That Wicked Goan Fish Curry! Perfected!

So here’s that Goan Fish Curry I promised earlier. I made this last Sunday morning and judging by the reaction of a few kind friends, it’s come out perfectly wicked.


Credit due as usual to the original place I had found this many months ago. Goanfoodrecipes seems a good place to try some other stuff as well. As is usual with many online recipes though, I had to make mid-course corrections and alterations; but finally the recipe below has become mine! And I made sure this time that I used a camera in the kitchen through the dish.


Here’s the final output to get the taste buds and cooking instincts warmed up!

In getting this dish started, I find it easiest to assemble the ingredients in one place. That looks nice as well ;-). What you’ll need
1 kg fish fillets cut into 2″ bite size chunks – nicely cleaned; I used rawas the other day and it was fine. Just be careful not to use a fish that disintegrates too quickly.
Juice of a lemon
One raw mango

2 inch piece of tamarind – soak into a cup of hot water (you macerate and discard the tamarind pulp and have the sour water/juice with you)

2-3 tsp of white vinegar

2 green chillies – for the final garnish (as in photo above)

For the curry – all this to be ground
1/2 a coconut – grated
1 inch piece of ginger – peeled & diced
6 cloves garlic – peeled & diced
8 dry kashmiri red chilles – broken up roughly
8-10 peppercorns – break them under the flat side of your large knife
1tsp coriander seeds (failing that use powder)
1 tsp methi seeds
1/2 tsp haldi or turmeric
1/2 tsp jeera seeds or cumin powder
2 green chilles – diced
1 tsp salt – and add more into the gravy as you need


Let the fish stay in a container at room temp please; squeeze all the lemon juice into the fish and move it around to blend it with the fish.
Slice up the raw mango into bite sizes
And keep the tamarind juice prepared and ready.


The rest of the ingredients, just nicely lined up on a plate first! 


Then simply shove all the stuff into a blender, add half a cup of water and start zapping it. I needed to do quite a bit of zapping to really pulp out the coconut. Feel free to add more water and keep moving the material from the sides of the mixer bowl to the centre every few zaps. The result is – voila! Nice color right? And already – with the ingredients raw, the smell is getting to the rest of the family! N walked in and asked what was cooking!


All the contents of your blender then go into your cook pot or kadai (take your pick). Do NOT add oil. There is no mention of oil in my ingredients above – and for good reason. The coconut is so full of oil – it may as well be a car engine!


Basically let this mixture cook out well such that the oil separates. And add little bits of water so that the stuff does not dry out. And do stir now and then. Of course – you can add more water or less, depending on the final consistency you want. Rice or appams?


In about 10 minutes this should be done. Looks gorgeous and smells heavenly once the oil separates (and actually fragrance is how I gauge something is cooked up). This is what you should see now!

Now into this goes (first) the vinegar and the tamarind water and the cut pieces of mango, and then after 5 minutes all your fish pieces (that extra time allows the mango to become tender nicely). The vinegar and tamarind and mango are crucial – because otherwise the chillies in this dish can set up an intestinal fire rapidly. In fact, overall, I can’t imagine this dish being a hit with younger kids. If the mango here looks too yellow and done to you, good observation! I used one that was raw, but not the small, hard, dark green one that you usually find in the veg shop. Payal picked this one off a tree at the Taj Holiday Village last week.


The fish should be turning white in the time it takes to read a couple of paras, and that means it’s cooked out and blended with the curry. Just drop in a couple of the green chillies, and turn off the heat. Let it sit covered for 30 minutes and the flavors really emerge beautifully.


For me this one is best done with plain white rice, or goan rice if you can get your hands on it. At Kavita’s last Sunday I tried this with her excellent appams, and truly it left nothing to complain about. Those pieces of mango in the dish? Yes – they are meant to be eaten! Try one out!


Oh – important for heat management – a cold mug of beer!


Tips & Variations
I’m quite happy with this curry as it is – but just some quick tips
– to add a layer of depth and more texture – you can fry some diced onions before you add the blended masalas to the cookpot. Use maybe a tbsp of oil for the onions then
– you can finish this dish with coconut milk, instead of water. Add the milk after you’ve cooked the masala for a bit. So if you want it nicely rich & creamy and want to impress a potential mom in law, that is a way to go. Adds a few calories of course.
– next time, I am going to try and dry roast the masalas before I add them to the blender. I have a feeling that could be a definite +. Worth a shot. If you do try that, let me know whether it worked out well.


Enjoy this. Remember – easy dish to make! But the assembling of ingredients takes that extra 10 minutes. And cost – well under 500 bucks.

Some good eating in Goa.

Much of the previous weeks leisure time was spent in rather sunny Goa! As usual, Payal, the kids and I drove our (sometimes less that trustworthy) Skoda Laura. Just as a road trip tip for those of you with this car, we just let the rear seats down, put a couple of thin mattresses and pillows – and the kids pretty much sleep for 6 of the 8 hours it takes to North Goa. Naihan can sleep all the way to South too!


This was our first time in North Goa, and ably helped by Shaista’s deep knowledge of these parts, we were seriously well fed – despite the fact that many of the establishments on our list were shut for the month of May (Bomras,Thalassa – we will be back to check you out!).


The clear winner of the meal stakes was at a hole in the wall, riverside place called Amigo’s. Don’t ask me why ‘Amigo’s’ and not something more seafood contextual. The most heavenly butter garlic crab I have had in ages and a crusty, slightly burnt local fish – served whole. Some goan rice. Chilled beer. Shade and the riverside! I’m pretty sure you can’t find this place!


Just down the road from the Taj hotels is a terrific Italian place called Tuscany Gardens (http://tuscanygardens.in/). 8 adults and 2 kids, ate and drank to their fill in a lovely quiet setting – all under 6K. The food was tremendous enough to tell you that perhaps the only thing to avoid was the Quattro Formaggi (four cheese) pizza. Too cheesy for us.


And yes, I had never been to Souza Lobo before! You need to get here early to get a beach table that you can squat on for the next few hours, and be brave enough to go to Calangute. All of North Goa actually (aside from Calangute) seems too full of too many people. Souza’s sausage rice was what hit the spot for me. I have been transporting sausages from goa for a while now, and manage to rustle up some hybrid stuff (fried with onions, chillies, and then baked with eggs; a onion & rice prep) that I will post soon – once I take some snaps when I cook up next.


Also – just in case your increment was tiny this year – please do buy your booze in Goa before you fly out. I was shocked by the range, the display and the prices of spirits in Goa. I picked up at these very nice, fancy stores on the Aguada road – Newton’s and Delfino’s. Better than any large store in Bombay clearly. 


Actually, the range of food and groceries in these stores make it easy for one to rent a bungalow and do some good cooking a couple to times a day. Just saying you know – for those inclined to a cooking holiday!


So in sum. Another great road trip to a place I almost call home. And a fresh look at my Goa Fish curry and the sausage concoctions are coming up next.


The unmemorable parts of this trip – our stay at the Taj Holiday Village. The hotel has clearly seen better days, it’s a clear cash cow, and you should go to this place only if you are part of a corporate conference or a family group that is hogging 30-40 rooms. Pretty much these groups’ sense of entitlement and the hotel staff’s apathy make for a unremarkable time. And oh, they did not have Ten Sports – I ended up missing the Chelsea-Bayern Munich final! 


Easily the only unremarkable food was at a place called Pan Asian Bowl – on Miramar Beach road – just down to the right from Mum’s kitchen (and the mirchi/toi office). The whole essence of oriental food defiled by overspicing everything. And the staff was largely clueless! 8 of us ended up ordering enough for 14!

Typical Pok Choi

P and I have this so so often that there is no other word for it but ‘typical’.
But it does stay delightful. Do NOT laugh, but we often do this for breakfast too as a sundry item. (actually, we used to eat quite a bit of oriental food at breakfast).


What do you need?
Pok Choi – one pack, about 200gms – break up each leaf into 2 or 3 parts.
Oil – sesame, peanut – 2 tsp
Garlic – 3-4 pods, finely sliced
Light Soy sauce – 2 tbsp
Some water
Sesame seeds
One red chilly sliced


So. Heat the wok and the oil. Get a spatula ready to fly! Bung in the garlic and stir – like 15 secs! Then throw in the pok choi (oh, iI truly hope at this stage that you washed off all the grime off the stems). Stir stir stir. Keep things moving. The leafy parts will start to wither!


After a couple of minutes, throw in the soy sauce. Stir things around well. And within a minute as things are sizzling, I add some water to cool things down! Not too much, barely like 3-4 tbsp worth! This provides the nice head of steam to cook off the white stems of the pok choi.


Finally add the sesame seeds and red chilli, stir, check one of the stems in your mouth for a ‘done test’ and plate the dish. It will have a watery residue, but very little, and that is the point of pok choi well done.


Had with a fork. Or chopsticks. Better with rice. 
I have often added some sliced mushrooms to this dish with good effect! Don’t be scared!

This wonderful, fall-in-love-with ginger sauce . Mmmm.

Promise to re-publish this with a photo the next time I make this!
Aug 20, 2012 – Updated with the snaps when I made this again today.

Again – this was inspired from Luscious Temptations.
The post is about a Hainanese chicken with Garlic rice – and that looks tempting as hell! But I went there for the ginger and spring onion sauce mentioned at the end! 

ginger – about 4 tbsp grated
spring onions – about 4 tbsp – just the white heads = sliced fine
sliced fresh red chillies – 1 tbsp
sesame oil – 2 tbsp. You can use a normal vegetable oil if you don’t have sesame; but really this sauce makes the sesame oil worth the effort.
salt – to taste

Add all the ingredients in a small shallow bowl, give it a good whisk to mix them up. Then put the bowl into the steamer. Steam away for about 15 mins. When you lift the lid, it should have a light brown texture with the red of the chillies adding a depth of color!

When I made this the last time, I added in some sesame seeds. Like so!

Serve slightly cooled or room temperature with the rice and steamed fish! Keeps well in the fridge for a couple of days as well.

Chicken in Hoisin

Disclaimer – that is a web crawled photo. But it looks just like what I just dished up and ate, so using it with credit! Its missing the sesame seeds though 😦


The ginger, soy fish is wonderful! But like everything else from an amateur kitchen, it needs a bit of de-risking. Specially when demanding & picky kids are involved. V doesn’t like fish anyway!


Chicken –  boneless pieces 2″ square – about 200gms
Chopped garlic – about a tbsp
Hoisin sauce from a bottle – 2 or 3 tbsp
Sliced spring onions and sesame seeds for garnish


So this quick and easy chicken in hoisin sauce. Simple as hell. Just fried the chicken with a little garlic in sesame oil. Dumped in 3-4 spoonfuls of readymade hoisin sauce. And then stir stir stir (i’m using a wok for this stuff… just don’t let anything sit still in the wok for long). Once the chicken is done, I tend to add water, mix everything up once, and remove the chicken pieces with a slotted spoon. This allows me to scrape all the juices and sauce from the pan into the liquid now. And then on high heat I let the liquid dry down to a thickish sauce, at which point back goes the chicken! Turn everything around, garnish with some sliced spring onion and sesame seeds, give another nice toss, and its ready to be plated! 


Serve with rice or some spicy hakka noodles.


Hoisin tends to be on the sweeter side; so if you want to adapt it you may want to add a dash of soy or fish sauce to balance the sweetness, as well as some lime juice. I tend to use very little hoisin when I make this dish.


Cost estimate for this dish (fed 2) – is under Rs.100! A bottle of hoisin costs about Rs.150 I think. Good thing to keep if you’ve got kids in the house! 

Steamed fish with ginger, spring onions and soy!

It’s fitting that this blog starts here, and today. 
This is one of Payal and my favorite dishes, across choices of cuisine. It’s one of the few dishes with which I don’t completely insist on a carb-accompaniment.


It was made this afternoon at lunch, which is why I felt it necessary to start writing some of these twists down. And yes, it was afternoon & lunch. I was cooking. I happen to be away from work on leave. To relax. And for me much of that happens to be in the kitchen!


Here are some of the links that I have used before as well. You can skip them and move right along if you want.


Luscious Temptations is one kickass blog of someone who is obviously a kickass cook and foodie. I recall when I made this fish the first time, it was by following the recipe here. The addition of sautéed onions was a result of this piece. I had been wondering how steamed onions would be, and this was a great way to add them in. Epicurious generally has the goods, but in this case I decided not to incorporate any of the stuff they said – the pepper and cayenne seemed a bit much for this gentle dish. They speak about adding mushrooms – which I recall I had done in my original attempt.


The fish I like to work with is Basa. 
3 fillets of Basa – about 600gms. (Got a frozen kilo of that at Nature’s Basket for under Rs.500)
The Fish & Atop
Juliennes of ginger (about half a handful)
1 Red Onion – diced and sautéed till brown (or you can grate it & sauté, but the dicing gives it better texture)
Assorted Mushrooms – sliced – couple of handfuls. I used a rehydrated pack of sundry mushrooms; but I can tell you from experience that fresh shiitake are the dreamiest! 
The Sauce (just mix these up in a bowl)
Sesame or peanut oil – 4tbs
Light Soya Sauce – 4tbs (or use less than 3tbs of the normal one)
Rice Wine Vinegar – 2tbs – don’t worry if this is not in the larder… just leave it out.
Water – 2tbs
Fish Sauce – 1tbs – again optional. If you want to give this dish a distinctly thai touch, please use fish sauce, and add in sliced lemongrass and replace the ginger with galangal in the ‘Atop’. Worth a try next time for me too!
The Garnish
2 Spring Onions (sliced diagonal)
2 Fresh Red Chillies (sliced diagonal)


Oh. And you need a steamer! I use my newly acquired bamboo one (crawford mkt). But you can put an elevated plate inside a cooker full of boiling water. Needless to say, the water should not be touching your dish or plate. In my steamer (about 6″) incidentally, I can make no more than 2 long fillet’s; or about 6 pieces 4″x4″ at a time.


That’s it! All set!
Put the fish on a long piece of foil and fold the foil edges inwards a bit (just preventing the juices from flowing away). Make a few slits in the fillet and spoon over some of the sauce into the slits and over the fillet. On top of the fillet, rub some of the sautéed onion, put a liberal amount of julienned ginger and heap the fillet with the mushrooms. Lower the whole foil package into the steamer; and then add a second lot if you have the space. 


If you water is nicely on the boil in the steamer or cooker, then this should take no more than 8-10 minutes of steaming. Lift and check! If the fish is all flaky and white, then you’re done! Garnish with a liberal amount of spring onions and chilles and place into a serving dish. Finally – put some more of the ‘sauce’ on top of the whole dish. I keep making more sauce on the fly since its so simple… so if I find that I need more of this light sauce with my rice, I just make a little more quickly. A couple of times, I have also poured a tsp of sizzling chili oil on top of the whole dish – wonderful – adds a zing. But I avoid this if my girls are eating with us.


Served best with saada steamed rice! And a dash of the sauce if you’ve kept it handy.


My estimate is that this dish (fed 4) cost me no more than Rs.400. And since I eat this so often at Ling’s and Royal China this brings a grin to my face. What your guess? Check Royal China’s prices at Zomato here :). They do a terrific job though; I’d still beat the doors down to eat the same dish there!


Accompaniments!
This ginger & spring onion sauce is a must!
And if parts of your family won’t touch fish, then this quick chicken in hoisin works well.
With pretty much any oriental meal, I will always add a side of greens. This pok choi is typical.
And depending on how much firing up the meal needs, this really really quick chilly sauce!

Why? Why Now?

Finally this blog sort of comes alive. 
I keep making amendments and adding twists to recipes that I grab off the web. But 2 months later when I want to make the same delicious dish again, I generally cannot recall which turn I took in the road! This blog will therefore help me save up and record the best of what I read and what I make.


My pinterest profile will also have pictures and links to all the wonderful things that I have crafted (or reinterpreted) in my kitchen (thread/finger – picture coming soon). And this blog will keep a record of the evil twists that I have made to some of these recipes, in the quest of making them completely mine.