Kerala Style Rice and Fish Soup

Issac's almost about to turn one in a couple of months and I think I may be freaking out a bit here: I’m expected to keep a small child alive on adult human food? I feel so unprepared! Why don’t they cover this in parenting classes? Because, realistically, that first few months is so easy food-wise: just gimme the milk and nobody gets hurt.

And so begins the next “phase” of our lives: the one in which I try to feed a tiny human real food, with sustenance. Then I decided : Soup will be the answer. Seasonal, delicious, chock-fulla-good-stuff soup! You can make soup out of just about anything, and by golly, I would. Make a big batch over the weekend and you’re set for the week. Brilliant!!!

I got this recipe from a Jamie Oliver's recipe book I recently got my hands on and what better way to Introduce Issac to our 'nadan' flavors than a beautifully spiced soup??

What's fantastic about it is that it's so easy to make. It only takes about 30 minutes, and the other great thing is that the ingredients are not particularly expensive, so it's economical.Use any selection of fish that you fancy. The soup is just as good with frozen prawns or flaky white fish. I used frozen prawns in mine to give Issac a bit of texture to chew on. And there's something about having rice in a soup that makes it really scrumptious.

I think all the individual flavors kinda confused Issac initially and wasn't too keen on the soup at first. But on the second and third go he managed to finish the serving I had given him,so that's a good start as any! Hope your little ones like this more than he did.

Kerala Style Rice and Fish Soup
Recipe Source : Jamie's Dinners

2½ tablespoons vegetable or sunflower oil
a pinch of mustard seeds
a handful of fresh curry leaves, picked off their stalks
½ teaspoons cumin seeds
½ teaspoon garam masala
1 teaspoons turmeric
1 large thumb-sized pieces of fresh ginger, peeled and grated
3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely chopped
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped
1 handful of basmati rice
300ml water
200g frozen prawns
1 x 400ml tin of coconut milk
optional: pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Heat up your oil, then add the mustard seeds, curry leaves, cumin seeds, garam masala and turmeric.
Cook for a few minutes and you'll get the most amazing smells filling the room from all these spices. Then add the ginger, the garlic and the onions.
Continue cooking slowly until the garlic and onions are soft.
Then add the rice and the water.
Bring to the boil then reduce the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes.
Add your fish and the coconut milk with a pinch of salt.
Put the lid on the pan and simmer for a further 10 minutes, then stir well to break up the pieces of fish. Taste and correct the seasoning with salt and pepper, if using.
Ready to serve!

Pics coming soon...