Pre-Thanksgiving musings - a shrimp curry

It is that time of the year when most of us feel reflective, the growing season is winding down, the year is ending the days are getting smaller and yes, it is Thankgiving. Like most people who love to cook, it is my favorite holiday of the year. I also like to reflect more on the things that I can be grateful for. From simple things like the joy I feel in the kitchen to more complicated things. Something that really helps is my children's after-school program that runs holiday coverage. They are right across the road, this helps on a day like today. I was at home but diwas running around trying to get all the shopping done, but did feel a little guilty, so my compromise was to make the kids some warm lunch and drop it off. A classic that never goes out of style is the grilled cheese. How I did theirs today was with oatmeal bread and some turkey and tomato in the center.

They came home very excited, to smells of a kitchen in action. Once they were in bed, I realized that I had to  fix dinner. This gets tricky, since the focus is on the next day. Anyhow, I looked at all that I had around me, it actually was converted into a very flavorful shrimp curry.

Shrimp Curry with Butternut Squash

Prep Time: 20 minutes

Cook Time: 40 minutes

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 inch piece of peeled ginger

3 pods garlic

1 teaspoon coriander seeds

1 teaspoon cumin seeds

1/4 cup oil

1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds

10 curry leaves

1 -2 crushed whole red chilies

1 red onion, finely diced

1 cup butternut squash, diced

3 medium tomatoes, chopped

6-8 cranberries

3/4 cup water

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 pound of shrimp, shelled and de-veined

1 teaspoon honey

1-2 green chilies

1 teaspoon chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Place the ginger, garlic, cumin and coriander in a mortar and pound to a paste (this can be done in a grinder).

2. Heat the oil and add the mustard seeds and when they crackle add in the curry leaves, crushed red chili and the onion and the spice paste and cook on medium low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring constantly until the onions begin to turn golden.

3. Add in the tomatoes and the squash and continue cooking for another 10 minutes, stirring the mixture frequently until the tomato softens and melts down into a pulp.

4. Add in the water, cranberries and the salt and bring the mixture to a simmer. The mixture should be a fairly think sauce, with pieces of fairly soft butternut squash.

5. Add in the shrimp and the honey and let the shrimp cook for about 5-6 minutes.

6. Finely chop the green chilies and stir into the curry.

10. Cook for 2-3 minutes.

11. Stir in the cilantro, turn of the heat and serve immediately with rice.

I am also thankful for this blog and for all the people who read this, it is a great source of happiness for me, for reasons I cannot explain.

Mutton Mushroon Stew - Lightly Spiced Lamb Curry

In Indian parlence, mutton reffers to good quality goat meat. Actually way back when - yes I am talking two decades (almost) back, when I was still living in India, lamb was not seen on menus, this has changed.





I see students and other give me a look of horror when I tell them about goat meat, but in reality goat meat is very tasty and a lot leaner than lamb. This being said it is not very easy to find in Westchester. My substitute is using American lamb, which I feel is a little closer in taste to goat meat. No one else in my household eats lamb. Nonetheless, for various reasons including freeing myself of the toxic situation at work, I felt that I owed myself a treat. So I cooked up a quick and satisfying lamb/mutton curry. It was spicy, somewhat robust, laced with mushrooms and potatoes. Just what you would want a wintery day like today. I have spent the entire weekend running around - dance class, grocery, you name it. I deserved something comforting just for myself.


I made some rice- also nicely flavored with fennel, cumin, ginger and nicely filled with spinach leaves to add some nutrition to the meal. Well, here it is, my treat to myself. Ok, Ok, I made some other stuff to go with the rice so that others at home could eat as well, I shall tell you about it later.


There was one other highlight to weekend, we went over to Rajni's (my household helper/kid shuttler) for a small gathering. They live as a 2 family (2 brothers and their own), her mother and father-in-law live with them too. I had always pictured their household as something chaotic, just because that is how our house is on a lot of days, with half the number of inhabitants. I was simply floored by the warmth, peace and homeyness that their house radiated. They were warm open, completely ready to share all that they had to offer.


Mutton (Lamb) Stew with potatoes and mushrooms

Prep Time: 15 minutes
Cook Time: 45 minutes

Serves 4 people (recipe can very easily be expanded)

Ingredients

1/3 cup oil
2 onions, finely chopped
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1-2 sticks cinnamon broken
2-3 pods cardamom
4-6 cloves
2 tablespoons crushed black pepper
1 lbs lamb, trimmed of fat and cut into cubes ( plus some lamb bones)
1 teaspoon turmeric
1.5 teaspoons salt
2-3 tomatoes, cut into small pieces
1 large potato, cut into small pieces
2 cups water
1/3 cup chopped cilantro
1 cup chopped cremini mushrooms
a few dried red chillies

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the onions, ginger and saute for 4-5 minutes. The onions should soften, wilt and begin turning lightly golden.
2. Add in the cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and lamb.
3. Mix well and add in the salt and turmeric and cook stirring well for a good 10-15 minutes, until the lamb is well browned.
4. Add in the tomatoes and potatoes and the water and bring to a simmer. Cook under pressure for 15 minutes or covered on low heat till the lamb is tender and the gravy is thick. (note, the time here is provided for cooking in a pressure cooker, if you are cooking without one it shall take longer).
5. Cool slightly and remove the cover. Add in the cilantro, mushrooms and the red chillies and cook for another 3-5 minutes and serve.

Ginger and Spinach Pulao -Fragrant Basmati rice cooked with ginger and spinach

Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients

1 tablespoon ghee
1 tablespoon oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup basmati rice (soaked for 30 minutes and drained)
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon red chili powder (optional)
1.5 cups water
2 cups finely chopped baby spinach

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the ghee and oil in a pot.
2. Add the onion, cumin and fennel seeds and cook till the seeds begin to sizzle and the onion is soft and transluscent, this should take about 2-3 minutes.
3. Stir in the salt, rice, turmeric and the red chili powder if you are using this.
4. Mix well and fry the rice for about 2 minutes.
5. Gently add in the water, bring to a simmer and cover and cook for 15 minutes.
6. Remove the cover, stir in the spinach and turn off the heat.
7. Leave covered for 5 minutes prior to serving.

Hands on Cooking Time?

It tends to be usually a fun layer added to daily cooking - the layer of taking photographs and then adding them to the blog. I do enjoy keeping the recipes in the blog, it is always fun for me to peek at an old recipe, this also tends to be helpful for me when I teach, it keeps me from re-inventing the wheel. I do sometime think that not all food photographs well, however quite often this plain looking tastes pretty good, this sometime detracts me from posting about the dish, I think I need to stop doing this.

This week, one of the dishes I made, yes when I had company was really great. It took a long time to cook, but about 30 minutes to assemble dinner. This gets me to one of the interesting elements of Indian Cooking, very often people get turned off when looking at the prep time or time taken to prepare a dish and get rather turned off. I think we should really be classifying recipes into categories of passive cooking time, (which would include things such as marinading, or like in the case of this recipe the time that was spent cooking by itself, versus active I am needed time).

Well, in anycase, this recipe marinated overnight and then cooked in the oven when I was out off the house for three hours and when I came back, I re-prepped this for 30 minutes and it was ready for dinner. I would actually highly recommend it for a weeknight, with just a little planning.

Masala Lamb Shanks

Serves 6

Ingredients

2 tbsp red chili pepper
1 tbsp salt
2 tsp turmeric
5 cardamoms
1 black cardamoms
1 large stick cinamom
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tbsp whole blackpepper
1 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 cup coarsely torn cilantro leaves
1 large piece ginger
4-6 pods garlic
1-2 tomatoes
4 lamb shanks
Cooking Spray
1/3 cup yogurt
1/3 cup walnuts
1/3 cup raisins

Method of Preparation

1. Take all the dry ingredients - chili pepper to sugar and grind very finely, in a coffee grinder.
2. Place the vinegar, cilantro, ginger, garlic and tomatoes in a blender and grind into a purree.
3. Place the lamb, wet paste, dry spices in a zip lock bag and shake throughly and place in the refrigerator.
4. The next morning, tear a large piece of heavy duty aluminium foil and spray with the cooking spray and place the lamb and spices onto the foil and cover well.
5. Place in a 350 degrees oven and let this cook for 3 hours.
6. Cool the lamb.
7. Open the foil carefully and remove the bones from the lamb.
8. Place the meat and juices carefully in a casserole and stir in the yogurt, nuts and raisins and cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.
9. Serve with rice or salad or both!

Spicy Lamb with Apricots

My husband does not like costo, sams club, the entire discount club universe. He feels they are the root of most of the trash in the house and promote wastage. Well, sometimes, I do end up "trying" out something that no one else wants to have and then get stuck with a lot of something that I am not sure what to do with.

This was pretty much the case, when I recently got an entire clamshell of apricots, that I thought, my kids would love. Well, they refused to touch them. Here I was stuck with a crisper full of lovely tangy yellow fruit. I ended up making a jam with honey, and the remainder was used in the lamb dish. It was a lovely, spicy and dense pairing. The other ingredient that I used for these were they very spicy jamacan peppers. They are so spicy, it takes several washes to get the heat off the hands after working with them.

Spicy Lamb with Apricots

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/4 cup oil A large piece cinnamon 3-4 cardamoms 3-4 cloves 2 tsp cumin-coriander powder 1 large onion, finely chopped 2 tsp minced garlic 2 tsp grated ginger 1 lbs, boneless lamb cut into cubes 1 tsp turmeric 2 tsp salt 2 tomatoes, chopped 4 green chillies, chopped 4 fresh apricots, cut into chunks 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped 1.5 tsp garam masala 1 tsp finely chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the cinamon, cardamom and cloves. 2. Add the onions, garlic and ginger and cook slowly till the onions begin to turn light brown. 3. Add the cumin-coriander powder, the lamb, the salt and turmeric and cook stirring slowly for about 10 minutes. 4. Add the tomatoes, mint, appricots and chillies and cook for another 5 minutes. 5. Add about 1/2 cup water and cook under pressure for about 15 minutes. 6. Remove the pressure, mix well and cook for another 5-7 minutes till the gravy is thick and fairly dry. 7. Add the garam masala and the cilantro, enjoy with rice or chappatis.

These are not good times, I don't think people need me to remind me of that. It is just simple things like my daily dose of Small bites, being off the air for a week in some token acknowledgement of cost savings, remind me this gloom and doom is not going away anytime soon.

Cider-Pomegranate Ham

The holiday meat that I do a good job with is Ham. This New Year, I was lucky, just before the holidays I recieved a case of Pom wonderful pomegranate juice from Pom Blogger.

I have been playing around with the juice since then. I added this to the ham that I made over the holidays, I had a dazzling red ham, tangy and very, flavorful! I have done a bunch of other things such as a pomegranate berry ice-cream and pomegranate chicken boti kababs. I promise to blog about them soon.

Well, I start with an approximately 8 lb ham and create the following marinade for this.

2 cups cider

2 cup pommegranate juice

1/3 cup tandoori masala

1 tsp fresh rosemary

2 tbsp red chili powder

1 cup brown sugar

2 tsp salt

I left the ham to brine in this overnight.

I bake it at 350 degrees for 4 hours using the liquid as a "bath". Sliced it up and serve it with fresh pineapple. Everyone loved it!

Indoor Farmers Market??

Despite my promises to the contrary, I stayed up pretty late tonight. I had this project I have been exhausting myself with, I am finally at I point where I just think, I have so had it, it is about 80% done, I cannot figure out the remaining 20% and it is time someone helped me with it. So it is getting submitted as it.

Now, yesterday I went to check out this indoor farmers market. The idea sounds really strange. Well, it was different, I did pick up some good lamb, chicken, eggs and absolutely out of this world yogurt. The produce was really flimsy... I did get some good mushrooms. So I made this chicken which was amazingly good, nothing like some butter and good simple spices.

Kumbh Murg Karai - Chicken with mushrooms

Serves 4

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter

2 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

2-3 cloves garlic minced

2 tsp powdered cumin-coriander

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp salt

1 onion coarsely chopped

1/2 cup chopped scallions

1 lb boneless skinned chicken (cut into small pieces)

1 cup musrooms thickly sliced

1 tsp saffron

3-4 tsp chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and butter and add the cumin and garlic.

2. Cook for a minute stirring frequently, add the spices onions, scallions and chicken and cook on medium high heat for 15 minutes till the chicken in well browned.

3. Add in the mushrooms and cook for another 5 minutes till the mushrooms are well sauted but not wilted.

4. Mix in the saffron and cilantro. Keep covered for 5 minutes to let the flavors settle together.

5. Serve with orzo or rice.

Robustly spicy pasta

Cannot quite understand why I am feeling so tired today, by the standard of weeks, life was not too crazy, also went to sleep early yesterday so frankly my dear, I have no clue why I feeling out of sorts. Thought blogging about this nice and colorful dish I concocted might actually chase away the tiredness, but no such luck, I left this post halfway and went to sleep. Decided to continue posting the next day.

Anyhow, the core to this dish was some really good sausage that I had gotten from Apple Farm which is actually a really good deli and fresh cheese section, pretty decent fish and acceptable vegetables. Anyhow, back to the sausage...

Sausage with peppers and vegetables

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 lb fennel sausage

3-5 tbsp olive oil

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1 tsp red chili powder

1 tsp crushed black pepper

1 onion cut into thick slices

1 green pepper cut into slices

1 red pepper cut into slices

1 can tomatoes (I use a fire-roasted organic can)

1 tsp sugar

1 tsp salt

1 cup thickly chopped mushrooms

1/2 tsp fresh rosemary

2-3 tbsp chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Cut the sausage into small pieces.

2. Heat the oil and add the fennel seeds, chili powder, onions and peppers and saute for 2-3 minutes.

3. Add the sausage and cook stiring occasionally for 10 minutes.

4. Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar and bring to a simmer and cook on low for 15 minutes.

5. Add the mushroom and herbs and cook for 5 more minutes.

6. Serve over anywhole wheat pasta of your choice.

Chicken boti kabab masala

Having cream handy is a really bad thing, it makes one want to use the cream more often than is needed. This friday I wanted to do something classic but quickly. I had some chicken legs that I had marinated a day back in tandoori masala. So a variation of the classic tikka masala emerged. Tikka by defination is made of chunks of boneless chicken and the sauce is much smoother. However, this recipe is sure to be a crowd pleaser as well.

Chicken Boti Kabab Masala

Serves 4

For the Boti

1 cup lowfat yogurt
1 tbs tandoori masala (I use the commercial Swad Brand
6-8 skinned chicken drumsticks
1 tsp salt (optional)

For the masala gravy

2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 tsp cumin-coriander powder
1 cup baby bella mushroom, sliced
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup heavy cream
1 tsp garam masala
1 tbsp finely chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Marinate the chicken with the yogurt, tandoori masala and salt if using for 6-8 hours or overnight.
2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees farenheight.
3. Place the chicken in the oven and cook for 20 minutes, turn and cook for another 10 minutes. Reserve any marinade leftover.
4. Let this cool sightly.
5. In the meantime, heat the oil and add the cumin seeds.
6. Add the cumin-coriander powder and the mushrooms, onions and garlic, cook stirring frequently for 5-7 minutes.
7. Add the tomatoes, chicken, salt and cook on high for 10 minutes.
8. Add in the saved marinade with 1/2 cup water and cook on low for 10-15 minutes.
9. Check the seasonings and add in the cream and mix well to let the flavors mix and cook through for about 2-3 minutes.
10. Stir in the garam masala and garnish with cilantro and serve with any kind of Indian bread.

Through a quick scan of the blogosphere, I realized Meeta at What's for Lunch honey was hosting her monthly mingle featuring Bollywood Cooking. I think I could send this out to mingle and dance with the stars, so here it goes.

Peeling the Onion - Every layer is great

I don't know if most people who use onions everyday

are like me, but I certainly take this gift of nature that is practically an everyday essential for granted. This post for this weeks weekend herb blogging is an acknowledgement of that ommision to give credit to this multilayered object that features in various ways in my cooking.

Weekend Herb Blogging is back in its original home at

Kalyn's Kitchen , for this weekend.

Anyhow, I checked the nutritional lowdown on the onion and

the prognosis was pretty good.

So now down to cooking it,

I actually put together a chicken pulao, made with some

leftover Kadhi from yesterday.

A simple meal in a dish recipe sealed

together by the browned onions.

Chicken Pulao (Rice and Chicken Casserole)

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 cup of basmati rice

2 medium onions chopped finely

2 cloves garlic minced

1/3 cup oil

1 tbsp whole garam masala ( A mixture of cloves, cardamom and cinamon)

1 tsp turmeric

2 tsp salt

1 small cornish hen skinned and jointed or 1/2 lb chicken on the bone

1 medium potato peeled and quatered

1.5 cups tomato kadhi

1/2 cup char magaz or sliced almonds

1 cup water

2 tsp ghee

2 tsp rose water (Optional)

Method of Preparation

1. Soak the rice in water for at least one hour, drain and set aside to dry.

2. Heat the oil and saute the onions and garlic for 10 minutes until begining to turn golden brown.

3. Add the garam masala, salt, chicken and cook for 5-7 minutes.

4. Mix in the kadhi and nuts and add the rice and cook for 10 minutes on high, the liquid should be almost absorbed.

5. In the meantime preheat the oven to 375 and bring out a casserole with a tight-fitting lid.

6. Mix in the water and ghee and put this in the casserole, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

8. Bring out off the oven, the rice should be cooked and dry.

9. Sprinkle with rose water if using and serve with a salad.

Some thing else that I do with onions to liven my salads is the following, this is also how I use up leftover red wine, you know the last 1/2 glass that no seems to want to finish. This lasts for about 3 weeks, after that the onions tend to get too tart.

Wine-vinegar soaked red onions

Ingredients

1/2 cup red wine

1/4 cup wine vinegar

2 red onions sliced.

Method of Preparation

1. Mix all the ingredients and let is sit for at least half and hour before using.

There's a jingle in the air! - Festive Food Fair

Naturally with Thanksgiving just past and Christmas round the corner, it is impossible to miss the holiday atmosphere both in the houses and in the surrounding stores and any retail institution where keeping up with the holiday Jones, is expected and mandatory.
I think the one think that I feel people have in common is their love of brightness and lights during this time of the year where in this hemisphere the days just are shorter. It is a common theme in so many festivals, celebrated during this time of the year. The ones that I can think off are,
Chanukah, Chirstmas and Kwanza: These three festivals certainly will dominate the universe in the United States for the next few weeks. People in the food blogging world celebrate the way they can, with posts now featuring chesnut recipes, cranberry recipes and the like. Anna's blog morsels and musings is hosting a festive food festival, I just cannot wait to see the results.
Well, along with the lights comes the food, there are so many parties and food fests this time of the year. One particular event, I am very fond of is a potluck belonging to a charity I work with. What I love is the multicultural dimension of the foods that show up. I created this recipe last year and every one loved it so much, I think I will take this to them again on friday. I like this served with stuffing or mashed potatoes.

Ginger Pepper Chicken with a Cranberry Balsamic sauce

Ingredients

2 inches of ginger
6 cloves of garlic
6 green chillies
1.5 tbsp black peppercorns( you can use multicolored)
2 tsp kosher salt
1 small chicken skinned and jointed
2 leeks
2 purple top turnips thinly sliced
3/4 cup thickly sliced mushrooms
1 red onion thinly sliced
1/2 cup white flour
4 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro

For the sauce

1 cup cranberries
1/2 cup water
3 tbsp brown sugar
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

Method of Preparation

1. Grind the ginger, garlic, chillies and peppercorns into a coase paste.
2. Apply the salt and the above paste on the chicken and let this rest for at least 1 hour.

3. Cut the leeks into large thin sections, please use as much of the green as you can.
4. Coat the chicken with the flour.
5. Heat the chicken in a large non-stick skillet (you will need more oil if using a conventional skillet) .
6. Place the chicken pieces in a single layer and cook for 5-7 minutes and brown, turn and brown the other side.
7. Add in the leeks, mushrooms, and onions and mix gently.

8. Line the sides of the pan with the turnips and cover with a tightfitting lid for 8 minutes till the vegetables are just done.
9. In the meantime, heat the water and the sugar.
10. When this comes to a boil add the cranberries and cook for 5 min, till they pop.
11. Add in the vingegar.
12. Mix this into the chicken and cook for another 5 minutes till the sauce is fairly thick.
13. Serve with a plain stuffing or mashed potatoes.


I do not often take pictures of the stages, but I am glad that I did, it reminded me of the mushrooms while writing up the recipe.

Taste of Asia -Vietnam and Malaysia

Vietnam and Malaysia - Day One of A taste of Asia

As promised today was indeed fun. I had a great group of diverse students - Benny, Ilma, Natalie, Adriana. Rochelle and Georgiana who was such a great help. We were really to start!







Malayasian noodles

Today we did the Vienamese Salad Rolls with two Dipping Sauces and Malaysian Curry Noodles.
Things were lively, and the rice paper wrappers sparked a lot of interest. I thought this was fun to have everyone see of pliable yet firm there were.

The recipe I used was the following.

Vietnamese Salad Rolls

For the Rolls

3-4 leaves Rommaine Lettuce
2 carrots
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup chopped cilantro leaves
1/3 cup chopped leek chives
10-14 cooked large shrimp
1/2 cup sliced lean pork
10 Rice paper wrappers

Method of Preparation

1. Shred the lettuce and grate the carrots.
2. On a work surface spread out the lettuce, sprouts, cilantro, leek,
shrimp and pork in a single line.
3. Put some water in a large bowl and moisten the wrappers. You can
leave the wrappers in the bowl for 1.5 min till they are soft.
4. Place them on a flat surface and fill the center with a little of all the fillings. You want a well filled roll but also want enough room to wrap the edges.
5. To wrap the edges, fold the bottom flap, then the two sides and finally the top like an envolope. Serve immediately with the sauces or save covered with a moist towel or cloth.

Peanut - Hoisin Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup hoisin sauce
1/2 cup roasted unsalted peanuts
1 cup water

Method of preparation

1. Blend the peanuts with the water into a smooth paste.
2. Mix with the hoisin sauce and bring to a simmer for 5 min.
3. Cool and serve

Traditional Vietnamese Sauce

Ingredients

1/2 cup fish sauce
1 lime
1 tsp brown sugar
3 cloves garlic
2 green chillies
1 scallion
Carrots and Cilantro chopped for garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Mix the fish sauce with the lime juice and sugar.
2. Finely chop the garlic, chillies and scallion.
3. Let this mix for half an hour.
4. Mix in the cilantro and carrots.

Red and Green Tilapia

It' s interesting how much I used to cook fish until six months back, until I realized poor Aadi cannot handle anything other than Salmon. Here is an old light favorite. We will try this for the Friday class.

Red and Green Tilapia

2 lbs. tilapia or (any firm white fish) fillets
1/3 cup lime juice
2 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbs butter1 tbs extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp cumin
6 cloves garlic minced
1 tbsp. freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup finely chopped scalions
1 tomato cut into a fine dice
2 tbsp finely chopped cilantro or parsley
Method of Preparation
1. Marinate the tilapia with lime juice and salt for about half an hour.
2. Heat the oil and butter together till the butter is melted. This should be done on a flat skillet type pan.
3. Add the cumin seeds and cook for 1 min, till they sizzle and add the garlic and lightly brown.
4. Add the pepper and cook for a few seconds and add the fish. Cook the fish on high for 3-4 minutes on each side.
5. Add in the scalions and tomatoes and lightly mix into the pan.
6.Cover the pan and cook on low heat for another 3-4 minutes till the tomato juices run and form a light sauce.
7. Remove from the heat, check for seasonings and serve garnished with cilantro or parsley.