Fish Pie

If you are a lover of fish, today's recipe will thrill you! My mom used to make a lot of bakes and pies at home when we were growing up and this dish is one of them. She used to make it quite often and we used to just devour it in minutes! I'm a complete fan of my Mom's cooking, anything she cooks is yummy! She has a few unique dishes to her credit and I will be posting them soon. I believe in sharing the joy of good food. :) Ma, this dish is dedicated to you. 

I love fish and so for me another dish with fish was just exciting. Reju, on the other hand, is not too pally with fish, but guess what, he loved this fish pie! I was so shocked and happy that he liked it. Now, that's definitely going to be a regular on our menu.

Moist and spicy, this pie is a meal in itself! Enjoy.

Ingredients

Fish - 6 to 7 pcs

Lime - 2 tbsp (or Vinegar - 1 tbsp)

Ginger - a small piece

Salt - to taste

Water - 1/2 to 3/4 cup

Garlic (crushed) - 3 to 4 cloves

Big Onion (chopped fine) - 1

Green chillies - 2 to 3 (as per your spice tolerance)

Tomato (big; chopped fine) - 1

Pepper - 1 tsp (as per your spice tolerance)

For White Sauce

Milk - 1 1/2 cups

All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 1/2 tbsp

Butter - 2 tbsp

Cheese (crumbled) - 1 cube

Egg (Beaten) - 1

Salt - to taste

Pepper - 1 tsp

Method

Cook the fish with Lime juice/vinegar, ginger, salt and water until done. Throw away the piece of ginger and leave to cool. Once cooled, flake the fish pieces into tiny bits and keep aside.

Heat oil in a wok. Add garlic, green chillies and onions and saut'e till onions turn light brown. Then add tomato and saut'e for about 2 minutes. Add the flaked fish pieces along with pepper and salt and combine with the other ingredients. Switch off the flame and keep aside.

For White Sauce

Heat butter in a non-stick pan and once it starts melting, add the flour and toss for 1/2 a minute. Switch off the flame. Add milk and get rid of the lumps with a masher. Now, place it back on the stove, turn it to a low flame and add cheese, pepper and salt. (Check for salt because cheese already contains a good amount of salt) Keep stirring till the sauce starts thickening and begins to boil a little. Switch off the flame. (Do not boil too much)

Pre-heat the oven at 100°C for 15 minutes. Grease an oven proof dish and add the fish mixture into it. Pour a little white sauce into the fish mixture and combine well. Now pour the rest of the white sauce over the fish. Place this dish into the pre-heated oven and turn the temperature to 200°C for 10 minutes approx. and then turn the temperature to 180°C for another 35 to 40 minutes. (Bake till golden brown on top. Check if cooked by inserting a cake tester or knife)

Source: My Master chef Mom!

Potato & Peas Bhaji

Last night was good. End to a good weekend. Watched a movie and had a good long chat with my lovely sister, bro-in-law and kiddos. Waiting for the next weekend.

We had a very simple dinner yesterday which consisted of a few chapathis, a simple potato & peas bhaji and brinjal crispies. We wanted to eat light yesterday, as you already know "we are on a diet"!!

I'm sure all of us cook a quick bhaji once in a while when we make masala dosas, poori or even chapathi. This bhaji is no different. I have also added some peas into this (was lying in the freezer and wanted to clear up left-overs). There is no specific recipe for a potato bhaji, so feel free to make changes to suit your palate.

Ingredients

Potato (cooked & mashed) - 3 (medium size)

Peas (cooked & roughly mashed) - 1/4 to 1/2 cup

Ginger (chopped) - a small piece

Garlic (chopped) - 5 to 6 cloves

Green chillies - 3 to 4

Big Onions (sliced fine) - 2 to 3 (medium size)

Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

Channa dal - 1 1/2 tbsp

Tomato (diced) - 2 (medium size)

Curry leaves - a few

Coriander leaves

Salt - to taste

Water

Method

Heat oil in a wok and splutter mustard seeds. Into this, add channa dal and saut'e. When the colour of the dal starts changing, add green chillies, ginger & garlic and curry leaves and saut'e till raw smell goes away. Now, add onions and saut'e till light brown. Throw in the tomatoes and saut'e till it becomes soft. Add necessary water, turmeric and salt. Into this, add the cooked potatoes and peas and combine well with other ingredients. Let it cook on a medium flame till you get the right consistency. Just before you take it off the flame, add coriander leaves and combine well.

Serve with Poori/Chapathi/Dosa/Sandwiches.

Notes: I usually make this dish with thick gravy and then use it the next day as stuffing for sandwiches. It tastes good. In case you want more gravy, you can add more water.

You can also add veggies like carrot (grated) into this.

Adding roasted/fried cashew and a pinch of ghee into this can transform this dish into one that is finger licking good!!! :)

Brinjal Crispies

We had a really good and relaxed weekend. I hope you had a good time as well.

Usually, I'm always whining and nagging my husband on the weekends because he always finds something to make himself busy. I don't know how he does that, gets busy doing nothing!!!! How, how, how?! Does this happen to you?

Anyway, this weekend we were chilled out, watched a good Malayalam movie (was quite bad though) today. I wish everyday were this relaxed! Hmm...

This recipe is simplicity personified! I was cleaning up my refrigerator and came upon 3 or 4 small Eggplants lying in the vegetable tray and was wondering what to do with them. Since there were only a few of them and I was lazy to cook anything too elaborate, I quickly cooked up a quick and easy recipe. This helps you get rid of your left-over eggplants in the refrigerator and tastes good. This can also be done with Ivy Gourd (Kovakka).

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Egg Plant/Brinjal/Baingan (Medium size) - 2 to 3

Red Chilli powder - 1 1/2 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Oil

Method

Cut the egg plant/brinjal/baingan into thin round slices. Marinate the egg plant/brinjal/baingan with red chilli powder, pepper powder, turmeric powder, lime juice and salt and keep aside for 1/2 an hour.

Heat oil in a non-stick pan. Place the marinated eggplant/brinjal/baingan slices in it and shallow fry on a low flame till done. Flip over slices when one side is done. (like frying fish) Fry until crisp.

Garden Fresh Salad

Salads are always very refreshing and light and works really well during hot summers. Salads have always been a regular on my menu back home where we used to eat salad even with rice! My dad is a big fan of fresh salads and so I grew up eating them. But, Reju is a hard core meat lover and so salads were not a very important part of the menu until recently both of us became conscious of gaining weight and are now trying our best to lose a few pounds! Hope that works! So salads have become a very integral part of our menu now, and this particular salad is quite popular. Both of us love it. It is very healthy and is also a treat to our taste buds.

This dish is extremely refreshing since the dressing is made of yoghurt. For a change, you can make something healthy and not compromise on the taste.

So here is the recipe for Garden Fresh Salad

Ingredients

Vegetables - 2 cups

Yoghurt - 1/4 to 1/2 cup

Olive Oil - 1 tsp

Mustard powder/Mustard paste - 1 to 2 tsp

Sugar - 1 tsp

Pepper powder - 1/2 tsp

Salt - to taste

Method

Beat the yoghurt well and add olive oil, mustard powder/paste, sugar, pepper powder and salt. Combine well. Now add the veggies and mix well so that the veggies are coated with the yoghurt dressing. Refrigerate for 2 hours or more and serve chilled.

Notes: You can use no/low fat yoghurt for the healthier version.

You can use any veggies you like in this salad, though I strongly recommend celery, capsicum and spring onions because it gives a very special flavour. I have used cucumber, carrot, capsicum, purple cabbage, celery and lettuce.

Moru Kachiyathu/Kachimoru

At our home, Moru Kachiyathu/Kachimor is an indispensable side dish with rice. It's subtle flavour makes it a very elegant dish. Though it is an extremely simple dish, it took me sometime to actually master this dish. (Initially, it curdled almost everytime I used to make it) But after so many futile attempts, my mom helped me and there has been no looking back ever since!

Enjoy.

Ingredients

Buttermilk/Sour Curd - 1/2 ltr/500 ml

Small onion (Chopped) - 4 to 5

Ginger (Chopped) - 2 tsp

Garlic (Chopped) - 2 cloves

Green chilli (Slit fine) - 3 to 4

Red chilli (Vattal Mulaku) - 2

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1/4 tsp

Jeera/Cumin seeds - a pinch

Fenugreek powder - a pinch

Curry leaves - a few

Salt - to taste

Oil

Method

Add a few curry leaves into the buttermilk/Sour curd and keep aside for 1/2 an hour. Heat oil in a wok and splutter mustard seeds. Add ginger, garlic, green chillies, small onions, curry leaves, red chillies and cumin seeds. Fry for about 2 to 3 minutes. Add turmeric powder and fry for 1/2 a minute. Switch off the flame and add Fenugreek powder and combine well with other ingredients. (Switching off the flame avoids burning of Fenugreek powder which can get bitter if burnt) Leave this mixture to cool. Once it has cooled, add the buttermilk/Sour curd and switch on the flame again. Add required salt and stir continuously till steam comes through the spatula. (Keep alternating the flames between high and low) Do not let it boil. This will take around 5 to 6 minutes. After removing from gas,  stir for a few more minutes and immediately transfer to another vessel to stop the cooking process.

Serve with Rice.

Notes: Make sure the buttermilk/curd is at room temperature, otherwise it may curdle.

Kerala Fish Fry (Meen Varuthathu)

Fish fry is one of my favourite dishes!! But I don't make it that often because Reju is not a very great fan of fish. Normally during those 'rare' times I buy fish, I usually make Kerala Fish Curry (Meen Vevichathu). But the other day, when I was out shopping for groceries, I couldn't help but notice fresh Seer fish (Neymeen) at the fish stall and was so tempted to buy it. I didn't think twice, just bought it and had the fish stall fellow segregate the pieces for Fish curry and Fish fry. How could I resist something that looked so appealing!

This recipe is a very basic Fish fry recipe I got from my mother (Yes, my mama again, I trouble her almost everyday with frequent phone calls for her yummy recipes) You can play with the recipe as you like.

Here is the recipe.

Ingredients

Seer Fish steaks - 1/2 kg (6 to 8 medium size pcs)

Tamarind (Kodampuli) - 1 piece soaked in 1 or 2 tbsp of water

Garlic (Crushed) - 10 cloves

Ginger (Crushed) 1/2 inch pc

OR

Ginger & Garlic paste - 3/4 tbsp

Pepper (Crushed coarsely) - 3/4 tsp

Kashmiri chilli powder - 1 & 1/2 tbsp

Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp

Vinegar/Lime juice - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves (Chopped fine) - few

Salt - to taste

Water - enough to make a paste (1 to 2 tsp approx)

Method

Wash and clean the fish and immerse it in tamarind water along with the tamarind piece and keep aside for 5 minutes. Then throw away the tamarind piece and wash the fish steaks well with water.

Mix together ginger & garlic paste, crushed pepper, kashmiri chilli powder, turmeric powder, vinegar/lime juice, curry leaves, salt and enough water to make a thick paste. Marinate the fish steaks with this paste and keep for half an hour. Heat oil in a pan and shallow fry the fish steaks.

Notes: I normally fry the fish on medium-low flame. Make sure the marinade is not too watery.

Serve with Rice.

Source: My Mama

Madakasan (Coconut Pancakes)

To tell you the truth I'm not much of a morning person and so I don't like getting up early in the morning and doing anything. And Bangalore weather has spoilt me even more, makes me want to snuggle up under my blankets and just sleep!!

Because of my love to sleep in the mornings and get up late, cooking breakfast was always a big big task for me! I normally ended up giving my hubby dearest yummy, crunchy Kellogg's wheat flakes (Oh, now it's Kellogg's Special-K) everyday. But now, I have slowly started making attempts to make breakfast because my husband, Reju loves this meal of the day the most.

This dish was a regular back home where my mom would make them and we would just gobble them all up because it was so tasty and light. The crushed cardamom adds that extra zing to this simple dish.

I was suddenly reminded of this recipe when I happened to bump on it when I was scrolling through recipes on mariasmenu.com the other day. I must tell you that Maria's site mariasmenu.com is a really good site, she has done a fabulous job and made cooking so easy and interesting. Thanks Maria...!

We at these delicious pancakes today for breakfast and completely loved it! Enjoy.

Ingredients

For Pancake

All purpose flour (Maida) - 1 & 1/2 cups

Milk - 1 & 1/2 cups

Eggs (Beaten) - 1

Salt - to taste

Sugar - 2 tbsp

Water - as required

For Filling

Coconut (grated) - 2 cups

Cardamom (crushed) - 3

Ghee - 2 tbsp

Sugar - 6 tbsp

Method

Mix together all purpose flour, eggs, salt, sugar and water and make a thin batter. Heat a non-stick pan/thava and pour the batter and spread it. Cook for a few minutes on one side and then flip over. Prepare pancakes like this with the remaining batter.

For Filling

Heat ghee in a pan and add coconut, crushed cardamom and sugar and mix well. Cook till the mixture becomes soft and juicy. Place the filling in the pancakes and roll it.

Serve hot with honey.

Source : mariasmenu.com