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.