Coconut fish curry (Fish moilee) from Made in India, Cooked in Britain: Recipes from an Indian Family Kitchen (page 127) by Meera Sodha

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Always check the publication for a full list of ingredients. An Eat Your Books index lists the main ingredients and does not include 'store-cupboard ingredients' (salt, pepper, oil, flour, etc.) - unless called for in significant quantity.

Notes about this recipe

  • Eat Your Books

    Can substitute rapeseed oil for coconut oil. See recipe for fish suggestions.

  • IvyManning on March 10, 2026

    Bland and very very salty. 1 1/2 tsp of salt made it almost inedible. I'm 0/6 with recipes from this book. Time to give it away.

  • tinycheesecake on March 09, 2026

    Used flounder for the fish and two sprigs from my curry tree. Definitely needs the curry leaves, those are not optional. I used Kashmiri chili powder for color rather than spice. The flavoring was very mild; next time I might add some coriander as my Kerala cookbooks include.

  • ALawson25 on August 05, 2025

    This was lovely and mild flavoured. Halved was perfect for 2. As with others I roughly diced the tomatoes and preferred it that way. Would make again!

  • lholtzman on November 06, 2024

    Excellent dish. I love the soupiness. It is so comforting over rice. I used halibut and it was really nice.

  • dinnermints on September 11, 2023

    This has been on my dinner wish list for some time, and I finally trimmed my curry leaf plant to make it. My picky eater four-year-old took one bite and came over and hugged me, he liked it so much. I used rock cod - am seeing the note about adding shrimp, that also would've been delicious. I used 2 T ghee, one seeded serrano, 30g fresh ginger, and skipped the chili powder so it wouldn't be to spicy for my son, but as others mentioned, I couldn't actually taste the serrano in there. I cut my tomatoes in large dice rather than wedges. This was gorgeous served over black rice, and cilantro would have kicked both the appearance and flavor up a notch. Would definitely make again.

  • meginyeg on January 11, 2023

    We like this. Have made a few times. It's a nice easy weekday supper.

  • stef on November 19, 2022

    Made this time with cod and shrimp thrown in at the last minute.

  • wcassity on November 17, 2022

    Totally delicious - the family loved it. Used 1.25 lbs of haddock and included the curry leaves. Served with basmati rice.

  • sheepishjen on February 28, 2022

    I have made this many times. It's wonderful! I have never made it without the curry leaves, nor would I, as they are so distinctive. I can see how people who made this without them might find it a bit lacking.

  • rmardel on November 22, 2021

    This is good, but a little basic for my taste. The second time around I crushed extra ginger, green Chile, and some fresh turmeric and tossed this with the fish, allowing it to sit while I finished prep and started the curry. I find the curry leaves are not really optional, it is much better with, but I would still make it without if necessary. I found it needed several chiles, and was still not particularly spicy, although this could just be due to the chiles I used.

  • clcorbi on July 28, 2017

    We made this with cod and served with both rice and naan, and it made a lovely weeknight meal. I found the sauce to be a bit onion-heavy, but to be fair I'm positive our onions were larger than what you'd find in the UK. Next time I might decrease to one onion or at least let them caramelize and cook down a bit longer. I also left the lid off once the fish was added, since the curry was seeming a bit watery to me. I think the extra time to reduce down helped the sauce a bit. This is a mild curry but we didn't feel the need to add any extra chili, although you might want to if you like your curries on the spicy side.

  • TrishaCP on February 20, 2017

    We thought this was good, although our jalapeño was too mild (even using the seeds) and I could have used more heat. (I used gochugaru for the chile powder.) I liked the acidity from the tomato and lime cutting through the richness of the coconut milk. We did have curry leaves (picked from our plant, so they were quite young and mild) and they did add a certain something to this dish, as they usually do. I would recommend including them if you can get them.

  • KarinaFrancis on February 13, 2017

    This was nice but didn't blow me away. Maybe the curry leaves aren't optional? I used 2 green chillies in the paste but ended up adding a small, hot red chilli as well. I'll try it again because it's a simple weeknight dish, but only when I can get the curry leaves.

  • FJT on February 02, 2017

    I can see this becoming a regular dinner in this household. Absolutely delicious and it's good for an evening when you're not sure exactly when you're serving dinner; I made the sauce a few hours in advance and then just heated it up and cooked the fish in it quickly when we were ready for dinner.

  • stef on January 19, 2017

    This was absolutely delicious even though I couldn't follow recipe. Instead of tomatoes, I used half small tomato paste, curry powder instead of curry leaves but otherwise followed recipe

  • raybun on October 16, 2016

    I saw Lepa's note on this dish last week and it jumped onto my to make soon list. The family loved it, onion hating daughter included. I'm so glad I found the fresh curry leaves, made all the difference. I used 300 mls of coconut milk instead of 200 as that was the size of my can and half a jalapeño for the green chili otherwise stuck to the recipe using haddock. 5*

  • Lepa on October 12, 2016

    The whole family loved this. I put less chili in because of the kids but it was still fantastic.

  • janeh9 on August 13, 2016

    Have made this twice with cod - excellent! Leftovers ( I doubled the recipe) froze well - nice treat to pull from the freezer!

  • joneshayley on May 03, 2015

    Beautiful fresh and light flavours. I'll make this again and again

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