Malvani Fish Sukat - Amul secret recipes (Food Food)

Malvani Fish Sukat

This recipe was shared in the series Amul Secret Recipes on Food Food channel. King fish could be replaced by Bombay duck.

Ingredients:

King fish (surmai)	Cleaned and cut into 6-8 medium-sized pieces
Fresh coconut (grated)	2 cups
Onion (finely chopped)	2 cups
Fresh coriander (finely chopped)	2 cups
Green chillies (deseeded)	5-6
Garlic cloves	12
Kokum	6 pieces
Cooking oil	1 tablespoon
Seasoning:
Red chilli powder	For marination and curry
Turmeric powder	For marination and curry
Salt	To taste
Malvani masala powder	3-4 teaspoons

Cooking Steps:

Rub turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder on to the fish and set aside. Coarsely grind the chillies and garlic together.

For the curry:

Heat oil in a saucepan; add onion and sauté until pink. Add the chilly-garlic paste and kokum, followed by seasoning powders. 

Mix the grated coconut, coriander and the seasoning in a mixing bowl. Add half of this mixture to the pan, arrange the fish on top and layer the remaining coconut mixture above it.

Cover and cook on medium heat for 20 minutes until the fish is cooked. Now lower the flame to a minimum and cook for another 30 minutes so the juices blend together as they are secreted and you have a smashing dish ready.

Serve hot with rice or appams.

My vegetarian variant:

Use potatoes, cauliflower, baby corn, mushrooms and other suitable veggies instead of the fish. I admit these are hardly a match to the flavour of the aquatic beings, but that won’t stop me from trying this dish vegetarian style!

Garlic rasam from Sanjeev Kapoor's site

GARLIC RASAM

A Tasty south Indian preparation using tamarind pulp and garlic with combination of spices.

Preparation Time : 20-25 minutes

Cooking Time : 25-30 minutes

Servings : 4

Ingredients:

Garlic	15-20 cloves
Split pigeon pea (toor dal/arhar dal), soaked	3 tablespoons
Pure ghee	2 tablespoons
Tamarind	1/2 lemon sized ball
Salt	To taste
Asafoetida	¼ teaspoon
For Rasam Powder:
Cumin seeds	3/4 teaspoon
Black peppercorns	6-8
Whole dry red chillies	4
Coriander seeds	1 tablespoon
Split Bengal gram (chana dal)	1 teaspoon
Coconut, scraped	1 teaspoon
Tempering
Mustard seeds	1/2 teaspoon
Whole dry red chillies	2
Curry leaves	1 sprig

Cooking steps:

Peel garlic and sauté in about half tablespoon of ghee for a minute. Remove and keep aside.

Boil daal in one cup of water, covered, till soft. Mash and reserve along with the water.

Soak tamarind in one cup of warm water, remove the pulp, strain and reserve.

Heat one tablespoon ghee and fry the rasam powder ingredients to a light brown, cool and pound to a powder.

Add three more cups of water to the reserved tamarind stock and boil it with salt, asafoetida and the masala powder for five minutes or till the tangy tamarind smell goes away.

Add garlic and continue to simmer. Add mashed daal. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for five minutes.

Heat the remaining ghee and temper with mustard seeds, red chillies and curry leaves and add to the rasam. Cover immediately to trap the flavours and serve piping hot.

Sweet soy chicken (Sanjeev Kapoor/Food Food)

Sweet soy chicken – Sanjeev Kapoor’s – Food Food

Chicken flavoured with soy sauce and brown sugar. Served with rice. Vegetarian variant towards the end.

This was aired on Sanjeev Kapoor's Teen Patti show on the Food Food channel this week. I intend to convert this to vegetarian fare by replacing the chicken breasts with oven grilled vegetable cutlets. In which case the marinating time can come down to around 20 minutes from 3-4 hours. 

Preparation Time: 2-4 hours

Cooking Time: 10-15 minutes

Serving : 4

Ingredients:

Boneless chicken breasts	4
Dark soy sauce	1/3 cup
Brown sugar	1 1/2 tablespoons
Ginger	1 1/2 inch piece
Salt	To taste
Olive oil	1 tablespoon
For the rice:
Cooked rice	2 cups
Chicken stock	½ cup
Butter	8 teaspoons
Red chilli flakes	2 teaspoons
Honey	1 tablespoon
Sesame seeds (til)	1 tablespoon

Cooking Steps:

Mix ¼ cup dark soy sauce and brown sugar in a bowl. Grate the ginger and mix well into the soy sauce.

Sprinkle a little salt over the chicken pieces. Dip them one by one in the soy mixture and transfer to a zip lock bag. Pour the remaining marinade over the contents and seal the bag. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours.

Heat olive oil in a non stick pan, place the chicken pieces in it and cook on medium heat. Turn sides for even cooking.

Preparation for the rice:

In a wide bowl, add chicken stock, salt, butter and red chilli flakes to the cooked rice and mix well. Heat for 5 minutes in a microwave oven.

Back to the chicken, add remaining soy sauce to the pan and cook until the chicken is tender.

For serving:

Place a ring mould on a serving plate, pack some of the rice into it and press lightly. Similarly use up the remaining rice. Remove the ring mould gently.

Drizzle honey over the chicken and mix. Place the chicken on a chopping board and make a few slits on each piece. Place them on the rice, drizzle the sauce remaining in the pan over, sprinkle sesame seeds and serve hot.

My vegetarian variant while trying to stay with flavours used in the original dish:

Mash together boiled potatoes and blanched veggies of your choice. Add bread crumbs and salt to taste (optionally red chilly paste). Shape into medium-sized patties and marinate in the soy mixture for about 20 minutes. Cook the remaining soy sauce in a pan separately for about 7-8 minutes. Grill the patties in an oven once the rice is readied as above. Drizzle the cooked sauce and honey over the patties and place on a serving dish aside a portion of rice.

Mint daal and fried rice without onion and garlic

This is a rule I've been trying to follow of late. Of eating no onion and garlic. I find it funny that I'm actually following a rule, but these recipes are an outcome.


Daal:


The daal is a tiranga variety with arhar (tur), udad and moong daals being used.


Ingredients:


The lentils each a third of a small cup. If your measure is different adjust the rest of the ingredients accordingly.
10-12 mint leaves
1 medium to largish tomato
1 large bayleaf
2 cloves
4 corns of black pepper
1 red chilly.


To do:


Soak lentils in water for an hour. Cook in pressure pan. 
Ghee is recommended for the tadka or tempering :) 
And now the usual: heat ghee in a pan, add all spices first, then add the mint leaves, wait for a minute, add tomatoes, add salt. 
Add salt to the cooked daal and mash.
Once the oil begins to separate, add the daal and simmer.


The result is something I found to be very delicious, which is why its being put up on the blog so it doesn't fade from my memory.


Fried Rice:


Ingredients:


1 small cup of brown rice, 
1 bayleaf
2 corns of tirphal (a konkani spice)


To do:


Clean, then soak rice in water for more than 1 hour.
Cook it.


Heat ghee in a pan, add the spices, add cooked rice and salt. You're done!


Chopped onion could be fried in a teaspoonful of ghee and used as garnish for both the above dishes.