THALI WITH FISH ...

Hello friends

Today the Thali which I share with you is a fusion and shows how diverse our culture and food habits are

The menu is…

Chole or chickpea curry which is a north Indian dish which is very commonly cooked all over India

Karela or bitter gourd stir fried with a little spicy masala powder

Surmai and prawn fry . Here fish is fried in a typical Gaon way by applying chilli, haldi, garlic paste got together with a little tamarind water.

you have to then shallow fry the fish.

Roti, I had also made Rice and dal which is not in the picture as I serve it when the Rotis are eaten. Like Rice is the second course in the main course..

TISRYACHE DANGAR ( clams cutlet)

This is an extremely tasty appetizer.. very unique and you won’t find it being cooked in many households and the reason I think is that the cleaning of the clams is a tedious process which takes time and patience.

I first tasted it at my sister in laws house … My mom had never cooked this so it was a new dish for me. I love tasting new stuff and that is so contrary to my nature as when I was growing I would never ever taste anything new, I would stick to the regular so that I don’t have to experiment with new tastes. Even when we went to restaurants I had my fixed dishes for each restaurant which I would taste.  Look at me now; I am always ready to try something new.

My sister in law loves to cook and I must say is a pretty good cook. She made this for her birthday party for the first time and since then it’s a regular at all our family get together's. This is served as an appetizer .

I love this dish for its simplicity, the only difficult part being the removal of the flesh of the clams from it shell which is very time consuming.

If you do get this clam flesh ready and removed it is the easiest and tastiest dish one can make. 

We go to the fish market to get the clams, clean them well, and then have to open each and every clam at the center to remove the flesh.

SO HERE IS THE RECIPE FOR CLAMS CUTLET.

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup clams flesh

1 cup freshly grated coconut

½ cup onions finely chopped

2-3 cloves of garlic finely chopped (this is optional)

2 tsps chili powder

1 tsp turmeric or haldi powder

1 tsp garam masala powder

Pulp of a little tamarind soaked in warm water

Finely chopped coriander leaves

Rice flour just enough to bring all the ingredients together to form a cutlet.

You can add a little besan or chick pea flour too but this is optional

Salt to taste.

METHOD:

The procedure is very simple, Jut mix together al l the above ingredients in a bowl, add just enough rice flour that the mixture comes together and can be molded into a cutlet.

Take oil in a non-stick pan and shallow fry the cutlets till they are nice and crisp on the top.

SPICY FISH CURRY

When fish curry is made at home , we have a specific combination or ingredients which go into the coconut gravy for a particular fish.. you cannot make the prawn curry ingredient for the king fish curry or the vice versa...

So when you see that I have made a curry, know that its specifically made for that particular fish so the curries are fish oriented .. sometimes the same gravy can be used for one another type of fish but that's all no more...


Today I am giving you the recipe of a favorite of mine and that's the hot and spicy mackerel fish curry... I love to have it with rice (that's normal in a goan household) but I love it with roti too.. It should be had hot i.e off the stove with nice basmati rice ...you can have a goan papad with it too as an accomplishment...or a side...

INGREDIENTS

1 cup freshly grated coconut

 3 bedgi chilies which give a red ( i.e. orange with haldi ) colour to the curry and spicy

 One inch ginger piece

 Haldi powder ½ tsp

 A small ball tamarind and salt to taste.

A berry called “teffal” is added at the end to give the required specific  flavor to the dish. (I think it’s from the schezwan pepper family)

Mackerels are washed , cleaned and cut into convenient pieces.

METHOD:
In a pan add about ½ cup of water and cook one green chili and a small piece of ginger which is lightly crushed

Grind together coconut, red chilies, turmeric powder, tamarind and ginger.
Put it in a pan and dilute it with water till the required consistency.
Add salt, crushed teffal fruit and cook till mixture boils.
Add the mackerel pieces and cook till the fish is cooked, which takes about 5 mins.
you can adjust  the taste by adding a little tamarind juice if it’s too hot .

I hope you enjoy the curry . Teffal is a very important ingredient in this dish for the flavour it gives which is quite strong so I recommend if you try it for the first time you can leave it out (it tastes great even without it..) ..secondly you might find it very commonly so its better to try this dish without it...

A PROPER MEAL FOR GUESTS*****

It’s been a very very very long time since that I have written a post, but its not that I won’t be writing anymore or that I will be so infrequent like the way I have been, Its only that I have not been in the same frame of mind that I was before.
Whenever I do something I need to be in the right frame of mind for that, and that may be anything as little as going for a walk or to the market.
When I write I want it to come from my heart and not write for the sake of writing, and so I did not do much posting but I did click photos occasionally and so I have some good photos and posts pending, hope you like them.

ROASTED CORN SALAD

In Goa, my native place food is given a lot of importance in one’s life and guests are considered god, hospitality is at its highest I have seen in Goa. Whenever I have someone visiting me from Goa I usually make a meal which looks like the one that you see here.

FRIED PRAWNS
The meal comprises of One dry vegetable, one wet vegetable, salad, chapatti, rice, fish curry, sol kadi (not in the picture) and fried fish. So fish plays a very very important part of a Goan meal and that does not mean make a fried fish and feel happy nope!!!! There will be at least three dishes which will have fish in it. Fish fried and fish curry is almost compulsory.

TEESRYO SUKHE(DRY CLAMS)

Guess what are the items made by me, I don’t think it will be very difficult

CABBAGE PEA ONION DRY VEGETABLE

FISH CURRY

SHALLOW FRIED SURMAI OR KINGFISH
HERE IS THE RECIPE FOR TEESRYO SUKHE....

http://goanche.blogspot.com/2006/06/dry-clams-masala.html

TEESRYACHE SUKHE or dry clam masala

INGREDIENTS:

3 cups clams or teesryo3 medium onions finely choppedLots of chopped coriander11/2 cups of grated coconutRed chili powder to tasteTurmeric powder1tsp dhania powder1 tsp garam masala powderSalt to tasteTamarind pulp or kokum depending on tasteThe whole preparation should be hot and sour

METHOD:

Very very simple to make..Just mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and mix thoroughly with your handsIn a pan take a tbsp of oil in Goa we take coconut oil as it gives a nice flavorAnd put the mix in pour water till the whole mix is just about immersed you can put less water too if you want it very very dry.Cook on low heat for about 15 mins till the water evaporatesIts ready to eat. ENJOY!!!!NOW ,HERE IS THE RECIPE OF “TOI” -------

PRAWN MASALA.....

Everyone loves prawns, I have yet to meet someone who does not like prawns, as for me I love them in any form and size, so when I purchase prawns from the fish market I usually store them in smaller individual portions. This makes it easier to remove a packet each, and make the dish of my choice (off course, I make my portions keeping the various dishes that I would like to make in mind. As my fish curry does not need too many prawns which a prawn pulao needs prawns in a much larger quantity)

I had my sister in laws kids for lunch and I wanted to make something different which I had not done earlier and which would be quite chatpata i.e. hot and sour.
So here is my prawn dish…

INGREDIENTS

1 cup medium sized prawns
2 medium sized onions blanched and pureed
2 small tomatoes finely chopped
1tsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp Kashmiri chili powder for colour
1 tsp red chili powder
½ tsp garam masala.
½ tsp haldi or turmeric powder
Finely chopped coriander for garnish
Salt to taste.

METHOD

Take oil in a pan
Stir fry onions till light brown, add ginger garlic paste and stir
Add the pureed tomatoes and stir till oil separates
Add all the masala’s and stir
Add the prawns, add a little water and let it cook till the prawns are cooked, which takes about 3 mins.
Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves
Serve with hot rotis or steaming hot rice

PROMFRET HUGHE....

My hubs says " THIS PHOTOGRAPH LOOKS LIKE A CROCODILE , SWIMMING IN MARSHY WATERS"
This comment .... for a dish which i so lovingly prepared for him and only him.."sniff--sniff"
But then thats okkkk.... as the finished product was fabulous , so the taste is what counts right...
He was full of appreciation too..." yeyyy "and ate two chapatis extra ...


So this is as we call it "papaletche hughe paplet meaning promfret"

papletche hughe is actually a promfret dry dish or sukhe which i make a little watery than required as my hubs likes to have it with chapatis or rotis...

INGREDIENTS

11/2 cup fresh grated coconut
1 cm ginger finely shredded
1 medium onion finely shredded.
1 tsp haldi powder
11/2 tsp chili powder
Marble size tamarind
Pieces of promfret (that’s the only fish done in this manner)
Salt to taste
Coconut oil
Coriander finely chopped for garnish.

METHOD

Take a pan and use a little coconut oil fry the finely chopped onion and finely chopped ginger (only half of the full amount), don’t make them brown
They should just turn colour and become translucent.
Grind together coconut, haldi, chilli, tamarind. And half of the ginger.
Don’t make the above paste too watery it should be thick as shown in the picture.
Pour the ground mixture into the translucent onions.
Let it boil, then gently slide the fish pieces into the mixture and let them cook
Garnish with finely chopped coriander leaves.
HUGHE IS READY TO EAT….

FRIED FISH....

FRIED FISH is a very important part of our day to day menu, not that i fry fish everyday as i feel that too much fried items are not very healthy for consumtion.

when i do buy fish which is about once a week ,sometimes twice. The first thing i do is i fry the best pieces on the first day. Frying fish is taken very seriously in our house and everyone especially my dear hubby is very particular that it should be evenly fried with the right amount of oil and the end product should not be oily i.e. when he picks up a piece there should not be too much oil oozing out on his fingers.
I learnt this art of frying fish from my mother in law , when she completes her fring you will not find a drop of oil on the tawa and everything is so clean.

Different types of fish are fried in a different fashion i.e the masala we apply on the fish varies with the type of fish.
SURMAI: marinate the fish in tamarind juice,garlic paste , chilli powder , haldi powder and salt
marinate for 1/2 hour.
roll the fish in coarsely ground rice flour and fry.
you can see the coarse rice flour on the fried fish in the above photos.
EXCESS OIL BEING EXTRACTED...

PROMFRET AND MUDDASHI are light fish which do not have a strong smell hence they can be simply fried. with chilli powder,haldi and salt.

PRAWNS!!!!!!!!

PRAWNS….. Wow….
This is the tastiest of the variety of crustaceans available in the market.
Whenever I bring prawns from the market I usually keep them in 4 packets to be used later for 4 different types of dishes so that I make most of my visit to the market.
I make the following dishes frequently although there are many more which I do occasionally I will be writing about them as and when I make them so let me tell you about the four dishes first…
I make goan prawn curry
I make pulses with prawn masala curry
I make prawn pulao and finally
I make fried prawns, which are the tastiest of all.

Today I am going to give you a recipe of PRAWN PULAO
ING:
Whole garam masala- cardamom, cloves, dalchini and pepper
2 big onions finely chopped
2 tsps ginger- garlic-greenchilli paste
1 tsp each of haldi and dhania jeera powder
2 tsp biryani pulao masala
Chili powder if you require it to be more tikkha… or spicy
2 cups basmati rice
One cup shelled, deveined prawns.
Lemon juice and finely chopped coriander leaves.

METHOD:

Take oil in a heavy bottom pan add the whole garam masala.
Add the finely chopped onions to it and stir till they become soft
Add the ginger-garlic-green chili paste
Let it cook and let the fragrance leave the kitchen and enter all the rooms
Then to this add the haldi, dhania and biryani pulao masala
Let it fry for some time and then add the prawns.
Let the prawns cook. They cook very fast.
Add the washed rice to the above mixture and stir
Add 4 cups of boiling hot water (double the quantity of rice) if the vessel is airtight like a pressure cooker you can add less water.
Add salt, lemon juice and finely chopped coriander leaves and let it cook till all the water evaporates and you get nice and fragrant rice.