too pa pa paparapa pa
Debjani says
Hahahahha. Thank you 🙂