Aishling Moore: Try my Katsu curry recipe for Irish fish with a Japanese twist

Megrim is a fabulous flat fish, delicately flavoured and native to our waters. Picture: Chani Anderson

Crisp panko-breadcrumbed fillets of megrim with a silky smooth and fragrant katsu curry sauce make up this weekend’s recipe, which is sure to be one for the whole family.

Megrim is a fabulous flat fish, delicately flavoured and native to our waters. Being one of the most affordable fish in the sea, megs should be available on more menus and feature more often on our dinner tables at home too.

When we opened Goldie in 2019, we wanted to make the under-utilised and underappreciated species more desirable. Taking inspiration from so many cuisines all over the world, each day we aim to construct a menu that’ll excite even the most seafood-wary diners.

Serving something comforting and recognisable with something unfamiliar tends to produce the best results.

This weekend’s recipe is an excellent example of that principle; who doesn’t love a katsu curry?

This is an adaptation of a dish we had on the menu in Goldie, where we served pan-fried fillets of ling with panko breadcrumbed langoustines and this katsu curry sauce. The curry sauce was flavoured with a deeply roasted sweet langoustine stock. Here, I’ve used a quick fish stock made from the bones of the megrim, a little garlic and onion. It’s such a simple sauce to throw together and a great one for batch cooking, so get ahead, double the recipe and stick half in the freezer.

In a bid to encourage the next generation of diners to become fully fledged seafood lovers; on the first Wednesday of every month at Goldie, kids eat fish for free. (One kid’s meal free with every adult meal purchased).

We don’t have a kids’ menu, so children can choose from the full offering of the day’s a la carte menu with everything from fish nuggets and schnitzels to shucked oysters and smoked mackerel.

Megrim Katsu curry

recipe by:Aishling Moore

This is an adaptation of a dish we had on the menu in Goldie

Servings

4

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 40 mins

Total Time

 55 mins

Course

 Main

Ingredients

• For the katsu curry sauce

• 1 large onion, sliced (or 2 small)

• 70g ginger, peeled and diced

• 8 garlic cloves, sliced

• 60g butter

• 60g vegetable oil

• 4 tsp curry powder

• 500ml coconut milk

• 500ml stock

• 2 tbsp ketchup

• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

• For the megrim

• 4 large megrim fillets (or 320g fillets)

• 90g plain flour

• I egg

• 200ml milk

• 150g panko breadcrumbs

Method

1. To make the katsu curry sauce, warm the vegetable oil and butter in a heavy-based pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions, garlic, ginger, and season with sea salt. Sweat for 15 minutes until golden.

2. Add the curry powder and cook out for two minutes to bloom the spices.

3. Next, add the stock, give the bottom of the pan a good scrape with a wooden spoon at this stage to get all that flavour into the sauce. Add the coconut milk and cook for 20 minutes until reduced and coats the back of a wooden spoon. Add the worchestshire and ketchup to the sauce and blend everything using a hand blender. Pass through a fine sieve.

4. Keep warm while preparing the megrim goujons.

5. For the megrim goujons, preheat a deep-fat fryer to 180°C. Pat the fish fillets dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture and check for bones.

6. Beat the egg and milk together and place in a small bowl.

7. Place both the flour and panko breadcrumbs in a small bowl each.

8. Working in batches of four at a time, toss the pieces of fish through the flour first, next through the milk and egg mixture, and finally through the panko breadcrumbs, shaking off the excess flour, egg and milk, and breadcrumbs at each stage.

9. Working in batches, fry no more than two large or four small fillets at a time.

10. Fry for two minutes or until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and sprinkle with sea salt.

11. Serve immediately with steamed rice and the katsu curry sauce.

Fish tales

Any fish will work for this dish. For flat fish, plaice and lemon sole would be excellent substitutions for megrim. I like to leave the skin on the fish for extra flavour but you can remove it if you wish.

To achieve a beautifully coated fish finger, I like to blend a percentage of the panko breadcrumbs to ensure a more evenly coated result.

If you don’t have a deep fryer, use a heavy-based pot filled halfway with oil and work in batches. A thermometer is essential if you don’t have a deep-fryer.

You can also air fry or shallow fry in a large frying pan.

I’ve used a fish stock for this recipe, but you could use a vegetable stock or a light chicken stock.