Main Supper

Spiced Tomatoes with Baked Cod

Use your glut of summer tomatoes to make a fragrantly spiced curry. Serve with rice, turmeric yoghurt and a side of baked cod. This is an excellent weeknight dinner recipe for when summer nights begin to lengthen and grow cooler.

15 minutes prep, 1 hour 45 minutes cook

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2–3 tbsp vegetable oil

2 onions, finely chopped

1 tbsp cumin seeds

1 tbsp coriander seeds

2 tsp fennel seeds

2 tsp black mustard seeds

10 cloves

½ tsp white peppercorns

3 green cardamom pods

1 tsp ground turmeric

Around 25 curry leaves (usually 2 sprigs)

3 bay leaves

2 cloves garlic, finely sliced

1–2 tbsp water

1.2kg cherry tomatoes

1 tbsp caster sugar

30g butter, sliced

4–6 x 120g fillets cod or other white fish, ideally skin on

Flaky sea salt

For the turmeric yoghurt:

2 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil

1 clove garlic, minced

6 tbsp Greek yoghurt

Pinch flaky sea salt

To serve:

Brown rice

Finely sliced green chilli (optional)

Method

Heat the oven to 170°C/150°C fan/Gas 4. Put a casserole, or similar, over a medium heat. Add two tablespoons of oil, the onions and a big pinch of salt. Cook gently for 15–20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until soft and lightly golden – we’re not aiming for fully browned in this instance. Meanwhile, measure all the dry spices, except the turmeric, into a dry pan and toast over a low heat for 3–4 minutes until fragrant. Decant into a spice grinder or pestle and mortar and reduce to a powder, then stir in the turmeric.

Add the curry leaves, bay leaves and garlic to the onion and cook for 2 minutes more, then add 2 heaped tablespoons of the ground spices and a tablespoon or two of water. (You will have some spice powder left over – potentially to be added later, but otherwise reserve for a generic ‘curry powder’ moment. The mix works well, for example, in the curry leaf mussels on page 150).

Add two thirds of the tomatoes to the pan and mix with the onions. Sprinkle with the sugar, dot with the butter and place in the oven (without a lid) for 1 hour 20 minutes. Give it a shuffle after 30 minutes to ensure the onions and tomatoes are mingling, then 20 minutes later add the remaining tomatoes and carefully mix. Return to the oven for the final (pre-fish) 30 minutes.

Stir another tablespoon of the ground spices into the tomatoes, then sit the fish skin-side up, pushing them 1–2cm (½–¾in) below the surface so that they part-poach, part-bake. Return to the oven, still uncovered, for 12–14 minutes so the fish is just cooked – flaking but still succulent.

While the curry is cooking, make the turmeric yoghurt. Heat the rapeseed oil, add the garlic and cook gently for 1–2 minutes without burning. Remove from the heat, add the turmeric, stir and allow to cool. Just before eating, add to the yoghurt with a pinch of salt and stir vigorously until bright yellow.

Peel the skin from the fish and serve with ladles of tomatoes alongside brown rice and turmeric yoghurt, with fresh green chilli scattered to taste.