Back Again

Back to blogging after a long long time!

We have shifted to UK. Shall soon be posting more recipes.

Here’s an easy to make Mackerel fish curry – I came up with this when I reached UK. Stuck without a mixer/blender and a craving for Goan food made me come up with this one! It was an instant hit with a friend who had come down to meet us

Easy Fish Curry
Ingredients:
Fresh Mackerel pieces – 5-6
1/2 can of Coconut Milk (approx 150-200 ml)
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 inch piece ginger
3-4 green chillies
1/2 – 1 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn of coriander powder or use 1 tea spn of fresh green coriander
3-4 pieces of kokum
5-6 pieces of tephal (optional)
1 small onion
1 tea spn oil

Method:
Wash and clean the mackerel pieces. Apply salt and keep aside.

Crush the ginger using a mortar-pestle and make a coarse paste.
Chop onion finely. Slit the green chillies.

Heat oil in a pan and add the onions. Fry for a few minutes till the onions turn slightly pinkish.
Add in ginger, chilli powder and turmeric powder. Mix well.
Now add in the coconut milk and little water. (Water to dilute the coconut milk if it’s thick.) I use Amoy Coconut Milk.

Adjust spices to taste. Mackerel curry requires more turmeric powder, as mackerel stink more than other fish.

Let it come to a boil. Mackerel cooks very fast, hence add it only after the onion is cooked. Then add the mackerel pieces. Now put in salt, green chillies, kokum, and tephal. Adding tephal gives it a nice aroma. Simmer for around 7-8 mins. Approx time required to cook the mackerel pieces.

Turn off stove. Now add in the coriander powder or chopped green coriander.
Serve with hot steamed rice and crispy Fish Rava fry.

The one I made was a mildly spiced curry.

Enjoy madi

Bharille Bangde (Stuffed Mackerel)

I will be without net connection for a few weeks now. I apologize for being lazy in posting on this blog! I am shifting out of bangalore hence the gap. Will be back after a while.. till then enjoy my fav dish

My Fav fav fav dish. Yummy and very filling. Generally it’s one whole mackerel per person

when I made it, my hands were full with fish and other pastes used. hence i could not take snaps. After i finished, all were so hungry that the mackerels were finished. Well after all it was served with steaming rice and prawn curry :p

Ingredients:
1/2 to 3/4th vaati freshly grated coconut
1 medium onion chopped/sliced
1 and 1/2 tbl spn coriander seeds
1 tea spn cumin seeds
2 green chillies
small piece of ginger
3-4 flakes garlic
a small round of tamarind
1/2 vaati rava
4 mackerels (cleaned)
salt to taste

For frying:
1/2 tea spn turmeric powder
1 tea spn chilli powder
piece of thread (sutt)
oil for shallow frying

Method:

Clean the mackerels, keeping the tail. (Remove the head and fins. )

Slit the mackerels in the middle keeping one side closed, the bone (skeleton) should be visible.
apply salt and keep aside.

Grind together – coconut, onion, coriander seeds, cumin seeds, little turmeric powder, tamarind, green chilies, ginger, garlic and salt to a coarse paste with little water. The paste should remain thick hence don’t add too much water. keep the paste aside. (Adjust spices to taste)

Divide the thread into 4 parts – each part should be long enough to be tied around the stuffed mackerel.
Mix rava, turmeric and chilli powder together.

Heat oil on a tava.

Divide the stuffing paste into 4 parts/rounds. Take a mackerel and stuff it with the paste.
It will look something like this.

Tie the thread around the mackerel to avoid the paste from coming out during frying. Roll this stuffed mackerel in the rava.

Serve along with fish curry – rice and lemon wedges.

Instructions: You can remove the thread just before serving or instruct to be careful about the thread when eating.

* All photos and links are from Google Search. Please let me know in case of any issues with the same.

Sungta Dangar

This is one of my fav foods. I know I say this about every post here! But can’t help it guys! All foods are so yummy that they become fav

Sungta is Prawns and Dangar means Cutlet. Result ? Prawn Cutlets.

You can imagine the next… delicious prawn cutlets served with humman and hot rice! A truly complete meal for me

Here’s how the dangars are prepared…
Ingredients:
1/2 cup prawns (shelled and cleaned)
1/2 cup freshly grated coconut
1 small onion
3-4 tbl spn of rava
1/2 lemon or 1 tbl spn tamarind juice
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
1/2 tea spn chilli powder
1/2 tea spn samaar masalo (Recipe given below. I used Chandelkar’s Vegetable Masala)
salt to taste
oil for shallow frying

About the masala:
You can use any Vegetable masala you may have. I have made cutlets without using the samaar masala – only adjust chilli powder to taste.

Method:

Chop the onions finely.

If the grated coconut is thick, grind the coconut with samaar masalo and keep aside. Else directly mix the samaar masalo and coconut (i did it this way).

If the prawns are big, cut into small parts.

Add chilli powder and turmeric to the coconut masala. Add the lemon/tamarind juice and mix well.
Add in 2 tbl spns of rava, onions, prawns and salt and mix well. If the dough remains thin, then add in more rava and mix.
You should be able to roll the dough into a ball without it breaking at the sides.

Keep aside for 10 mins, so that the prawns are marinated.

Take a small portion of the masala and flatten it using your palms. Make them slightly thin so that the prawns are cooked properly.Repeat till the rest of the masala is used.

Heat oil on a tava. Keep the cutlets and fry till they turn dark brownish. Won’t be all sides but you can see marks on the cutlets. (See the pic). The prawns will also turn whitish, implies that they are cooked.

Serve hot with fish curry-rice

For Samaar Masalo: (Adapted from the book ‘Ishtaan’ with ingredient quantity reduced)
Ingredients
1 cup Coriander seeds
2 cups Dry Red Chillies (twice the volume of coriander seeds)
1 tea spn pepper corns
1 tea spn turmeric powder
a little oil

Method: Heat the oil on the tava and roast the red chillies on it. Keep aside. Roast separately – coriander seeds and pepper corns. Dry grind all the spices in a mixer to a fine powder.

Goan Fish Fry

Today we had bought – Pomfret and Sear fish and prepared a nice fish fry after many days.

Here’s how it’s done:
Ingredients: (For 4 fish slices)
7-8 tbl spn fine Rava/Rice flour
1 heaped tea spn chilli powder
1 and 1/2 heaped tea spn turmeric powder
2 tbl spn lemon juice or tamarind pulp (optional)
Salt to marinate
oil for frying

Method:

Wash and clean fish. Drain the water. Marinate with 1/2 of the turmeric powder and the chilli powder. Add salt and lemon juice, apply well over the fish. ( Add more turmeric if required as this removes the stink of the fish)

Marinating Fish

Marinate for 30 mins minimum.

Take rava in a plate. Add remaining turmeric powder and chilli powder. Mix well. Add more of the powders if required. The rava mix should appear slightly golden in color (due to turmeric).

Heat a tava and add oil on it. Keep on low heat. Take a fish slice and roll in the rava mix, so that all the sides are covered well with the rava.

Place the fish slice on the tava. Follow the above steps for remaining pieces till there is place on the tava. There should be place to turn the slices while frying.

Serve with lemon slices, Salad, Goan Fish Curry and Rice.

This was our today’s lunch menu

More Updates:

Made some Tilapia and Prawn (with tails on!) fries

Goan Fish Curry – Mackerel

Another version of the fish curry. “Goan Mackerel Curry” called as “Bangadyache Hoomhan” in Goa!

Ingredients:
2 mackerel/bangde
1 cup freshly grated coconut
3-4 pepper corns
2-3 green chillies
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
1 small round of tamarind
1 small piece of ginger
4-5 tephal pieces
salt to taste

Method:
Clean the mackerel and wash thoroughly with water. Cut into 3-4 pieces. ( do not use the head for this curry!). Marinate with around 1/2 tea spn of salt for 10 mins.

Grind coconut, turmeric powder, pepper, green chillies, tamarind and ginger to fine paste using very less water.

Add this paste in a pan with little water and heat. Add the mackerel pieces and salt. Add tephal and let it boil for 5-10 mins. Do not boil too much as mackerel cooks pretty fast.

Serve with hot steamed rice and kismur!

Tip: To make this more spicy increase the ginger or the chilli while grinding. You can eat this spicy version with a loaf of bread! Tastes yummy!

*”Hoomhan” = “Hoo”(phew!) + “mhan”(say) = “Say Phew!“
Typically these fish curries are made real spicy and after eating them you end up saying “hoo” Hence the name “Hoomhan“

Goan Fish Curry – Prawns

This isn’t exactly the recipe you’d find in Goan Cookbook by Sanjeev Kapoor or the ones you may find on the net. (except on a few genuine websites like Aayi’s Recipes !)
In Goa, fish curry is prepared depending on the fish being used. Hence almost each type of fish has a different recipe!

This one will describe the “Goan Prawns Curry” known as “Sungtache Hoomhan“.

Ingredients:
10-12 prawns
1 cup freshly grated coconut
3-4 pepper corns
2 green chillies
1 red chilli or 1/2 tea spn red chilli powder
1/4 tea spn turmeric powder
1 medium tomato
1 small onion
1 small round of tamarind
a pinch of hing (asafoetida)
1/2 tea spn oil
few pieces drumstick or ambado
few drops of coconut oil ( optional)
salt to taste

Method:

Clean, remove the outer crust and de-vein* the prawns. Wash thoroughly with water.
Grind coconut, turmeric powder, red & green chillies, tamarind and pepper corns to a fine paste. Dont’ make this paste too watery.
    

Chop onion and tomato.

Heat oil in a pan and add hing. Add onion, tomato and 1/2 cup water. Let it boil for 2-3 mins.
Add the prawns and turmeric powder. Let the prawns cook for 10 mins. Once cooked, you can see that the prawns turn whitish/creamish.
Add water if required. Dont’ add too much water else the curry will end up too watery.
Add drumsticks/ambados and boil for a few mins.

Now, add the ground paste to this and let it boil.Add salt to taste. Boil for around 10-15 mins.

Add a few drops of coconut oil to this (if you have). Garnish with Coriander.

Serve hot with rice and fried fish ! Enjoy Madi!

de-vein*: A black vein runs on the prawn which is considered hard to digest. This vein can be easily seen on top of the prawn. Make a slit on top of the prawn with a knife and remove the vein by pulling it out.

Update: Add a tea spn of coriander seeds while grinding the coconut for a variation. If you dont’ have coriander seeds, garnish with chopped green coriander.

Kismur – Sukhhe

The word ‘kismur‘ will make any Goan’s mouth water. It’s a very simple dish and I loved to eat it as much as I love making it!

Kismur is made up of dried fish. In Goa, dried fish is generally cooked whenever fresh fish is unavailable. During Monsoon, fish is scanty and that’s when dried fish comes into use.

Ingredients:
1/2 cup fresh coconut scrapped
3/4 cup dried fish
1 onion chopped
1/2 teaspn turmeric
1 teaspn chilli powder
1/2 teaspn oil
1 small round of tamarind
salt to taste

Method:
Clean the dried fish by removing the bones if any in the fish. There are different variants of fish. I generally use Galmo, which are very tiny dried prawns.

Divide the tamarind into small pieces. Mix onion, turmeric, chilli powder, tamarind pieces and coconut with hand. Add salt as per taste. Keep covered for 5-10 mins so that the tamarind gels properly in the mixture.

Heat oil in a frying pan and roast the dried fish on it. Roast till the fish is cooked. Dont’ burn the fish.

Add the fried fish to the onion-coconut mixture just before serving and mix well.

Kismur is ready! Serve with Rice and Kokum Kadi (coconut milk curry with kokum). Yummy!

Notes: Vary the amount of chilli powder and tamarind as per taste.

When adding dried mackrel or other fish having bones, clean the fish by removing the bones and divide into small pieces before frying.