Coconut milk and curry paste transform weeknight fish dinner

Each summer, my family spends a couple of weeks on an island in the Outer Banks of North Carolina. On the island, there’s a fisherman’s co-op that sells the morning’s catch each day, so most nights we cook ultra-fresh fish for dinner. While a simple pan-fry or grilling method satisfies the first few meals, we’re usually looking to mix things up with more creative recipes as the trip goes on.

One recipe that’s always in the rotation is Yewande Komolafe’s coconut fish and tomato bake from The New York Times. It comes together relatively quickly and has a bold flavor that pairs well with just about any white fish, even when you’re back at home and enjoying fish from the local grocery store. But adapting it for a weeknight meal means more than swapping the daily catch for fish department fillets. There’s also Komolafe’s relatively long ingredient list and 30 minutes of marinating time to contend with.

To adapt it to a 5:30 Challenge recipe, I’ve kept the coconut milk and tomatoes, but swapped all of the aromatics for spicy green curry paste. (I like to use 2 tablespoons in the recipe, but you can always add more if you want even more heat.) Using thin fish fillets, like tilapia, means you can cook the fish right away without adding marinating time to your prep work. Serve the fish on top of a big mound of white rice; you’ll want it there to soak up every bit of the rich, spicy sauce.