Canned sardines curry

Every day is not the same. Some days I feel that I have no energy left even to fetch myself a glass of water after coming from work. Or simply I don't have the mood to cook. Previously I was in this "All or nothing" mode. I've to make the dish from scratch or we ate-out. I think eating out is the worst thing for diabetes considering the amount of oil and salt added to most of the restaurant meals. Whatever I decided to do I felt stressed. It simply did not work.

Nowadays I'm more willing to take the mid-way approach. I buy pre-washed, pre-cut and, sometimes, pre-cooked veggies. Frozen veggies have also found a place in my kitchen. Whatever I buy in order to make cooking easier always costs less than us eating out and there is a possibility of making it less calorie-dense by adding less oil while cooking.

One such attempt is this canned sardines curry.


Sardines curry

Ingredients

2 cans of sardines in spring water
1 cup of thick tamarind extract
Half a onion finely chopped
1 tbsp chilli powder
1 tbsp coriander powder
½ tsp turmeric powder
A few curry leaves
1 tsp of mustard
1 tbsp of garlic, chopped into very small pieces
1 diced tomato

Add oil to wok. Add mustard seeds and wait till they pop. Sauté curry leaves and garlic. Add the tamarind extract, diced tomatoes, chilli powder, coriander powder and turmeric powder and let it simmer. After it has thickened a little add the sardines along with the tomato sauce. Simmer for a min. Take care not to overcook the fish otherwise they may break. Adjust salt and serve.


Fish curry served with rice
When using canned fish and other store-bought sauces, which contain some amount of salt already, make sure you add salt at the last so that you don't end up adding more salt than is required. Sardines contain a good amount of Omega 3 which is recommended for diabetics.