It has been a whole month now since I made a post last.
One fact is I was away, visiting home. One week was spent on preparation for the travel, read shopping, planning and packing ... yes, I am an organiser and need to be packed and ready at least two days before the actual journey date. Else I get all flustered and the heebie jeebies.
The other fact is, ever since I have returned, I cannot muster up enough energy or the enthusiasm to actually sit down and type something ... anything ... that can be passed off as a decent post.
I have been cooking ... yes.
My camera is full of pictures, waiting to be uploaded and edited.
But I am stuck. With a god knows what block.
All I do now is keep calling up home ... Bapi was not well when I left ... and hang on to the sounds of familiar voices and noises from home.
Or spend unending time on FB ... which of course results in wonderful culinary experiences.
Every time I give a shout out, expert friends jump in with helpful tips and recipes. Like this particular time, when I had brought home two good sized pomfrets.
I had seen them beautifully scored in one of Kalyan's posts and wanted to try my hand at that. While Kalyan's fish was expertly scored att he fish market, I think I did a pretty good job of doing so by myself.
I did end up with a cut finger but the way the fish looked, especially after cooking ,was worth all.
I asked for a suggestion as to what masala should I use to cook it with. I had already marinated it with some ginger paste, garlic paste and lots of lemon juice.
Kalyan suggested plain jeera and red chilli powder . This sounded perfect as I did not want too much of masalas or a gravy.
I have had tandoori pomfret earlier and have always loved the pomfret dryish and crispy fried.
Then Rhea of Euphorhea suggested that a malvani or a koli masala would be great too.
Now I was really tempted to try that too ... but unfortunately did not have any malvani masala. But I did have the Goda masala in my kitchen.
So it was decided .... one fish will have the jeera+chilli coating and the other will have the Goda masala and a dash of agal.
The discussion is here.
The fish is pan fried in minimum oil in both recipes. And I have the rice flour to give the coating an extra crispiness. Both turned out to be the most wonderful pomfret recipes I have ever tried!
And I have already made them twice after this.
And these are phone photographs .... remember you guys had encouraged me saying it is the recipe that matters ... so there. :-)
Need :
Pomfret fish - 2, cleaned and scored as shown
Ginger paste - 2 tbsp
Garlic paste - 2 tbsp
Lemon juice - 6 tbsp
Salt - to taste
Red chilli powder - 1 tbsp
Goda masala - 2 tbsp
Roasted jeera powder - 1 tbsp
Agal / Kokum juice - 2 tbsp
( If you don;t have Agal, then you can use a teaspoonful of tamarind pulp too )
Oil - 2 tbsp, for two fishes
Rice flour - 4 tbsp
How to :
Marinate both fishes with a spoonful of ginger + garlic paste, 3 tbsp of lemon juice, the rice flour and a sprinkle of salt, each.
Add the roasted jeera powder + red chilli powder + r2 tbsp of rice flour to one fish.
Add the Goda masala + the Agal + 2 tbsp rice flour to the other fish.
Keep aside for at least 15 minutes.
Add one fish and cover. Cook till one side is brownish and crisp.
Flip and cook the other side too.
The pomfret is a very delicate fish and cooks very fast. Make sure you do not over cook it.
Remove and serve hot.
I had some marinade left, so tossed some onion rings in it and stir fried them in the same pan with the minimum residual oil.
Loved the sizzle and the slightly charred rings.
Were perfect with the fish.
The photograph on top is the one with the Goda masala marinade.
The one below is the one with the jeera powder.
Both tasted awesome! Super awesome!
I have made these for guests too.
You can use the tandoori masala and make Tandoori Pomfret in exactly this same way. Just add a little sour curd and a pinch of besan to the marinade.
Make sure to serve hot.
Enjoy!!
I have a few other recipes that have resulted from discussing food with my friends on FB.
One is a wonderfully simple yet flavourful dish made from prawns / shrimps.
Coming up soon.
Stay tuned.
Whenever I read your blog...i fall in love with it all over again!
ReplyDeleteMy! What a sweet thing to say Rakhee! You just gave me the much needed shot to make more posts more frequently.
DeleteThank you! :-)
This post reminds me of a couple of things. One is about the packing ahead. Many years ago, I was supposed to go abroad for work at someone's invitation. This was the first time I was going abroad officially. Someone's invitation meant that they had to organise the trip, including the tickets, etc, which they had a PR agency take care of. They never got back to me after sending me the invitation and I didn't know whether I was going or not. Finally, I kept my bag packed as there was just 2 days more for the trip, even though I had not heard from them. Later, I was complaining to a colleague about this at work, saying why don't they let me know one way or the other, whether I am going or not, and he said, "Okay, when are you going to pack?" and I said "Yesterday". :-D
ReplyDeleteI got my ticket the evening before I left. And over the years, I learnt that most such trips are organised like this, everything falling in place at the last minute.
Second thing: Once I was cleaning fish and a bone pricked my hand and went in. It got infected and swollen and I had to get it cut, removed and cleaned up by a surgeon.
:-)
DeleteGaps are welcome :) Can't write much as I too sail in the same boat Sharmila ;) Thanks for sharing the recipe and filling it up
ReplyDeleteThank you Tara! Yes, these breaks do help but not when it comes to blogging. :-)
DeleteI am badly stuck now.