Tikka cod with lentil curry and mixed rice

This tasty meal is high in protein and easy to make.  Frozen cod fillets coated in tikka paste and lentil and vegetable curry made with Korma paste make this a simple meal to make and full of flavour. Start cooking the curry before you cook the fish as curry is very flexible on how long it can be cooked but the fish needs to be eaten as soon as it is ready.

For two people:

Coat two frozen or fresh cod fillets with  about 1 tbsp of tikka paste. I used Pataks.  Cook according to the fish instructions.  My frozen fish needed thirty minutes in a 180C oven.  Fresh fish could be grilled for a charred finish.  I have given up trying to grill food as the smoke alarm in my new flat goes off everytime I use the grill and the whole block of flats gets alerted!

Curry
1 tbsp oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup orange lentils
1 tbsp Korma curry paste
2 cups water, more as needed
1 tbsp tomato paste

1 large carrot, sliced
2 tbsp peas
1 tomato, cut into large chunks


Cook chopped onion in oil until soft.  Keep the heat low so that the onions don't brown unless you prefer the flavour of the browned onion.
Add the lentils and stir over medium heat until the lentils are coated in the oil.  Add the Korma paste and stir. Add the water, tomato paste and carrots. Stir and cook until lentils and carrots are soft.
Add more water if needed.
Three minutes before serving add the frozen peas and cook.
One minute before serving add the tomatoes.  They should just heat through but not fall apart.

Rice
Use whatever rice you like.  I used a mixed rice with French Red Camargue, Italian long grain and Canadian Wild Rice because that was all I had.  Plain rice would have been more appropriate to go with the complex flavours of the curry and fish.  If I had served the fish with steamed vegetables rather than the curry the mixed rice would have been excellent as the different flavours and textures would have been more noticeable.

Serve the fish with curry and rice.

Cod with pine kernals

A really easy meal made special with some storecupboard staples.  This cod is topped with stir-in tomato and garlic pasta sauce (Sacla) and mayonaise and then topped with whole pine kernals, then baked until the fish is cooked.

I used two cod fillets (frozen, packaging says sustainable sourced).  On top of each fillet I put one teaspoon of pasta sauce and one of mayonnaise.  I find mayonnaise an easy way of adding creaminess without having to worry about my dairy intolerance.  I find the little jars of 'stir-in' pasta sauce very useful for all sorts of things as they keep for a fortnight once open, and are great for pizzas as they are not too sloppy.

I was going to pulverise the pine kernals but as I no longer have a food processor I just sprinkled the pine kernals on top of the fish.  I think this was fine and don't think I would bother chopping the pine kernals in future even if the kit was handy.

I baked the fish in the oven for thirty minutes as instructed on the packaging, and served with potato wedges, roasted carrots, and steamed broccoli.