A comeback of sorts and Oh, A happy New Year Folks! ,

That is right. I am aware, oh so aware, that I have been missing in action since a long, long time now. I was away mostly travelling, celebrating a massive Christmas this year and then faffing around on FB. It is not much of an excuse but will have to do. FB has become the bane of my life and today, just like that, I decided to pull myself away from it and slather some TLC on my poor blog. If only I would spend some time being useful and productive, I would have been filling up this blog with yummylicious food which, by the way,  I do cook on a regular basis. Sorry that I haven't gotten  around to sharing them yet. I hope to change all that soonly though. :)

I am going to keep this as short as possible. Do let me wish my two and  a half readers, a fabulous new year which already seems to be speeding along! Anyhow, those of you who blog hop, must be kind of expecting some kind of  'good wishes' on the blogs you visit, so I dont see why should I be rude and not do it as well. Have you ever seen such a long and convulated New Year Greetings ever? Well then, here is it...

Have yourselves a fabulous year ahead... whatever is left of it, be safe, be happy and please be eating  good food everyday!

Now, I do not have any fancy-shmancy recipe to share with you. I have a lot going on in the other departments of my life and it will take some time before I warm up to blogging about 'noticeably' lovely food which might want to make you try them asap. I am sharing a really easy and simple Minty-Tomatoey-Fish Masala recipe, served with a simple steamed rice or even a mildly spiced, fragrant Pulao. It will become a keeper, thats how simple and delicious it is. The recipe came off from the top of my head, so there are no rules to follow. You will need :

6-8                 pieces of any firm fleshed fish steak. I used King Fish.

1                     very large Tomato, grated, skin and all included. Or finely chopped.

1'                   grated ginger

4-6                fresh green chillies, slit whole.

1/2 cup        fresh mint leaves, chopped up

1/2 cup        fresh corriander leaves

Juice of one medium seized fresh lemon

4-5 tbsp      mustard or any vegetable oil

The spices:

1/2 tsp     turmeric

1/2 tsp     salt (to smear over the fish)

1.5tsp       roasted and coarsely crushed cumin seeds

1/2 tsp     Panch Phoron (optional) I dont always use this

Salt to taste

Wash and pat dry the fish pieces. Smear them with turmeric powder and salt and keep aside for about half an hour. Next up, heat the oil in a wok. Once the oil is heated through, tip in the green chillies and panch phoron (if you are using). Let it sizzle for a few seconds. Slide in the fish pieces at this point and lightly brown them on both sides taking care not to cook them completely. This should take about 2-3 minutes on both sides on high heat. Then you shift the fish to the sides of the wok and arrange them in a circle making an oil well in the middle. Let the chillies remain in this well. Something like the picture that follows...

Next to go in will be the chopped tomatoes, let them sit in this well too, spread the chopped mint and corriander leaves, sprinkle the roasted and crushed cumin, squeeze that lemon now, season with salt but dont stir just yet, cover and cook for about 15 minutes on very low heat. 

The fish will cook in all the juices being relased by the tomatoes which will turn all mushy. You must not stir it untill just before sereving and that too, to just mix the salt well. Once you are ready to serve, arrange the cooked fish pieces in a bowl and then pour the thick sauce over it. Give the sauce a good mix before you do so. Serve, garnished with some more fresh mint and corriander leaves. I served this with dal, rice and sauted mushrooms. I have also served this on a bed of fresh, crisp salad of lettuce, onion rings and cucumber cuts and roasted-crushed peanuts. Simple, easy to cook and as elegant as you want to believe it to be!

That is how I have begun my year too. After a lot of introspection, soul searching and getting rid of rubbish, here's to an all round calm and peaceful year ahead. Take it easy folks. Cheers!

The Bong in Me- Part 1

I love Bengali cuisine. I did not always, because for me, it was an acquired taste. Almost all my neighbours back home are Bengali. I really had no chance to escape their influence growing up, so finally, I succumbed. I will often repeat myself here that I dont much care for fish/sea food. Let me modify my stance- I do like fish cooked the Bengali way! There, I have said it publicly.

Around a year or so ago, I was searching for food blogs with autehntic Bengali recipes, especialy Bhapa Doi- Steamed, sweetened Yoghurt- a Begali dessert and a huge delicacy even amongst us non Bengalis. Trawling through the net, I stumbled upon this lovelyyyyy blog called preeoccupied . I was in love. Loved her posts on  food/cooking and life in general.... She is a Bengali who makes the most mundane meals look exotic! On her blog, I also found almost all of the traditional,authentic Bengali recipes. When facebook happened , I drew major inspiration from her pcitures and the sheer effort she puts in to everything she cooks. She says she cooks because she cares! And it shows! (And I know I started a sentence with And. Twice.It is OK) This blog actually owes it's inspiration to Pree. Do go and visit her and enjoy the visual feast(s). In the mean time I am sharing a simple steamed Pomfret recipe, taken and adapted from here. 

The recipe requires Ilish or Hilsa, however, I was impatient to recreate my childhood memories of eating fish steamed in mustard sauce at my Bengali friends' homes. I was also more anxious about getting the marinade right the first time rather than fuss about the kind of fish, and anyway, what will I know about the 'right' fish!! So I made it with fresh white Pomfret. Again the original recipe requires use of Banana leaves to make little parcels for the marinated fish pieces, mine were over, so modified with the use of kitchen foil. I am sure the banana leaves gives it a unique flavour and can probably not be substituted, but anyhow, maybe next time.

How to:

1 medium to large size of : Pomfret
1 tsp of Poppy seeds( optional , since for readers of the Middle East, use of Poppy seeds is banned)
1 tsp of Mustard seeds each-of yellow and fine + the bigger, black ones
4-5 fresh green chillis
1 tsp, levelled turmeric powder
Salt to taste
2-4 tbsp of Mustard oil.

Also need a steaming contraption. I simply used a sauce pan filled 1/4 with water and set on rolling boil with a steel strainer on it. Like below.

In a coffee grinder/mixer, grind all the seeds together, then add about 2 tbsp of water, green chillis, turmeric powder. I also added half of the oil being used. Make a thick paste. Marinate the fish in this for at least 30 minutes to an hour. Drizzle the remaining oil over it . I marinated mine  for almost 4 hours because I was busy and did not have time to cook it before that. Well, that was good because Pomfret has a thick skin, so by the time I did get around to steaming it, it had absorbed the marinade perfectly. Now, wrap the fish lightly in almunium foil and seal all edges. Steam for 20 minutes on medium to high heat. Serve warm with plain steamed rice. Or in my case, with a big bowl of salad greens only. :) Everybody, give it up for my lovely lady Pomfret posing for us.

This was bliss after oh, so many years!!!

Fish Fry-The only kind I seem to know!!

I grew up in a small town called Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, North India. It is a town sacred to Hindus/Buddhists and eating a lot of non vegetarian food is not the norm. However, many people ofcourse do. The preferred meat of choice is lamb and chicken. Fish is consumed largely by the Bengali folks here and Pork/Beef meat, hardly at all. Like most of the regular families, mine also mostly eats lamb and chicken although my father loves fish/seafood. My mother is allergic to all kinds of fish as a result of which, cooking fish was a rarity in my house. Me and my brother never developed a taste for it and till date we often struggle to get reasonably excited  to eat fish.

All that changed for me when I fell in love with a South Indian boy! My husband is from Kerela and was  brought up in Chennai. He is from a family which is a hardcore fish/seafood  eating one. They sometimes even eat fish curries for breakfast! This is some kind of 'blasphemy' for a staid north Indian like me-food wise that is. Anyhow, I quickly realised after getting married that I will have to buy, clean and cook fish on a very,very regular basis if I was to be peacefuly and happily married. Oh dear! I had never ever bought fish, never cleaned or cooked it before my marriage. This was going to be a genuine test for me. Over the years though, I am happy to report, I have surprisingly grown fond of at least all kinds of shell fish , if not fresh water. I do feel squeamish cleaning it but have now mastered many kinds of curries and dry fish dishes which my husband says is almost 'Malayalee' (Keralite). Most of the curries/fries I know belong to Kerela and I never use Bengali styles of cooking fish because my husband actively dislikes bengali cuisine. I cook fish at least four times a week if not everyday.

The recipe I am going to share today is my all time go-to recipe for a quick and simple fried fish. Requiring minimum marination time, I recommend using Sardines or Mackeral, which is what I have seen being used in Kerela cuisine. I sometimes go a step further in changing up the marinade slightly which also tastes just as nice. Husband of mine is one happy bunny whenever I make this. The traditional way I have seen my mother in law marinating is the use of simply- tumeric powder, red chilli powder and salt to taste. She then shallow fries the marinated fish. Thats is. I however add corrainder powder, black pepper powder and fresh lemon juice too. You can prepare your marinade whichever way you wish to. My mother in law's method is just as good and keeps the flavours more natural and fresh.

How to:

4-5 pieces of small to medium sized whole Sardines/Mackeral, not sliced.
1 tsp heaped red chilli powder or according to preferance
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp corriander powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper powder (optional)
salt to taste
Juice of 1 lemon if large in size or juice of 2 small sized lemons.

To be used when frying the fish:

5-6 tbsp any vegetable or coconut oil (which I personaly dislike)
1 tsp heaped ginger/garlic paste
5-6 curry leaves

Mix the ingredients listed in the first section in a bowl and marinate the fish pieces in it for at least half an hour. As usual, the longer you marinate your meat, the better the taste. But fish being so tender as a meat, does not usually demand a very long marinating time. Anyhow.

Now, this is where I do it slightly differently apart from using corriander powder in the marinade. Some people also apply a small quantity of ginger-garlic paste to the fish. I used to do that too but realised that when I started to fry them, they would quickly burn and taste bitter. So now this is how I fry the marinated fish.

Take about 5-6 tbsp of cooking oil in a frying pan. Once it is heated through, add in 1 tsp of heaped ginger-garlic paste. Brown this paste to a nice golden brown but take care not to burn it. Now place the marinated fish pieces in the pan and shallow fry till crisp, and browned on both sides. Say about 4-5 minutes in each side on a high or medium flame. The use of ginger garlic paste this way gives it a nice crunch and colour. In the last 2 minutes of frying, I also throw in a few curry leaves, about 5-6. Curry leaves used at this stage takes it to a whole new level.

Here are some pictures to guide you along.

The marinated fish above.

Fried with some curry leaves and fresh green chillis.

Serve fresh along with Sambhar and rice or even just as is at the start of the meal with some sliced onions and crisply fried green chillis.