Crisp Pan fried Halibut

It really is a challenge, on busy weeks to keep things in balance, the house, the two little one and put a good nutritious dinner on the table at the same time. Fish usually comes to my rescue on such days.
Fish cooked simply with some basic flavors usually can be done quickly and tastes just so wonderfully good. I made these halibut fillets coated with a crisp crust and served it with an interesting salad. I will write about the salad shortly.

The herb of the week is tested and true cilantro, aka coriander leaves aka chinese parsely. My kitchen home and cooking are just incomplete without this herb. Now for the fish... oh I forgot to mention the other device that I am lost without is a food processor, it truely is a very useful device for Indian cooking and beyond.

Crispy Pan-Fried Halibut.


Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 lb halibut steaks, cut into wedges
1 juicy lime or lemon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chaat masala
2 shallots or a small onion
1 small piece ginger
2-3 green chillies
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
4 tbsp oil

For the coating

1/3 cup coarse cornmeal
1/3 cup peanuts
2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 tbsp flour

Method of Preparation

1. Squeeze the lime juice on the fish and rub with turmeric and chaat masala.
2. In a food processor finely all the remaining ingredients except the curry powder, oil and cilantro.
3. Add the paste to the fish, rub the curry powder and sprinkle with cilantro and set aside for half an hour, longer if possible.
4. In the meantime, powder the peanuts, and mix with the cornmeal and half the salt.
5. Make a batter with the milk, flour and remaining salt.
6. Dip the fish into this batter (try to keep the marinade on if possible), and coat with the cover mixture.
7. When all the fish is coated.
8. Heat the oil on a heavy non-stick skillet and place the coated fish on this.
9. On low heat cook each side for about 10 minutes till well browned and the fish is cooked. Cover and cook for five minutes if needed.

This post is for WHB, the event that encourages me to bring new herbs to my home or sometimes just do new things with old ones. This week the event is being hosted by A fridge full of food.

Carrot and Carrot Greens

Have been so busy lately. Will be having a party for the kids, that can be quite a chore. The invites, getting gifts for the other kids, of course the food etc. That and switching jobs can keep a girl more than gainfully occupied.

Anyhow, I got this bunch of carrots with these beautiful greens. I have used beet greens before but never actually tried carrot greens, so I gave it a shot. Threw it together with some whole wheat spagetti, sun-dried tomatoes in oils, edamame bean, corn and grated carrots.

Essentially, I heated a 1 tbsp olive oil, sizzled some garlic and cumin seeds and then cooked the vegetables for about 10 minutes on low with a cover and then added the pasta, sun-dried tomatoes and a little salt and pepper. Added the chopped greens right at the end, the result was a pretty quick and tasty weeknight supper, fairly healthy too for that matter.

I spent a little time looking up carrot greens and realized that it is no novelty to be eating these greens anyhow I was glad that I had discovered a use for these wonderful leaves and I think they will feature anytime I get them in our regular cooking. Will sent this off to Sher at What did you eat? who is hosting WHB.

A tymely touch of novelty

This dish is somewhere between Indian and middle-eastern. I cannot help wondering whether that actually makes it a moghlai dish. I know it is nothing like the food that we know as moghlai, but think about it. The mughals in India were of Persian (middle-eastern) decent and then they came to India and adopted some knowledge of the spices and this became known as Moghlai cuisine - no make that the amazingly popular defination of Indian food moghlai food.

Ok, so you say, not quite...

I will concede, this is a great dish anyway.

Citrus - Thyme Chicken

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

3 oranges

1 lime or lemon

1 tbsp curry powder

1 tsp sumac

1.5 tsp dried thyme

1/2 inch piece fresh ginger

2-3 cloves garlic

2 green chillies

1 tsp salt

10 chicken drumsticks, skinned

For the garnish

1 fresh orange

Extra thyme or cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Squeeze the orange and lime juice into a blender.

2. Add all the remaining ingredients except the chicken into the blender and grind to a puree.

3. Marinate the chicken in this mixture for 2-4 hours.

4. Pre-heat the oven to 400 F. Arrange the chicken on a baking dish and bake for 25 minutes.

5. In the meantime, slice the orange for the garnish.

6. Remove the chicken from the oven, turn, and place each slice on the oven and return to the oven.

7. Remove and garnish with the remaining fresh herbs (thyme and cilantro).

Serve with a salad and decide whether this just might qualify as moghlai.

And this entry goes, to up a the host of this week's weekend herb blogging. Yes, I am wrapping this up ahead of mother's day but might be cooking a special brunch entry for a mom I know (not my mom, I wish she was close enough) but just another person who has shared this journey

that we call motherhood.

Chocolate Cardamom Strawberries

Last weekend I went to visit my cousin in DC. Actually, I had to attend a conference and Anshul and the kids tagged along. While we did not do a lot, spring had certainly arrived in the capital, and, it was beautiful to get glimpses of the cherry blossoms and daffodils. Here in New York, the weather has improved, we are begining to see little things peeking out of the soil but they are not quite there yet.

On Friday evening, I wandered to Whole Foods Market to see what I could get by way of a gift. What caught my eye were these stunning stem strawberries. They were large and just the kind of stuff that make a still life artists day, they were pricey at $7.99 a pound, but, I had never seen such beautiful strawberries before. So, I got myself a pound. Then, I was left with figuring out what to do with them to make them even more special, so, I scrounged around my pantry. We had some white chocolate (that is what I like) and some good dark chocolate (everyone else likes that). And then I found a few pods of cardamom that I removed the seeds from and crushed very finely. I melted the white chocolate and added the cardamom into it. I dipped the strawberried into this, spread them on a sheet of parchment paper and kept them in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, in the meantime, I melted the dark chocolate. I then dipped the white chocolate strawberries into this again, simple, elegant and amazingly good results.

Strawberries are such a harbringer of spring, colorful and full of flavor. It certainly mixes with the pretty spring landscape. This is my entry for this weeks weekend herb blogging. It is hosted this week by Ahn at Food Lovers Journey.

Mixed beans in a creamy gujarati style gravy

Well, here I was browsing through Trupti's,
beautiful blog, when I came across her recipe for Makai Chevdo, sweet corn simmered in milk and spices. I usually have more corn than I know what to do with but not last weekend. So, I started looking for what I could substitute, I found green peas, baby lima bean, and white kidney beans. So I figured since I like them all why stop at one of these ingredients. I did add a tomato and some sugar since I figured none of the above had the sweetness that corn had. My kids loved the idea so I also have since made a tofu-corn variation. Try the recipe as is or my variation, this is simple nutritious comfort food at its best.

Mixed Beans in a creamy gujarati style gravy

Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp mustard seeds
1/8 tsp asafetida
1/2 cup mixed dry baby lima and white kidney beans ( I cook these in a crockpot till soft)
1 cup frozen peas
2 green chillies finely chopped
1 tsp salt
1.5 tsp brown sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup water
2 limes

To garnish

Cilantro leaves

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil, add the mustard and cumin seeds and cook till they crackle.
2. Add the asafedtida followed by the beans and peas and cook for 5 minutes.
3. Mix in the chillies, salt, and sugar with the milk and water and simmer for 15 minutes.
4. Squeeze the lime over the beans and garnish with cilantro and enjoy.

Cauliflower with Crab and Balsamic Vinegar

This one is from food and wine magazine. One of the few magazines that I subscribe to. (what a not-surprise, since I love both food and wine). The subscription actually was an add-on to a freebee trial subscription. I don't know about others but I am really bad about accepting those freebee trial offers and then not canceling them. Well, I have been ripped off, several times and been stuck with unwanted materials that I do not know what to do with. Other times (like the stupid almost free newpaper in my driveway it is more painful to really deal with the offer, since I never have time to read the newspaper and spend all the time reclycing it!) it is not worth it, but what I am trying to say is that I like this magazine.
The past issue had an interesting cauliflower and scallops recipe. Well, I loved the idea and since I always have cauliflower and balsamic vinegar in my house, that was hardly the problem, it was scallops. I love scallops but I use it less than shrimps. In this particular case I had some fake crab, available. I felt, this had the sweetness that the scallops would have and makes somewhat of a substitute in a pinch. In this recipe, which was inspired by the mentioned magazine but reinvented to the following in my kitchen, the substitution works I think.

Balsamic Cauliflower with Crab

Ingredients
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 pkgs fake crab (16 oz)
1/2 head cauliflower
1 inch piece ginger
2 green chilies (yes the last two ingredients are where I take over the recipe!)
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar.

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and sizzle the cumin and add the fake crab (if you were using scallops you were supposed to pan sear them.).
2. In the meantime, pulse the cauliflower, ginger, chilies, in a food processor to a coarse pulse.
3. Add this to the crab mixture and cook stirring well for 15 minutes till the cauliflower starts begining to have brown spots.
4. Add in the balsamic vinegar (I found this white balsamic vinegar in my local grocery that I am excited about since it has the flavor but not the dark color that may not be that great for recipes like this).
5. Cook for 10 minutes and eat hot.

Ok, what can I say about cauliflower, something that I actually love and don't care about its nutritious value. Well, if I read the linked article it helps prevents cancer and has a reasonble share of vitamins so it seems to be a good thing to like. Cauliflower is my contribution for this weeks WHB hosted by Becky of Key Lime and Coconut.

Date-Pine Nut Cake with Fennel

As always, I find Mahanandi
a beautiful blog to visit. I was recently struck by this recipe, for a Date-Walnut cake. Firstly, when I went to make it I realized that I did not have any walnuts, then I played around with the flavorings but overall the results were really good and frankly this was quite wholesome for a cake.

Date-PineNut Cake with Fennel

Makes one loaf

Ingredients

1 cup wholewheat flour

1 cup all-purpose flour

3/4 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp fennel seeds

1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice

1 cup pinenuts

1 cup chopped dates

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup dark brown sugar

1/4 cup soft butter

1 egg

1 cup buttermilk

Method of Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan and set aside.

2. Mix the flours, baking soda, baking powder, fennel seeds, pumpkin pie spice in a large bowl.

3. Stir in the pinenuts.

4. Mix the dates in the honey.

5. Beat the sugar, butter and egg till smooth.

6. Add in the dates with the honey.

7. Add to the dry ingredients in batches with the buttermilk. Blend till smooth.

8. Pour into a pan and cook for 45 minutes till well browned. Serve hot with tea.

Interestingly enough, I made this rather late at night and was not sure about having tea at that time. Someone had sent me a gift of something called white tea that I had never had before. This happens to be a rather mild tea that needs to be steeped in hot but not boiling water. It is also much lower in caffiene than regular black tea so it makes a good late evening drink when you are craving tea at night.