I always knew I was in a mixed marriage. We were married by both a priest and a rabbi in two separate ceremonies. I've been vegetarian, and even vegan off and on for years. I cooked meat for Alan, but now he's changed it up. I am now living with a piscetarian. Last year Alan changed his eating habits and has now come over to eating more like me. He's getting a lot of vegan and vegetarian meals, his butter has been swapped out for olive oil, and there's almond milk in his latte instead of the regular whole milk. Lots of healthy changes and the biggest for him has been fish.
I grew up going to Catholic school and eating fish on Fridays. Fish was not a big part of his life, unless you count the sturgeon at Barney Greengrass and even for me, my mother practiced what I like to call Brutalist Cuisine. Fish was cooked into carbon covered with breading, cakes came out raw molten in the middle. The oven was never preheated, one just turned it on shoved the food in and hoped for the best. Directions and recipes? Those are for suckers. Thoughts and prayers was what we used. None of this was accidental, this was deliberate. This was how things were cooked at Fran's house. Did I mention she didn't like to cook? A lot of it was based on the fact that she never thought she would ever have to cook, but hey, she married the immigrant's son her family didn't like, so the money-train pulled out of the station and she got behind the stove.
My moms fish skills even gave me fish trauma. It took quite a while to learn that fish could actually be fantastic if cooked correctly, and when I started cooking Indian food nearly 30 years ago, I discovered Indian cuisine has lots of amazing fish recipes from all parts of the subcontinent. Some of the best come from Kerala and since Alan was no longer demanding meat every day, but was open to the idea of fish in his diet, I got to work introducing him to some great Indian fish dishes.
It's one thing to cook on a weekend with time aplenty, but I cook every day in the middle of a writing schedule, so what I cook on weekdays has to be relatively quick and easy. Our main meal is lunch at midday, Alan has an early dinner of the left-overs, or I cook something simple for him. I eat a few vegetables and then we basically fast for about 12 to 15 hours until the next morning. So a good hearty lunch is important. Fast, healthy, filling. That's the name of the game, which is why I love this recipe.
Spicy Kerala Baked Fish
Here's What You Need:
4 fillets of fish. I used cod for this recipe
2 large shallots
1 Tbs Kashmiri chili
1/4 tsp turmeric powder
1/2 tsp Coriander powder
A few good grinds of black pepper
2 tsp of shallot/ginger paste
1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp coconut, oilive or other vegetable oil.
1 tsp chopped curry leaves
salt to taste.
Here's What To Do:
Pat the cod fillets dry with a paper towel, and place them on a plate.
Put the ginger and shallot into a grinder or food processor...
...and grind to a paste.
Measure out 2 tsp, and store the rest for another use.
Now place the 2 tsp back into the grinder and add everything else listed above.
When it's all ground together, rub it on the fish fillets.
Coat the fish on both sides.
Pop the fish into the fridge for 1/2 to 1 hour to marinate.
Meanwhile, preheat the over to 400 degrees.
Take a baking sheet, cover it with foil and brush it with oil.
When you're ready to cook, place the fish fillets on the baking sheet, spaced an inch apart and bake uncovered for about 15 minutes, then turn the fish fillets over and bake for another 15 minutes.
I served this with Cashew Rice and an Indian creamed spinach.
Spicy hot, slightly crispy, lying on a bed of rice studded with cashews, and sultana raisins, it hit the spot taste-wise and time-wise, and the leftovers reheated up easily for Alan's dinner that night. He loved it and it's going in my regular rotation. I think he'd have started eating fish a long time ago if he'd had recipes like this, as it's a great dish for the fish-curious.
Next week we're starting our planting for this year's vegetable crop. I've missed the ability to get most of our groceries out of the back yard. We've been hit with the atmospheric river so many times this winter that things are just bursting into bloom, so I'm looking forward to bumper crops in everything. Coming up next what the garden brings me. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori
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