Cari Poisson (also called Cari Poisson et Bringel) is a Mauritian fish and aubergine curry which I serve here with a coriander sauce and a traditional Mauritian roti or flatbread called farata.

The Curry

You will need the following ingredients for the Cari Poisson. I used a couple of sources for this recipe, but here is the main one.

Ingredients

• 800g sword fish steaks (you can use any firm white fish)
• 1 aubergine, cut into batons
• 4 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
• 25g fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 green chilli, roughly chopped
• 5 thyme sprigs, leaves only
• 6 curry leaves
• 2 tomatoes chopped
• 3 Tbsp Mauritian curry powder – a recipe for this can be found here
• 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground coriander
• cornflour to dust the fish
• vegetable oil to fry the fish
• salt, sugar and vinegar to taste

Method

Put the garlic, ginger and chilli in a mortar and pestle and grind it until you have a smooth paste. Set it aside.

Pat the fish dry and season with salt and black pepper on all sides. Coat evenly in corn flour.

Heat some oil in a heavy skillet or pan (which has a lid and can be used in an oven) on medium heat. Fry the fish until lightly golden on all sides. Remove the fish and set it aside.

In the same oil, fry the aubergine and then set it aside.

Still in the same oil (add more oil if needed), fry the onions, thyme and curry leaves for about 3 minutes and then add the garlic/ginger/chilli paste. Mix it all well.

Add the curry powder, turmeric, cinnamon, cumin and coriander and stir well.

Add the tomatoes and about 50ml of water. Bring to a boil and then turn down the heat so that it can simmer.

Cook until the tomatoes are cooked through, adding water as needed. Approximately 45 minutes.

Adjust the taste using a little bit of salt, sugar and vinegar. Remove the curry leaves.

Preheat the oven to 180°C.

Put the fish back into the pan and cover it with the sauce. Put the aubergine around the fish.

Cover the pan and put it in the oven for 15 minutes covered and then 15 minutes uncovered.

Remove the dish from the oven.

The Sauce

You will need the following ingredients for the coriander sauce. I found this recipe here.

Ingredients

• 1 cup fresh coriander, loosely packed
• Juice of half a lemon
• 1 green chilli
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 3 Tbsp water

Method

Add all the ingredients in a blender and blend until you have smooth (but still liquid) sauce.

The Bread

You will need the following ingredients for the Mauritian farata bread. The original recipe is here.

Ingredients

• 300g white bread flour
• 200ml warm water
• 1 Tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp vegetable oil
• more melted butter for brushing

Method

In a mixing bowl, mix the flour, salt and oil. Add the 1 Tbsp melted butter and rub into the flour.

Add the warm water gradually while mixing to make a soft dough.

Set it aside and leave for 30 minutes.

Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and roll it out into discs using a rolling pin.

Brush the discs with the melted butter, fold in half and brush again.

Fold it again so that you have more or less triangular shapes. Roll it again into discs.

Fry in a pan until it has a good char on both sides.

And then it all comes together.

We enjoyed this with a 2022 Viognier from Kranskop. Here are the tasting notes.