I know this looks like a long ass list of ingredients, but bear with me. I’ve tried my hardest to simplify the process of adding a ton of flavor without having to be a slave to the method or the list of ingredients. What I mean is…I am lazy. I really dislike recipes that make you constantly look back and forth at the dizzying lineup of spice quantities. 1/8 teaspoon and 1/2 teaspoon and 1/2 tablespoon. That’s recipe whiplash and I’m suing. So, for the recipe below, almost everything is measured by ones. Not hard to remember, and easy to customize if you’d like more or less of any particular flavor.
Ingredients
For the Chowder
- 2 T coconut oil
- 1 t cumin seeds
- 1 t brown mustard seeds
- 1 thumb size piece of ginger, finely minced
- 1 yellow onion, diced small
- 4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 t curry powder (sweet or hot)
- 1 t garam masala
- 1 can full fat coconut milk
- 2 lbs white, flaky fish (we used cod)
- salt
- juice from 1 lime
For the Crou-tains
- 2-3 green plantains, diced small
- 3 T coconut oil
- salt
Method
For the Chowder
In a medium sized soup pot, melt the coconut oil over medium heat. Add the cumin and mustard seeds. Let them dance around the pot for a minute or two and then add the ginger, garlic and onion. Saute until the onion is cooked through. Add the curry and garam masala powders. Dump in the can of the coconut milk. Stir everything around to combine.
Now add the fish. Just toss the whole fillets in there. Stir them around in the pot, every so often, until they’re cooked through. Take 2 forks and pull the fish into flakes (just like if you were pulling apart a chicken breast or beef brisket). Remove the soup from the heat and stir in the lime juice.
For the Crou-tains (Paleo Croutons)
In a large saute pan, melt the coconut oil. Add the diced plantains. As always, the smaller the dice, the faster they’ll cook. Let the plantains fry until they’re cooked through and have a nice crust on the outside. Shouldn’t take more than 15 minutes.
Just like regular croutons, the crou-tains taste better the day they’re made. Not that they’re inedible the next day, they’re just not as crispy.
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This sounds great — I want to try it right away. But, the only significant liquid is one can of coconut milk (15 oz or so?) and you add TWO POUNDS of fish? Is that right? Would make it more of a stew than a soup, I’d think.
Thats why I called it a chowder. Think New England style. Hope you enjoy, Cathy!
and….
bookmarked.
gracias.
hehehe. hope you like, mike.
I made it, and we both enjoyed it! I have to admit I hadn’t noticed that you’d called it a chowder rather than a soup — that does put the thickness into context.
That said, I used two cod fillets (a total of 12 to 14 oz) and it was plenty for us. I think it depends on how much you “shred” the fish — when I still had large chunks, I thought about adding another fillet, but then I broke it down to smaller shreds and it made a very thick chowder with little separate liquid. So, either way would be good, depending on how much protein you want!
Only other change I made was to use red curry paste (1.5 tsp) instead of the curry powder, because my husband doesn’t like curry powder. It was good, and gave the chowder a “warmer” color.
Thanks! We’ll have this again.
My lord I love you guys. Always thinking of the coolest stuff on the planet!! Thanks for this one, I’ll have to try it! Maybe this weekend!!!
muchos gracias juli. let us know how it turned out for ya.
Just made this for dinner and it was awesome! No leftovers here! The crou-tains totally complete the meal – thanks for a great recipe!!!
thanks so much marjorie!
Looks fabulous, but I hope you mean “bear with me”. I just don’t know you well enough to “bare” with you!
party pooper!
hahahaha. oops!
I can’t wait to make this, I’ve got almost all of the ingredients assembled. About how long does it take cod fillets to cook, is their a visual signal to look for that will confirm they’re cooked thoroughly? What temperature do you recommend cooking this soup at on the stove top? Thanks guys, looks spectacular!
This was absolutely fabulous! We are big seafood eaters, so this was a great way to mix things up. I used fresh speckled trout and doubled the recipe. I added added a bit of organic lobster stock to add the saltiness. Definitely will make again! I love your site! Thanks for all the great recipes!
Great recipe! I posted a recipe inspired by this one at
http://chamelagiri.com/2013/01/14/curry-fish-chowder/
We tend to make this about once a month, as it is not easy to get plantains here in the UK. THe only concern I have is the shortage of vegetables, as it only has the one onion apart from the croutains.
Made this for dinner tonight. It’s wonderful! Even my two boys (9 and 12) said it was ‘okay’.
And this from a family that doesn’t much care for fish and seafood!