This is going to be the final post of the year. We have not been regular with our posting this year too but things have picked up since November and I am happy for that reason. We are visiting our parents right now and we’ve been here since 24th and we will go back to Bangalore on 1st. Sumi is still following her diet (minus the first day when she just couldn’t resist Mom’s cooking). In contrast, I have simply decided to forget that I am on a low carb diet for these days. That means yummy sweets and wonderful dishes from one. I have requested mom to stay simple. I want to have simple home cooked meals. The result is a fabulous collection of 7 recipes so far in 4 days – not bad at all. And we have 4 full days left. All these recipes will come up on the site and trust me you will love them.

Back to the post, Sumi wants me to close the “being fishy” series now. I have 1 more of the fish recipe from that day in my archives and it was another of those yummy ones that Sumi made. This time it was from the frozen fish fillets that we got from the Super market. I love this brand. It is called Ocean Fresh Fish Fillets. It tastes yummy even with a simple preparation. It has no fishy smell and its very clean. Hope you enjoy this recipe.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish everyone a Happy New Year. I look forward to 2012 and everything that the year has in store for me.

Ingredients

• 3 frozen fish fillets thawed (approx 250gm in total)
• 2 Tbsp coriander paste
• 1 Tbsp cumin paste
• 1 tsp red chilli paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• 1 medium onion thinly sliced
• 1/2 stalk of leek thinly sliced
• 1 tomato thinly sliced (8 slices)
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• Vegetable oil as required
• Salt as per taste

Method

Marinade the fish fillets with salt, turmeric and lemon juice and set it aside for 15 min.

In a non-stick pan, add vegetable oil sufficient to shallow fry the fillets. Now add the fillets and fry for 3-4 minutes in medium heat. Turn them after 2 min. Fish cooks in very less time. Take care not to fry too much as it will become flaky. Set aside the fried fish fillets.

In the same pan, add coriander paste, cumin paste, red chilli paste, garlic paste and ginger paste.  Sauté for a min. Now add the sliced onion, leeks, tomato and sauté again for 2-3 minutes. Once the paste is fried just enough, you will get a good aroma of ginger garlic and oil separates from the paste.

Now add the fillets back in the pan and add 80-100 ml of water and increase the flame. Coat the fish fillets with the gravy.

You can make it more interesting by adding 100ml coconut milk instead of water.

Serve hot with rice.

Related posts:

1. Fish Fry with Yoghurt Sauce

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Yummy Fish Fillet

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

My favourite non-vegetarian item has always been fish. Mom tells me that the first thing I had at my “Annaprashan“, or the Hindu rite of passage, was fish even though they tried to push in rice LOL. In our culture, rice should be the 1st food which an infant takes during the ceremony but I just loved the smell and taste of fish. Throughout my childhood, I loved fish so much that I used to get upset if there was no fish during lunch any day. All this changed when I went to college. Then I realized, I only loved fish prepared by mom or at least prepared according to the Bengali way. My fish drought had begun ever since I started my engineering. But thanks to my better half, ever since our marriage we again started having fish and in our diet, it is an essential part as fish has one of the lowest (in fact nil in many cases) carbohydrate contest.

Continuing with being fishy, this was the second dish that Sumi cooked on her “being nutty” day. This is a classic Bengali dish which I have adored all my life. Only recently, ever since we started on the diet, did I stop having this. The reason being that the dish goes best with rice. For me any non-vegetarian curry without rice just doesn’t gel, especially fish. But that day we just went crazy. We were missing fish curry and we decided to have it without rice. The result was awesome and I felt like my life had come back when I tasted the fish curry.

Ingredients

• 8 slices of Rohu/Rui Fish (Indian Fresh water Carp) approx 800 gm
• 1 ½ Tbsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 3 Tbsp cumin paste
• 1 Tbsp coriander paste
• 1 Tbsp turmeric powder
• 1 Tbsp red chilli powder (as per taste)
• 1  medium onion thinly chopped
• 4-5 green chillies slit length wise
• Mustard Oil (a good amount)
• Salt as required
• 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Method

First marinade the fish with turmeric powder and salt. Set it aside for 15-20 min.

In a deep wok, add mustard oil, heat till oil smokes (not a good option usually, however since our main curry element is the mustard oil, we need to heat it properly else it imparts a strong smell).  Now add the fish pieces, fry on each side till light brown. Set it aside.

Discard the oil. Clean the pan or take another and add fresh mustard oil again (approx 100 ml) and heat it till it smokes. Reduce flame; add chopped onion, slit green chillies, add all the paste, fry till oil separates like about 4-5 minutes. Now add 100 ml of water, a bit of salt (required for gravy) and let the water boil and then add the fish pieces back and coat properly with the gravy.

Garnish with chopped fresh parsley leaves.

The oil added in the dish may seem a lot but this is the beauty of this dish. The gravy is very rich and tastes awesome with rice.

Related posts:

1. Tilapia Sorshe Dry
2. Doi Maach

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Macher Tel Jhol

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

This blog is getting “fishy”. By that I mean, like true Bengalis, the majority of the next few recipes will be fish based. Now mustard is a very tasty and essential ingredient in Bengali cuisine. And in our case, its a perfect match even during our diet. However the way it is prepared differs among various regions of Bengal – this is particularly visible in the cooking of our moms. Sumi, however, has learnt both the ways and she even has a version of her own. Today’s recipe is Sumi’s style of making the fish.

Sumi cooked this 3 months back. It was raining and we were hungry. Just a day back we bought quite a lot of fish from Spar and being a weekend she planned to cook for the entire week That woman’s crazy. The problem is she’s my woman hehehehe, so I sat through the whole ordeal. But in the end it was a yummy one. She cooked around 6 dishes, 3 fish ones, 1 chicken and 2 veggies. I am sure we took a pic of the whole spread. But I can’t find it right now. Anyways this is one of the fish ones. Its downright yummy.

Note – Sumi used Tilapia fish here. You can use any other fish you like instead like Rohu, Catla or Hilsa.

Ingredients

• 2 Tilapia fish cut into half
• 3 Tbsp white mustard paste
•  1 tsp chilli powder
• ½ tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tsp ginger paste
• 1 small onion finely chopped
• 4-5 green chillies slit length wise
• Mustard Oil
• Salt as per taste
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp chopped fresh parsley

Method

Marinade the fish pieces with lemon juice, salt and turmeric powder. Set it aside for 20 min.

In a wok, add mustard oil. Heat till oil smokes, then reduce flame and add the fish pieces and fry them properly. It takes around 7-10 min to fry properly. Set the fried pieces aside.

Now add all the chopped onion, ginger paste,slit  green chillies, chilli powder and fry for 2-3 minutes. Add the mustard paste and saute for ½ min in low flame and add the fish pieces. Sprinkle some water to coat the mustard properly with fish. Do not add more water.

Serve with 1 tsp raw mustard oil on top and chopped fresh parsley.

Related posts:

1. Doi Maach
2. Mutton Manpasand
3. Bread Poha

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Tilapia Sorshe Dry

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

Indian cuisine is varied. There is not only a variety of food but even the ingredients used in different parts of the country are so different, sometimes ending up being downright conflicting. Take fish and curd for example. Bengalis swear by it. I posted a recipe before, Doi Maach, that combined these 2 ingredients. But these same ingredients together in one dish is taboo in South India. It’s the same with various other ingredients too. So funny really.

Back to our recipe, I was updating the blog today with a new theme and ended up using a theme from Studiopress. That was when I noticed, how slacky we have been with the blog. It was then that I decided that regular updates will be a part of this blog now. So when Sumi made this delicious recipe for the evening I just had to post it. This was the first time we actually got fresh fillet directly from the market. We usually have fresh water fish. But fishes like Rohu and Catla we get here in Bangalore are not fresh and tasty like in Kolkata. Hence we have moved towards sea water fishes like Emperor and Salmon which mostly have a neutral taste and smell. I hope you enjoy the recipe.

Ingredients

To Marinade Fish

• 2 big fillets (approx 400 gm each) of Emperor Fish or salmon fish
• 1 1/2 tsp salt
• 12 peppercorns crushed
• Juice of half lemon

• 150gm thick Yoghurt
• 100 ml fresh cream
• 1/3 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1/2 tsp grounded black pepper
• 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
• 1/2 small onion thinly sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic minced

• A non-stick pan
• 100gm butter
• 2 tbs vegetable oil
• Parsley for topping (1 tbsp)

Method

Related posts:

1. Chicken in Tangy Sauce
2. Doi Maach

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Fish Fry with Yoghurt Sauce

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness

Fish is compulsory on the dining table of any bengali. We literally start our life with a fish preparation:) And suffice to say I love it too. This recipe is not exactly mine or Boombooms. It was made by my mother-in-law. Both my mom and mom-in-law make it a different and both taste heavenly. I wish one day I can say that for my own recipe Though whenever I tried it Boomboom told its very good. But I never believed him.

Ingredients

• 500gms Rohu Fish cut into medium sized pieces
• 1 medium sized onion chopped
• 1tsp mustard seeds
• 4-5 green chillies slit lengthwise
• 1/2tsp turmeric powder
• 1tsp ginger garlic paste
• 1tsp red chilli powder
• 300gms curd
• Oil as needed
• Salt to taste
• Coriander leaves for garnishing

Method

Wash the fish, mix salt and turmeric powder together and apply it on each of the pieces. Let it marinate for 15 mins.

Now shallow fry each of the pieces’ both sides till they turn light golden brown. Set it aside.

Add little oil in a wok, add the mustard seeds, green chillies, ginger garlic paste, onion, salt and chilli powder. Stir in high flame.

Add around 50-100ml of water to the mixture and let it boil in high flame.

Take around half of the curd (150gms), whip it light so that water doesnt go out of it and add it to the contents in the wok.

Now add the fish to the wok and cook it in low flame for 1 min. Turn the pieces to the other side and repeat.

Now put the remaining curd, add little bit sugar and salt. Make sure the curd remains thick so do not over cook.

Lay the fish in a dish and garnish with fresh coriander leaves and 1tbsp of raw mustard oil.

No related posts.

If you like this post please post your comment by going to the original post here Doi Maach

© Copyright Enjoyable Recipes - Simple everyday recipes with bits of this and that and a touch of Bengali-ness