Reminiscences, with a twist!

My palate is always ready for a fish dish. I am like a cat when it comes to fish – I can eat loads of it J Its very rewarding to know that my son is following me in that path – he is like a cat too when he eats fish J I love seeing him gobble the fish happily!

Having been brought up in different parts of Kerala and part of summer vacations in Chennai, fish had been one of the highlight of our weekend lunches.  We have always had an abundance of fish varieties in the places we lived. Since both my parents worked, we used to prepare fish only during the weekends. But how I used to wait for a Sunday to eat the delicious fish curry (we call it meen puli) and pan seared fish steaks prepared by my mom. 

Though we made this about 2 weeks ago, I didn’t get a chance to post the details until today. My idea was to jot it down while on a journey last week for a wonderful purpose (I hope to tell you all about it sometime soon). However we were on such a hectic schedule that I couldn’t manage even thinking about something other than keeping my son from getting bored/tired/cranky.

With all the thoughts about the wonderful Sunday lunches from my childhood, here I am finally, with a few lines about the whole fish we cooked. Being a mega fan of a lot of cookery shows in a lot of languages, taking my inspiration from there, I wanted to try roasting a whole fish, with a slightly different marinade – that’s the twist to the weekend fish dishes. So my husband got me this large black pomfret which weighed almost about one and a half kg - the oven part was managed by my husband – so I shouldn’t take the credit of this dish all for myself J

Doesn't it look beautiful!

So I made incisions on this big black beauty and marinated it. My hubby reminded me to make diagonal slits so that the marinade reaches inside the flesh. It will reach only the bone if you make a vertical slit.

Recipe

For the marinade

Green Chilli – 3 nos.
Shallots – 10 nos.
Onion – 2 medium sized ones.
Garlic – 1 full pod.
Coriander leaves – a few.
Rosemary herb – dried – a few.
Pepper corns – 4 nos.
Salt to taste

Grind all the above and make it into a fine paste.

Preparation

• Wash the fish, make incisions and marinade it with the paste.  Leave it aside for about an hour minimum.
• Preheat the oven.
• In a grill pan, apply oil; keep the whole fish in it.
• Use convection mode with the pan in the low rack about 15 min on each side at a temperature of 170 to 180 degree Celsius. Convection mode (if you have that in your oven) can save a lot of energy, though your food may not brown like it does in a grill oven (without convection). For a crispy crust – after the 3/4^th of the fish is cooked, keep the pan in a high rack with a grill mode for about 5 min on each side. This way you could brown you fish well and get that crispy crust.
• Pan searing is also a great technique, just need to ensure that the whole fish is inside the pan so it gets cooked well on all the sides. Also ensure the pan is well oiled.

Serve it with mash potato or hot rice/curry. For all those cats out there - you can choose to eat it just like that too ;)

Garnishing note: With a beautiful twist, this dish will sure raise your spirits and make you confident to prepare it for your family/guests. This passionate dish is for you, Nans - thank you for always encouraging me to try out different recipes and cooking styles.

Ada Dosa, with love :-)

I have been thinking of posting something since morning, but I have this weird issue in opening my laptop on a weekend (some might call it laziness ;)). In the evening, my son asked me to open the laptop – I thought it must be for him and that he would want me to put a cartoon for him – but when I opened the laptop, he switched it on and left to play with his toys. And that’s when I actually started scribbling – thanks to him :-)

Though I felt like jotting down something, with the myriad of recipes out there, I was at sea when it came to writing about one. There are a lot of memories associated with the traditional recipes that mom and grandmom prepared at home. Finalizing on one of those was a daunting task. My thoughts then wandered to what my family would love to eat – especially my two and a half year old. As I said in my first post, it is a challenge keeping him motivated to eat and not be bored with his snack boxes. A mom has to be creative while being conscious of her kid’s health. It was then that my mind reeled back to my school/college days. My mom used to prepare this Ada dosa when I returned from a tiring day (to be read as lazy day) at school/college. It used to keep me going energetically for the rest of the evening activities (well, mainly playing or should I say only playing) and up until dinner time (our dinner time then being 0930 pm). And that’s what I wanted to prepare as an evening snack for my son – something that will tickle his interest when he opens the snack box (against the usual chapathi and peanut butter roll) along with keeping him full till he reaches home at 7pm.

When someone says just Ada, people might confuse it with the sweet dish Ada (made with jiggery, coconut and cardamom inside a thick layer of rice paste and steamed). This is the famous South Indian tiffin that I am talking about, made from a variety of lentils and rice.

Ingredients

• Raw rice – ½ cup
• Boiled rice (I used the Palakkadan matta rice)  – ½ cup
• Urad Dal (Black Gram) – little less than ¼ cup
• Toor Dal (Pigeon Peas Split) – ¼ cup
• Moong Dal  (Green Gram split) – ¼ cup
• Channa Dal (Bengal Gram) – ¼ cup
• Green Gram whole – ¼ cup
• Fenugreek seeds – little less than ¼ tea spoon
• Cumin seeds – ¼ tea spoon
• Red Chilli – 3 nos.
• Asafoetida – a pinch
• Curry leaves – 5-6 leaves (optional)
• Coriander leaves – few (optional)
• Salt to taste
• Onion – 2 medium sized ones. 

Tips: Lot of people grinds onion along with rice and lentils. If the batter is not completely used in one go, there would be a pungent smell from the onion by the next day. Hence I prefer to finely chop them and add them every time to a little quantity of batter taken separately in a bowl. If you prefer it to be mixed with the batter, you can grind onions before making the dosa and mix it with the batter.

Preparation

Soak all the above overnight.

   

Tips: a) Especially if it is red matta rice that you are using, you would need to soak it for a few extra hours than normal raw rice. 

b) Good to soak rice and rest of the lentils separately.

Grind them into a coarse batter. You should be able to feel the grains’ rough texture in your hands. Ada Dosa is also called karu muru dosa in Malayalam due to its texture.

Tips: a) My mom and mom-in-law always remind me to grind rice and lentils separately due to the different time both takes to grind. Red rice will take some extra time to grind. 

 b) Good to leave the batter overnight in winter (not in the refrigerator) for those who like it fermented.   During summer, it is enough if the batter is kept outside for about 4 – 5 hours for it to be fermented.  

Recipe

• Heat a pan. 
• Put a little oil (about ½ a tea spoon) and spread it all through the pan. 
• Pour a scoop of batter and spread it in a circle (like a dosa/pancake). Scoop quantity depends on your preference of the thickness of dosa. 
• Pour a little ghee at this stage (optional).
• Once the dosa is crisp, you can flip it to the other side and keep it till that side is crisp. (Instead of flipping, you can also keep a lid and cover the dosa if you don’t want it to be too crisp). 

For my son, I packed the Ada dosa with a little ghee and sugar mix. Traditionally it is served with Avial (a dish made of vegetables, coconut, curd). Those who like a chutney alongside, here is a simple, quick coconut chutney recipe:

Ingredients for grinding

• Coconut (grated) – ½ kernel 
• Green Chilli – 3 nos.
• Coriander leaves – few
• Roasted Gram – 2 tea spoons (optional)
• Salt to taste

Ingredients for tempering

• Oil – 1 tea spoon
• Mustard seed – ½ tea spoon
• Curry leaves – 5-6 leaves
• Cumin Seeds – ¼ tea spoon
• Urad dal – ¼ tea spoon
• Red Chilli - 1 no

Recipe – Grind all the ingredients mentioned above ‘For Grinding’ to a fine paste. Heat a pan. Pour the oil. Once the oil is hot, add mustard seeds. Once the seeds splutter, add the rest of the ingredients in that order. Pour this onto the chutney paste. Serve with hot Ada dosa.

Garnishing note – A healthy tiffin – Ada dosa with love - this one is for you, Aryan :-)