Fish curry

My cousin, Tina, tried it out and sent me the pics.... looks yummy Tina!!!

Ingredients:

Fish - 10 pieces (salmon/kingfish)

Shallots - 4 (crushed)

Garlic - 2 cloves (crushed)

Ginger - 1" piece (sliced)

Green Chilies - 2 (slit)

Tomato - 1 (chopped)

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

Chilli powder - 2 1/2 tsp

Coriander powder - 1 tsp

Mustard seeds - 1 tsp

Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tsp

Thin coconut milk - 1 1/2 cup

Thick coconut milk - 3/4 cup

Kodam puli - 3 small pieces

Vinegar - 1 tbsp (optional - for more sourness)

Salt to taste

Coconut oil - 4 tbsp

To temper:

Shallots - 5 (sliced)

Curry leaves - 2 sprigs

Coconut oil - 3 tbsp

1. Place the puli in some warm water(1/2 cup). After 5 mins, throw away the water and fill it again with the same amount of warm water.

2. In an earthern vessel(chatti), splutter the mustard seeds followed by fenugreek seeds in coconut oil.

3. Add the shallots, ginger, garlic and green chilli. Saute till the shallots turns light brown in colour.

4. Add the powders(turmeric, chilli, coriander) and stir fry for a minute.

5. Add the tomato pieces followed by puli along the water. Mix well and adjust the salt.

6. Once the curry starts boiling, add the second milk. Wait for the curry to boil again.

7. Slide in the fish pieces. Fish will take only 5 to 10 minutes to cook. So increase the flame after 5 minutes to reduce the gravy.

8. When the pieces of fish are visible on the top, reduce the flame and add the thick coconut milk. Adjust the salt.

9. Turn off the flame once the curry starts to boil. At this point, you can add the vinegar if needed.

10. For tempering, heat coconut oil in another pan . Throw in the shallots and curry leaves. Saute till the shallots turn light brown in colour.

11. Pour over the curry and mix well. Be careful not to break the fish pieces.

The curry should sit for an hour. So make sure you make it well ahead of time. Enjoy it with rice!

Chocolate Brownies

This one is for all those chocolate lovers......Yesterday, I happened to see a mug that had this writing on it.."Where there is chocolate, there are no worries!!!". And from then on I have been craving for something chocolatey.... and this how I got inspired to try out these amazing brownies that I saw on BBC cooking.. a site that my brother had sent me loooooong back but never got the time to check it out!

A quick look at the ingredients....

Ingredients:

1. Unsalted butter- 4 oz plus extra for greasing

2. Caster sugar - 6oz

3. Eggs- 2

• 4. Plain chocolate - 11/2 oz
• 5. Walnuts - 2oz (optional)
• 6. Vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• 7. Instant coffee granules - 1 tsp
• 8. Warm water - 2 tbsp
• 9. Baking powder - 1 tsp
• 10 . Plain flour - 2 oz
• 11. Cocoa powder - 2oz

• To serve:

• Icing sugar, for dusting
• 
  

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.

2. Prepare the cake tin. Grease an 18cm/7in square cake tin and line with non-stick baking parchment.

3. In a clean bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time.

4. Chop the chocolate and put to one side.

5. Chop the walnuts, if using. Gently fold the nuts and chocolate into the butter and egg mixture. Add the vanilla extract.

6. Dissolve the coffee granules in two tablespoons of warm water and add to the mixture. Mix together well.

7. Add the baking powder, then sift in the flour and cocoa powder. Mix well; the mixture will be quite wet.

8. Spoon the brownie batter into the prepared tin and level out the top with a spatula.

9. Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool in the tin for ten minutes, then place on a wire rack to cool.

10. To serve, cut into rectangles and dust with icing sugar.

Cashew Peanut Chicken

This one is my mom's creation. She happened to taste a similar dish in a restaurant and had to recreate it. So she gave me a rough idea of the ingredients and said I could try it out with whatever sauces I liked! Given the freedom, I took this opportunity to try out most of the sauces I had in my refrigerator... and I must say, I was quite happy with the result!

Ingredients:

Chicken - 1/2 kg

Carrot - 1 cup (1 inch long thin slices)

Capsicum - 1 cup (1 inch long thin slices)

Onions - 1 small (thinly sliced)

Garlic - 2 cloves

Sugar - 1 tsp

Cashewnuts - a handful

Peanuts - a handful

Dried red chilli -5

Egg - 1

Corn flour - Enough to coat the chicken

Lime juice - 1 tbsp

Pepper - 1 tsp

Oil - 1/4 cup plus enough for deep frying

Salt to taste

To mix:

Tomato sauce - 1 1/2 tbsp

Soy Sauce - 2 tbsp

Teriyaki sauce - 2 tsp

Schezwan sauce - 2 tsp

Hot chilli sauce - 1/2 tsp

Honey - 1 tsp

Garlic powder - 1 tsp

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with lime juice, pepper and salt. Set aside for 15 minutes.

2. Add a beaten egg to the chicken and mix well. Put the chicken into a strainer. This is done to remove excess egg.

3. Toss the chicken pieces in cornflour. Again put the chicken pieces into a strainer to remove excess cornflour.

4. Deep fry the chicken pieces until they are nice golden brown in colour.

5. In a pan, add oil and throw in the crushed garlic. Remove the garlic from the oil when it starts to turn light brown in colour. Fry the red chillies and the nuts in oil and keep aside.

6. In the same pan, saute the onions till it gets translucent. Add the carrots and the capsicum and cook till they are done.

7. In a small bowl, mix together all the sauces and powders mentioned above. Add this to the vegetables and mix well. If you like to have some gravy, add quarter cup of chicken stock.

8. Add the sugar and throw in the chicken pieces. Toss it till the chicken pieces are well coated. Stir for a minute.

9. Transfer this to a serving bowl and mix in the fried chillies and the nuts.

This dish goes well with fried rice/noodles.