A Simple South Indian Fish Curry. Make it in 60 Minutes For The Perfect Lunch or Dinner.

 
   With all the crap going on out in the world right now, frankly I haven't been much in the mood to write about food.  However, everyone's got to eat and I get a lot of relaxation out of cooking. It's almost a form of zen for me. So even though we may be consumed with the outside world, it's good and healthy to drop back a bit and feed yourself and your family  something delicious like this fish curry. Alan is now mainly eating a vegetarian diet, with the exception of fish, so I guess he's actually a pescetarian . Every couple of days I interrupt the vegetarian/vegan leanings and toss him a fish.  The guy has given up burgers after all. 

There are a lot of amazing fish dishes in the cuisine of South India, and many of them involve coconut, using either coconut milk, or ground coconut. This recipe uses plain ground coconut. One can use either fresh or frozen coconut meat. I used plain grated, unsweetened dried coconut for this dish. I have the fresh at my disposal but I wanted to make sure the recipe could work for people who might have access only to the dried coconut found in most markets. Everything else in the dish is readily available with the exception of the fresh curry leaves and if you don't have those, just leave them out as there is no substitute.

So grab yourself some fresh firm meaty fish (I used cod but snapper, hake, pollack etc will do just fine) and get your curry on. The other great thing about this recipe? It's ready in under an hour which makes it a perfect lunch dish for our writing week.

South Indian Dry Fish Curry

Here's What You Need:

The Paste:
1 and 1/4 lbs of firm fleshed white fish (I used cod in this dish)
1 small onion finely chopped
1 fresh tomato chopped
1 Tbs whole balck p[eppercorns
6 dried red chilies
1 and 1/2 tsp of salt
3/4 cup plus 1/8 cup of grated dried unsweetened coconut

The Fish:
3 Tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp brown mustard seeds
1 tsp urad dal (if you don't have it leave it out)
2 tsp turmeric
2/3 cup of water
A handful of fresh curry leaves
A handful of chopped fresh cilantro

Here's What To Do:

Put all the paste ingredients in the bowl of a food processor...

...and grind them up.

Cut the fish into cubes.

Get your urad dal (if you have it) mustard seeds and turmeric together.

Heat the vegetable oil in a skillet or kadhai.
When the oil is hot add in the urad dal and mustard seeds.
When they strt to sizzle and pop, add in the Paste...

...and turmeric.

Cook everything for about 3 minutes until it turns fragrant then add the water.

Bring the water to a boil, and when it's boiling add in the fish.

Cook everything for 5 minutes or until the fish is fully cooked.
Shake the pan every now and then to cook things evenly. Be certain nothing is sticking and burning.
Then add the curry leaves if using them...

...and the cilantro...

...and you are done! I prepared some basmati rice cooked with cashews, sultanas, cinnamon, and saffron. I served the fish curry on top of that.

You can also serve this with chapattis, or any green vegetable dish.

This cooks up really quickly which makes it a perfect weekday meal, but it also looks pretty cool which makes it company-worthy if you add a bunch of other Indian dishes to go along. I love an entree that takes less than and hour especially during these super-hot summer months!!!

So there you have it. A simple, easy fish curry.
Coming up next by request a White Peach Lavender Frangpane Tart that happens to be #glutenfree.

Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

     

Fish Story! A Quick and Easy Recipe For An Unexpected Lunch.

   As a kid, my family and I spent many summers north of San Francisco at Lake Tahoe. Tahoe, if you've never seen it is a large freshwater lake that straddles the border of California and Nevada.

At the North Shore where we used to go, the water is deep blue and icy cold. Tahoe is the largest Alpine lake in North America, and the second deepest lake behind Crater Lake. When I was younger, the stories told about Tahoe were many including the fact that in certain parts it was mysteriously "bottomless."  This was enough to creep out the kids around the campfire, as who knew what might be living down there. Sea monsters, demons, the Loch Tahoe Monster? As it turns out something pretty damn big, which happens to also be pretty damn tasty....Mackinaw.

Lake Tahoe Mackinaw caught by Gene St. Dennis
   
   We were coming back from our morning walk with Patsy the other day when Leo, our neighbor from across the road popped out and asked us if we ate fish. Yes, I said. He then proceeded to give us an enormous slab of fresh caught Tahoe Mackinaw. He told me it looked and tasted just like Salmon. So, never one to look a gift fish in the mouth, I took it home and tried to figure out what to do with it.
    
   The first thing I did was look up Mackinaw in Google and read that it indeed tasted and looked like salmon. So I decided to see how people went about cooking this particular sort of fish. Mackinaw can be pretty fatty and in some cases can stink up the house (or so I read) so I decided we needed to cook this sucker outside. While Alan prepped the grill, I looked around to see what I had to work with in the pantry. Corn, maple syrup, prosciutto and spinach were all fresh. I'd been planning a different sort of lunch, not involving any of these foods but hey, when nature gives you mackinaw....

Lake Trout Cooked In Corn Husks

Here's What You Need:
1 lb of Lake Trout
1/4 cup of maple syrup
2 ears of corn
4 thin slices of prosciutto
salt to taste

Here's What To Do:
Preheat the grill to about 400 degrees.
Pat the fish dry, and remove any fatty parts.
Husk the corn and place the corn husks on a cookie sheet.
Place the fish skin side down on top of the corn husks and brush with a bit of the maple syrup.

Place the thin strips of prosciutto on top of the fish.

Place the cookie sheet of fish on the grill.

Close the lid and cook for about 10 minutes or until it flakes easily.
I also roasted the corn beside the fish.
Meanwhile I dusted 1/2 a lime with kashmiri chili.

When the fish is done. Remove it from the corn husks and serve it up. Rub the lime on top of the roasted corn... you don't need any butter. I served this with small gluten-free spinach tarts.

   Leo was right, the mackinaw tasted just like salmon and I didn't risk having a stinky fish house since all the cooking was done outdoors. I imagine the same technique can be used on regular salmon.  It was a fast, unexpected lunch from surprise fish and fridge and pantry items. Seems like my old Girl Scout motto, always be prepared does come in handy once in a while. Coming up next, more Indian food, a great prize giveaway from The Chaunk and GitaDini follow along on Twitter @kathygori
    

Leap Into Summer. Fish With Mustard Masala!

Things changed this week. All of a sudden after rain storms and hail all in the month of May, Summer seems to have arrived. Sort of.
The weather was beautiful on Monday morning, so we put up our summer dining tent on the deck. Each year when we do this, it's sort of like one of those team building exercises  from Survivor and we try to get through it without killing each other or voting someone off the island, if you know what I mean.
 Seeing that it was Meatless Monday and we had company for lunch, I decided that good Catholic Schoolgirl that I once was, fish would be ok for a meatless day.
I baked naan bread, and had Sanjanas' cold mango buttermilk soup and grated cauliflower salad, but I needed a centerpiece for the meal.
Fish seemed the perfect solution. Light, versatile and on sale at Sonoma Market that day.
Basa fish was my choice. It's a nice mild, firm-fleshed fish that seems to get along with whatever it's introduced to. In this case it was a mustard masala sauce. I originally ran across this recipe in the cookbook Ajanta from the Berkeley restaurant of the same name. This is my adaptation of it.
  A lot of fish recipes involve frying, and things can get a bit greasy. I like to try and do things without all the oil, so the fish in this dish instead of being traditionally fried and then added to the sauce, is poached gently during the last step of preparation, neatly bypassing  the frying factor. Happy arteries, happy life!
  Here's what you do.
   In a deep skillet or kadhai heat about 3 Tbs of vegetable oil.
 When the oil is nice and hot toss in:
2 tsp. of mustard seeds
2 tsp of nigella seeds

When the mustard seeds start to pop toss in:
8 shallots finely chopped.

Stir fry it for a few moments then add in:
3 onions. Cut them in quarters and thinly slice them.
Lower the heat and saute them for about 15 minutes or until they've softened and turned translucent.

Add in:
4 chopped tomatoes . Note: if you can't get great fresh tomatoes, use a good quality canned tomato.
Stir the tomatoes around for about 8 minutes or so.

Now for the spices. Add in:
2 Tsp of turmeric
2 tsp of paprika
1/2 tsp of cayenne pepper
2 tsp of cumin
2 tsp of mustard seeds (pulse them in a spice grinder first)
2 tsp of salt 

Keep sauteeing for about another 5 minutes and then add in
1/2 cup of ground almonds
Lower the heat and cook for another 10 minutes.

When the sauce has thickened add:
2 lbs of catfish, basa, or other mild firm fleshed fish that has been cut into 2 inch pieces.

Cook the fish gently until it flakes easily.

This is an easy recipe, a real family favorite at our house and perfect for those summer fish sales.
    I've also been baking artisan bread. The famous NY Times no-knead artisan bread recipe has been making the rounds on line and the minute I saw it, I just had to get into the act. I have a terrible bread jones and can't resist it in any form. They had me at no-knead. Alan too. I've been very good around this bread. I bake it, but I'm trying not to sample too much of my own product. Alan enjoys it for breakfast. Today I decided to go the whole wheat route and was very pleased with the results. So pleased I couldn't resist getting Alan to take some pictures.

Meanwhile, The 14th marks my 1st Blogiversary and a Giveaway!
About my Giveaway
 As I mentioned before, our 1st Blogiversary is approaching and the people at Early Morning Pottery have given me 2 of their wonderful ceramic Chicken Cookers, and 1 set of Game Hen Cookers to give away in celebration. The rules are simple:
 Rule 1
 On Your Blog:  Post about The Colors Of Indian Cooking and this contest on your blog
or
 On Twitter: Tweet about The Colors Of Indian Cooking. (Include @kathygori in your Tweet)
or
 On Facebook: Become a Fan of The Colors Of Indian Cooking Facebook Page here and talk about it on your Facebook status.
or
   Become a follower of The Colors Of Indian Cooking
or
  Follow @kathygori on Twitter
 Rule 2
  Leave a comment on this blog with a link to your activity.
  That's it.
 Winners will be chose at random on June 14th .
 Good luck!