Glow-in-the-Dark Turmeric & Coconut Fish Curry

 

Seriously, that fluorescent yellow around the edges of the bowl is not a trick of the camera!

Here's another recipe based on someone else's concoction, with the specialty ingredients omitted.
This is more of a sweet curry than a spicy one, and it's the perfect winter comfort food, only healthier than most.  I usually top it with a sprinkle of cayenne to add a little heat.

We double the following, and it serves our family of 12.

Ingredients:

• 
  
• -1 lb. mild white fish (we use tilapia)
  -1 onion
  -2 tbsp olive oil
• -4 garlic cloves, or more, pressed
• -1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
• -lime juice, to taste
• -1 can full-fat coconut milk

-1 cup chicken stock/broth

-ground cardamom, to taste (if desired)

• -1/4 tsp cloves, ground
  -2 tsp ground coriander
• -1 tbsp ground Turmeric, or to taste (we buy it in bulk and just dump a bunch in until it tastes good
• -1 tsp. ground cumin
  -fresh cilantro (we use fresh, frozen, chopped from summertime)
• ALSO, SALT, TO TASTE!!! (Edited on 12/09/2025 because my married daughter Mildred just made it and told me I forgot to include salt in the recipe. 😂)
  
  

-Basmati or white rice (we cook four cups dry for 12, so 2 cups dry should be enough to easily serve six)

Directions:

1. Saute chopped onion in olive oil over medium heat until soft and translucent. Add grated ginger and pressed garlic and saute for about one minute until fragrant.

2. Add lime juice, coconut milk, chicken stock, and spices, and cook until heated through. Add thawed fish and cook until done. Once fish is cooked (this will not take long), break into chunks with a spoon and then add in the fresh (or frozen) cilantro.

3. Serve over rice.

• 
  

Romantic Thai Red Curry (19!)

 

I'll try to get an appetizing shot next time we make this, but for now, a split-second shot of the last bowl.

Millie first made this for John's and my 19th anniversary meal (nineteen years...wahoo!). She's heard me rave about Thai red curry since John took me to a Thai restaurant several years ago, and now there's no need to go to restaurants!

We loosely follow the recipe found here but omit a few of the rarest ingredients, making this a definite splurge meal but not so excessive that we can't still make payments on our house, which is just the right balance for a nineteenth anniversary. We omit the butternut/pumpkin and green beans to streamline it, substitute lime juice for the kaffir lime leaves, and regular basil for the Thai basil. I'm guessing our version is a greatly dressed down version of Thai Red Curry, but it's doable, and it tastes close enough to the restaurant version to make me swoon and eat it for three meals running.

We double or triple these amounts, but I'm putting in the original amounts with our alterations. Most of the children like the rice/curry ratio to heavily favor the rice. I'm the opposite and eat the curry as a soup with just a small amount of rice mixed in. Slurping is encouraged.

Red Curry Paste

-one can of Maesri Thai Red Curry paste (the cheapest, and, according to the recipe's author, the best!) *USE LESS IF YOU DON'T LIKE HEAT. The author recommends 5-6 tbsp. or less, to taste. We use the whole can, which makes me happy and most children unhappy.

-2 large garlic cloves, minced
-2 tsp. fresh ginger, finely grated
-1 tbsp. lemongrass paste (found a tube in Walmart's refrigerator section, and it lasts for several big curry batches)


Thai Red Curry

- 1 cup chicken broth/stock
-14 oz. full-fat coconut milk
-a splash or two of lime juice, to taste
-1 tbsp. sugar
- 1 tbsp. or so chopped basil, if desired (we just dump in a bit of chopped, frozen, garden basil, to taste)
-2 tsp. fish sauce, plus more to taste (one bottle will stretch a looong way in curries)
-boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into very thin slices-- as much or as little chicken as you want. More is better. :)

Jasmine rice, cooked

Cilantro leaves, for garnish


DIRECTIONS

• Heat oil in a large, heavy skillet over medium-high heat.
• Add canned curry paste, garlic, ginger, and lemongrass paste and cook for about 2 minutes so it "dries out." 
• Add chicken broth and stir to dissolve paste. Simmer rapidly for 3 minutes or until liquid reduces by half.
• Add coconut milk, lime juice, sugar, basil, and fish sauce. Stir, then bring to a simmer and turn heat down to medium. Cook until sauce is almost the thickness you want, and then add sliced chicken. Cook for several more minutes until chicken is cooked through. 
• Taste curry and add more fish sauce for saltiness, as needed, and/or more sugar for sweetness.
• Serve over jasmine rice, garnished with cilantro leaves, if desired.

Spicy Shrimp and Rice

I blame this dish on both John and Sarah. Last May, she served our family a yummy meal that had shrimp in it and casually mentioned that she'd bought the shrimp at Aldi. Now, I've eaten shrimp maybe four times in my life, and, though I think it's yummy, it's not something I browse through at grocery stores. I don't browse through grocery stores at all; I arrive with an agenda, fight my way through the hordes to reach what's on my list, and arrive back at the van, usually unharmed.

Last week, however, I saved money in other areas, and Saturday found me insecurely browsing through the shrimp in an Aldi freezer case, wondering if the least expensive shrimp were less healthy or tasty than the plump ones. Three cheers for stingy Ebenezer!

John's to blame, too, because after his employer sent him to a conference at a fancy hotel and paid for meals eaten at the restaurant of his choice, he's been mumbling about spicy shrimp in his sleep. So, thanks to Sarah's knowledge of all things seafood and John's nighttime murmurs, I trawled the internet recipe archives, made spicy shrimp and rice, and I even enjoyed it.

Below, I give the rough amounts of the spices I used, but after I adjusted spices to what I thought was the perfect amount, I shoveled in loads more cayenne and black pepper, because I knew that John would beam at me for it. He did, and that beam was worth the burn. If you or someone you love is like John, add even more cayenne, to taste. If you don't like things that spicy, reduce the amounts below accordingly.

a bag of cheap, foreign shrimp, the kind that's fully cooked and frozen (I think it was 10 or 12 oz of the teensy 70-90/lb shrimp )
1 tsp. cayenne, plus more to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper, plus more to taste
1/2 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/2 tsp. ground thyme
3/4 tsp. basil
1/2 tsp. oregano
@ 6-8 cloves fresh garlic, finely minced or pressed
@ 1 tablespoon lemon juice
3/4 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/3 cup butter

Melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Saute the minced garlic in butter for 30 seconds to a minute. Add the rest of the spices, and stir in the thawed shrimp (remove their tails before you dump them in if you want to avoid removing them during supper). Cook until heated through and serve alongside the rice below.

4 and 1/2 cups cooked rice
After cooking, flavor the rice with at least one tablespoon lemon juice, garlic powder, onion powder, freshly ground black pepper, cayenne, salt, and butter, to taste. Add enough lemon juice to cut through the spice and to balance out the crazy-hot shrimp that are about to join it.

Eat while saying, "Ow! Good! OW! Too spicy! GOOD!" at your beaming husband.

Teriyaki Salmon

I found the inspiration for this recipe on the back of an Aldi bag of salmon, shipped here all the way from China. (I know...local eating.) I bought the bag under the impression that it was the same price per pound as its neighboring whiting. Stupid girl! It contained a pound less for the same price! This past week, which was several months after my original error, I made the same mistake (only purposefully this time) so that we could eat it again.

1/3 cup chicken broth
1/4 white cooking wine
2 tablespoons brown sugar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
1/4-1/2 tsp. finely minced ginger root
a few shakes of lemon pepper
one small onion (you guessed it) finely minced
Now that the garden grows, I also added some green onion tops to the marinade and used some for garnish.

four 4-oz. salmon fillets, thawed and placed on a rimmed baking sheet. (If you're using fresh, then we're not in the same league at all. Don't sniff at my stinginess, just go here instead.)

Bring all ingredients (except fish, of course) to a boil and reduce to medium heat. Cook for a few minutes. Brush fillets with marinade, or, as I do, dump all the marniade on top of the fish. Broil under preheated broiler for about minutes, flip, and then broil for another three minutes.

Savory Oven-Baked Fish

1/4 cup melted butter
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 tsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. paprika
1/4 tsp. crushed basil
1/4 tsp. garlic powder, or more, to taste
1/2 tsp. salt

Italian bread crumbs

Mild, skinless, white fish fillets (pollock, haddock, etc.)

Combine all ingredients except bread crumbs and fish. Roll fish pieces in butter mixture and then immediately coat with bread crumbs. Bake, on an ungreased cookie sheet, about 15 minutes in a 450 degree oven, or until fish flakes.

Serve with seasoned, oven-baked potato wedges and yummy green beans. Or garlic bread. Or lots of milk.