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..

EVERYDAY MEAL...

I love posting what I cook on a day to day basis.. If it was possible I would have posted one daily .
But with our day to day routine its just impossible to click pictures and make a new post everyday, but I will try to post as many thali's or meals that I can and I hope this will help you plan your meals too..
My intention of sharing my daily meals with you is that those who also have to make a whole meal everyday might get inspired or get some tips and ideas as to their meal planning..
I normally plan in such a way that if there is a spicy vegetable on the plate I will make something light i.e non spicy with the rice .. 
We eat rice and rotis every morning and hence I have to have one or two vegetables for my lunch and also something with  the rice ..which is Dal or fish curry.. 
When I make a fish curry , I make very simple vegetables which are only simply tempered with mustard and chillies ..
Here I share with you one such thali or meal on a plate.

                                                         DRUMSTICK CURRY

                                   
                                                FRENCH BEANS AND BABY CORN

MENU...

DRUMSTICK CURRY WITH ROTI
DRY FRENCH BEAN AND BABY CORN VEGETABLE
FRIED MACKEREL
TOMATO SAR WITH RICE (not pictured )

EGG SUKHA*****

EGG SUKHA..

I am not writing the ingredients and proportions because they are all optional as the taste of this vegetable does not change with a little more of this or that , for those who cook at home its a simple dish which can be done at a moments notice ( the time taken for boiling the eggs is what counts)

 

Slice onion thick as seen in the picture, slice tomatoes also in the same manner , boil eggs in a separate pan , you should have hard boiled eggs.

 

Take a pan add oil, add the sliced onions and stir till they change colour but do not become brown, add finely sliced garlic cloves, stir for some more time add the tomatoes and salt stir and cook covered for sometime till the tomatoes leave a little water or become a bit soft (They don't have to be very soft again it depends on ones taste). Add capsicum (optional) and let them cook for sometime or you can directly add the red chilli powder, haldi powder and dhania-jeera powder add a little garam masala (optional).add curry leaves at this stage to retain the fresh flavour . Then add the eggs and garnish with finely chopped coriander. Dish is ready to be eaten with hot hot rotis or chapatis....

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

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.

mackeral fish curry...

Fish plays an important part in the diet of goan people along with rice and coconut. Goans eat fish at least 6 days a week and that one remaining day i.e. mostly Monday is left free for religious reasons and many a times to get the satisfaction of detoxifying oneself off meat…by eating pure veg.
But come Tuesday and you will see goans at the fish market even before the first fisherwoman arrives there heavily laden with the freshest fish one can ever find.
The scene at the market is worth a dekho….. with people bargaining the fish sellers arguing, and everyone trying to get their hands on the best of the best , and after the buy you will see their faces aglow with anticipation thinking of the afternoon hot meal of rice ,fried fish , fish curry , dry vegetable and sol kadi( a type of appetizer).
Here I give you a recipe of banga or mackeral fish curry which is called bangda hooman in our goan lanquage.

BANGDA HOOMAN: mackeral fish curry

INGREDIENTS

1 cup fresh grated coconut, 3 bedgi chillies which are red and hot , one inch ginger piece, haldi powder ½ tsp, chilli powder if required 1 tsp , a small ball tamrind , salt. A berry called “teffal”
which is added at the end to give flavour to the dish. And off course the fish ie 3 mackerals washed , cleaned and cut into convenient pieces.

METHOD:

Grind together coconut , 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 mackeral pieces and cook till the fish is cooked.
Check if too hot you can add more tamarind juice.


I have a picture of the bangda hooman being made on the gas stove you can see it spluttering around the vessel as it was boiling when I clicked the snap the colour should be this red for it to look appetizing. I hav a snap of the teffal too so pls check it out.