This Salted Tuna Tail Curry- Kari Lake Ton Sale– cooked with coconut milk and aubergine, is a creamy fragrant curry that will excite your taste buds. The coconut milk adds smoothness and sweetness to an otherwise salty curry and the aubergine, with its fleshy texture, compliments the dryness of the tuna tail. A perfect match!
Salted Tuna Tail Curry- Kari Lake Ton Sale
The Tuna Tail
The tuna tail used in this dish is not the actual tail fin, but the piece of the fish that is about 10cm long located at the base of the tail fin, as indicated in the photo below. It is a part of the tuna that was, until recently, discarded and went to waste. It is deboned, salted and sundried.
Fresh Tuna Tails
Tuna uses its tail to swim, and you will therefore find an abundance of connective tissues towards the tail. Consequently, the tail meat is the leanest, containing the least amount of fat than any other part of the fish. The connective tissues, as well as the skin (cleaned of scales), when cooked on moist low heat, turn gelatinous in texture. Consequently, you would expect it to taste less flavorful compared to the other parts of the fish. This cannot be further than the truth. The combination of the gelatinous connective tissues and lean meat give this dish an incredibly unique texture.
We love our salted fish
Salted fish has origins that run pretty deep in Seychellois culture. From the early days of settlement up to until now, Seychellois fishermen have turned to drying or curing fish to preserve their catch. Even though it is not necessary to preserve fish this way with today’s advances in refrigeration and freezers, the Seychellois still love to eat salted fish.
Salted Deboned Tuna Tail
Cooking with freshly made coconut milk- a little bit of chemistry
The main ingredient in this salted tuna tail curry is coconut milk, preferably freshly made. The most important thing to bear in mind when cooking with coconut milk is that you must ensure that the milk does not curdle; and this is achieved by avoiding cooking on high heat and by frequently stirring the milk during the cooking process.
Fresh Coconut Milk- Dile Koko
Roughly, raw coconut milk consists of coconut oil, protein, and water. In its natural state and at room temperature, the protein acts as an emulsifier, keeping the coconut milk looking homogenous. Ordinarily, the protein molecules in the coconut are compact but, as they’re heated, they begin to unwind and take up more space. The unwound or “denatured” proteins are more likely to collide with each other and to form molecular bonds. If enough of them cluster together, they’ll form lumps and curdle your sauce. Stirring the milk frequently breaks up the bonds between the protein molecules as they form, helping minimize the risk of curdling.
It is worth mentioning here though, that most tinned coconut milk will not curdle as easily as freshly made one because it contains stabilisers and thickeners.
COOKING THE CURRY
Soak the salted tuna tail
Place the salted tuna tails in a stainless bowl and add water. Soak for two to three hours. The soaking serves two purposes. Firstly, it helps to remove some of the salt from the fish and secondly, it assists its rehydration. The aim is never to remove all the salt from the meat completely; there should always be a salt taste remaining. After the tails have been soaked, remove them from the water, place in a colander, and give them a quick rinse under cold running water to remove surface saltiness.
Boil and Clean the Salted Tail
In a medium pot, bring about 2 litres of water to the boil and gently boil the salted tuna tails for about 15 minutes.
Remove the fish tails from cooking liquor and allow them to cool. Taste the tails for level of saltiness. If it is still very salty, wash once more and allow them to drain. Once they are cooled, use a small knife and carefully scrape all of the scales from the skin and remove any small fins. This is tedious and may take a while but try to salvage as much of the skin as possible.
Boiled and Cleaned Salted Tuna Tail
Once cleaned, wash them thoroughly, and cut them into small bite size pieces and keep.
Prepared Salted Tuna Tail ready for Curry
Finishing the Salted Tuna Tail Curry
Place all ingredients in a medium cooking pot, stir to roughly mix them up and bring to the boil.
Once it starts to boil, turn the heat to simmer, give a quick stir and let simmer for about 20 minutes with lid off. This is a mild curry. Should you wish to make your curry hotter add an extra goat chilli.
This creamy salted beef curry is ideally served with plain boiled rice and cucumber salad or even a green pawpaw chutney and a vegetable asar.
Salted Tuna Tail Curry- Kari Lake Ton Sale
Here is the recipe for Salted Tuna Tail Curry- Kari Lake Ton Sale
This Salted Tuna Tail Curry- Kari Lake Ton Sale- cooked with coconut milk and aubergine, is a creamy fragrant curry that will excite your taste buds. The coconut milk adds smoothness and sweetness to an otherwise salty curry and the aubergine, with its fleshy texture, compliments the dryness of the tuna tail. A perfect match!
- 750 g deboned salted tuna tail
- 1 medium aubergine- cubed
- 1 tbsp vegetable oil
- 2 tins coconut cream or fresh milk from three coconuts
- 3 cloves garlic – crushed
- ½ white onion, roughly chopped
- 1 goat chilli- sliced in two
- ½ tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tsp crushed ginger
- 2 tbsp curry powder
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 cloves
- 2 dry cinnamon leaves or a small piece of cinnamon quill
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Soak the salted tuna tails in cold water for about two to three hours. This will dilute the salt as well as rehydrate the tails.
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Wash the tails in cold running water to remove salt on its surface
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Place the tails in a pot and boil on medium heat for about 15 minutes or until soft.
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Remove the tails from the cooking liquor and allow them to cool. If they are still very salty, wash once more and allow them to drain
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Allow the tails to cool down and use a small knife to thoroughly clean the scales from the skin. This can be quite tedious.
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Wash thoroughly and then cut them into small bite size pieces, keep.
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Place all ingredients in a medium cooking pot, stir to roughly mix them all together and bring to the boil
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Once it starts to boil, turn the heat to a simmer.
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Let simmer without lid on for about 20 minutes.
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Serve with plain boiled rice, cucumber salad, and green pawpaw chutney accompanied with a vegetable asar.
- The tuna tail used in this dish is not the actual tail fin, but the piece of the fish that is about 10cm long located at the base of the tail fin. It is deboned, salted and airdried.
- You may decide to remove the seeds from the chilli if you prefer a mild curry or add extra chilli if you want a spicy kick. The Seychellois traditionally do not remove seeds form their chilli.
- The goat chilli gives your curry that extra spicy dimension. You may decide to remove it before serving or leave it in the curry for that surprise kick!
- You may decide to remove the whole cloves and cinnamon quill before service.
Did you make this recipe? LEAVE A COMMENT
I hope you will enjoy cooking this dish. Please let me know how it turned out for you. If you have a different version of the recipe or have related questions, please leave your comments below.
