Goan Green Chutney stuffed Pomfret Fry

Pomfret is something I havent cooked often. Earlier had always either tawa fried or microwaved (with a blob of butter) simply marinated (ginger-garlic-lemon-salt-pepper) pomfret pieces. 

This time thought of trying something different. Hence the internet hunt ....which yielded a simple stuffed pomfret recipe in which most of the ingredients were available at home.

Ingredients :

* Whole pomfrets - 4

* Juice of 1 lime

* Salt to taste

* Sooji/Semolina/Rawa for rolling/ dredging (optional)

* Wheat flour for dusting/sprinkling (did not use)

* Refined oil for pan frying

* Turmeric - 1 tsp

* Freshly crushed black pepper - 1 tsp (not in original recipe)

* For the green chutney

   - A large bunch of fresh coriander leaves

   - 2 sprigs fresh mint leaves-optional (I did not use)

   - 1 medium onion peeled and roughly chopped

   - 1 tbs fresh tamarind paste (I used juice of 1 big lemon)

   - 7 cloves fresh garlic

   - 1 " piece of ginger

   - 2-3 fresh green chilies

   - 1 tsp cumin seeds

   - 4 tbsp grated coconut (I used 1/2 a medium sized coconut )

   - A large pinch of turmeric

   - A pinch each of Cinnamon & Clove powder (I used 1/2 inch cinnamon stick & 3-4 pieces of cloves)

   - A large pinch of sugar to taste - optional (I used 1/2 tsp)

Grind the above chutney ingredients into a thick paste with minimum water

Procedure :

1. The fish is to be cleaned and slit into pockets. I got this done from the fishmonger

2. Rub the pomfrets and their cavities with lemon juice, salt , turmeric and freshly crushed pepper and marinate for 15-20 minutes.

3. Now stuff the cavities with the green chutney and cover the whole pomfrets in a thick paste of green chutney (as per the original recipe, only the cavities were stuffed with the green chutney)

4. Marinate for 15-20 minutes (I marinated for more than an hour)

5. When ready to fry, roll each pomfret in sooji and then dust/sprinkle wheat flour on either side. I only rolled in rawa and skipped the flour sprinkling.

6. Heat oil in a skillet / pan and slide in the pomfrets one by one into the heated oil. Cook each side for at least 5 minutes or till evenly cooked and crispy. 

Serve with tomatoes, onion and a squeeze of lemon and chopped corinader. Also potato wedges & salad as the original recipe mentioned .

Chicken Ghee Roast in Chettinad Masala

I like my cooking simple and low on spices. Because I am a reluctant cook but a food lover, I like making things which are easy and quick to make but good to taste.. 

Chettinad Chicken is something I have avoided making in the fear of the excessive spice usage and high heat content.

However, my browsing the net, I came across this video of Chicken Ghee Roast in Chettinad Masala and found it simple and easy and the video of the dry roasting of the masalas triggered my olfactory senses and I almost hallucinated the wafting aroma of roasted Indian spices..incidentally a full bird had been bought and was ready for marination. So without much ado, I followed the recipe to the T (except the chili quantity part) and ended up making delicious, flavourful Chicken Ghee Roast for Sunday lunch.

Ingredients: 
Step 1 - 1 kg chicken
- juice of 1 lemon
- half bowl of yogurt
- ½ tsp of turmeric powder

Step 2 - 10-15 dry red chillies (I used 8 dry red chilies and deseeded them to reduce/minimise the heat factor)
- 2 tsp black pepper
- 2 tsp coriander seeds
- 1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek seeds
- 7-8 cloves of garlic
- tamarind water 

Step 3 - ¼th cup of Ghee (I used 2- 2 1/2 tbsp of Ghee)
-Salt
- 1 tsp jaggery
- Curry leaves
Procedure :

- Marinate chicken with lemon juice, yogurt mix it well then add turmeric powder and keep aside for an hour. (I kept overnight)
- In a thick bottom pan, roast the spices – dry red chillies, black pepper, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, cloves,fenugreek seeds and mix it well and switch off the flame and let it cool down.
- Grind the roasted spices and while grinding also add cloves of garlic and tamarind water.
- In a pan add ghee and place the marinated chicken and let it cook up to 70%. Keep aside.
- Add the remaining yogurt mix in the pan and mix it well in the ghee on medium heat and keep it aside in a bowl.
- In the same pan add the ground masala and let it cook on low flame and add ghee 1/2 tsp of ghee to it 
-Add the ghee fried yogurt mix, salt, jaggery and add the cooked chicken. keep coating the chicken with masala on medium to high heat.
-Cover anf Keep on low flame for 5-10 minutes
- Add some curry leaves and the Chicken Ghee Roast is ready to be served!

  

Nolen Gurer Chaaler Payesh .... Rice Pudding

A Bengali and Chaaler Payesh have an eternal connection....The first morsel of solid eaten by a Baby during Annoprashon (Rice Eating Ceremony), the first spoon eaten by the mother-to-be during Baby Shower or Shaadh, the Payesh on every birthday or Jonmodin are memories every true blue Bengali holds precious. 

And the Paayesh is made even more precious and tasty if its made of Nolen Gur (or the solidified version known as Patali Gur for the off season payesh)

Ingredients :
* Full Cream Milk - 2 litres 
* Gobindobhog rice / jeera rice / Basmati rice - 2 fistfuls (1 fistful or 'mutho' per litre i,e approx 45-50gm per litre)
* 2 tbsp of sugar
* Nolen Gur/Patali Gur (date palm jaggery) - approx 90-100gm (45-50gm per litre of milk)

Procedure :
1. Boil milk and reduce it to 3/4 of its original volume. 
2. In the meanwhile, wash rice, drain the water and dry it while the milk is being boiled
3. While stirring the milk, add the washed and dried rice and keep stirring gently till the rice cooks and the milk thickens. The milk should have reduced to 1/2 (i.e 1 litre) by now.
4. Add 2 tbsp of sugar after the rice has softened. An early addition of sugar will stop the rice from softening further.
5. Take the milk-rice mix off the flame. Soften the jaggery by microwaving/heating and add the softened jaggery into the rice-milk mix and . Mix well 
6. Cool it down ....delicious Gur flavoured Payesh is ready for the auspicious occasion.

Chocolate Lava Cake

2 birthdays in the family a span of 4 days!! So this time thought of giving the usual sponge cake a miss..and made Lava Cake Muffins and one small cake in an aluminium foil rectangular container.

Ingredients :

*100g dark chocolate, chopped- I used Bournville Rich Chocolate 
*100g butter
*150g light soft brown sugar-I used 100gm normal white sugar
*3 large eggs
*1/2 tsp vanilla essence
*50g plain flour

*coffee powder / cocoa powder (optional)

Method

11. Preheat the oven to 230C. 

22. Put the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl and set over a pan of hot water (or alternatively put  in the microwave) and stir until smooth, then set aside to cool slightly for 15 minutes.

33. Beat the eggs and Mix in the sugar, and keeping mixing with the eggs, and add  into the chocolate-butter mix followed by the vanilla extract and finally the flour. 

  4. Spray/Smear oil in the muffin tray and the aluminium container. Sprinkle cocoa powder/coffee powder to line the moulds (optional) 

  5. Divide the mixture among the muffin moulds and aluminium container.

46. Bake the muffins for 7-8 minutes at 230 deg C and the aluminium container (slightly bigger) for 12-13 minutes or until the tops are firm to touch but the middles still feel slightly squidgy. Carefully run a knife around the edge of each pudding, then turn out onto serving plates and serve with single cream/vanilla icecream or have it just like that.

Kasundi / Kashundi Maachh

Fish cooked in Kashundi (A Mustard based sauce unique to Bengal)

Quick, Easy & Delicious. Thats what Kashundi/Kasundi Maachh (Bhetki/Basa or for that matter any soft fish) is.

Ingredients 

Bhetki / Basa fillets - 500-750gm

Ginger-Garlic paste (I use homemade) - 1.5 tbspn

Chili flakes / chili powder - depends on heat tolerance

Salt

Crushed Black pepper

Procedure :

1. Bhetki/Basa fillets marinated in ginger, garlic paste, salt, pepper, chilli flakes/chilli powder and generous helping of Kashundi/Kasundi for 1/2 - 1 hr.

2. Drizzle 2-3 tbsp of Mustard Oil to the marinated fish. (This may be eliminated or just a minimum quantity of oil may be used). Mix well and place them evenly in a flat bottomed microwaveable glass container

Slit some green chilies and place them on the 'bed' of fish. 

Microwave on Power 80 for 8-10minutes.

Keep it within the oven for 2-3 minutes. 

Garnish with freshly chopped Coriander leaves.  

Tastes delicious with steamed rice.

Cooking couldnt be faster or easier!!

CUPCAKES ....

...To satiate sugar craving of two little girls....

To put an end to constant whining of two little girls on a weekday evening, when, with Maths exam looming large the following morning, made the option of going to a cake shop/bakery non-feasible, a quick fix solution was to bake these cup cakes.....

Ingredients
All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 3/4 mug (black & white)
Sugar - 3/4 mug (same mug as above)
Eggs -3
White Oil - 3/4 cup of same mug
Baking powder - 1 tbsp
Coffee powder - 1.5 tbsp (may be more/less as per preference)
milk - 1/4 cup
vanilla essence - a few drops
dry fruits - anything ...cashew/raisin/walnut/almonds....I didnt use any due to non-availability
Chocolate sauce for topping

Procedure :

1. Beat the eggs along with the sugar.
2. Mix Maida and baking powder and if using cocoa powder, mix it along.
3. Mix the Whipped egg+sugar and oil in a mixing bowl.
4. Add the maida-baking powder mix to the wet mixture and fold it in.
5. Mix well to get rid of any lumps, if formed.
6. Add vanilla essence, coffee powder and mix.
7. Preheat a greased cup cake / muffin tray at approx 170 deg C
8. Pour the batter in the moulds upto 3/4 level.

9. Decorate the top of each mould (filled with batter) with chocolate sauce/dry fruits/any other sauce as per taste

10. Bake at 170 deg C for 15 minutes.

Delicious cupcakes / muffins are ready!!!

The girls gobbled down the hot cupcakes fresh off the oven...their giggles and joyous look of almost divine pleasure were enough to erase any memory of the nagging and whining of the previous hour.

Grilled masala coated Whole Bhetki with Mashed Potato and Vegetables

A recipe I'd used a number of times and it was super simple and the end result was super delicious. The Source : Preeoccupied's Masala Salmon.

However instead of Salmon, I had used Bhetki / Basa in the past. This time I had a whole Bhetki fish, deboned, sans the head and tail. Used it as a whole instead of making small sized fillets from it. 

Ingredients:

For the Fish:

Deboned Bhetki - approx 1 kg

onion - 1

plain curd - 3/4 cup 

fresh coriander - 3/4 cup 

lemon juice -2 tablespoon 

green chilies-3-4 

ginger - 2 teaspoon (grated)

garlic - 5-6 cloves (minced)

vegetable oil

Salt-to taste

For the mashed potatoes

Potatoes - 4 medium 

Butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Chili flakes

Garlic cloves

For the sauted vegetables:

I used mushrooms, babycorn, peas

Butter

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Procedure :

Fish :

1. Finely chop the onion and deep fry them till they turn red and crispy. Remove the onions from the oil and let it cool. Keep the oil aside.

2. In a blender, add the ginger, garlic, curd, green chilies, coriander, lemon juice, the fried onions, very little of the oil (from the onions) and salt. This blend is the marinade for your fish.

3. Apply a thick layer of this marinade on both sides of the fish. For basting, drizzle the remaining oil you used to fry the onions. 

4. Keep the fish marinated for about 1/2 hour.

5. Place the whole marinated fish on the baking tray and Grill it at around 170-180 deg C about 7-8 minutes on each side. 

Mashed Potatoes :

Boil, mash potatoes.

Fry the mashed potatoes in butter and add salt, freshly ground black pepper and chili flakes, till golden brown in colour

Remove from flame

In 2-3 tbsp of butter , fry garlic cloves till golden brown.

While serving using this butter+fried garlic as the dressing for the mashed potato

Vegetables :

Saute the vegetables in butter with a sprinkling of salt & freshly ground black pepper

Serve the grilled fish with the mashed potato drizzled with butter-fried garlic and sauted vegetables