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BAKED HILSA/BHEING WITH FRESH HERBS

Went to the fish market last night and got some of my favorite fish Silver Pomfrets and Hilsa/Bheing.

Bheing is a very thorny fish but when baked or if you make curry it tastes yummy. The flesh is so soft it just melts in your mouth like butter and the taste is divine, so you just forget about the thorns and enjoy.

We normally stuff the fish with Reichard Masala (Goan specialty) and bake it. But this time I wanted to make it in a different style so made a fresh herbs marinate and stuffed it in and baked. Oh you can’t imagine the aroma that was spread all over the kitchen. We were just waiting for the fish to get out of the oven. Sabu hates fish but she too enjoyed it, making sure that the thorns were removed.

So if you wish to try here is the recipe.

1 Fresh Big Bheing Fish
1 bunch of fresh dill
1 bunch of coriander
4 green chillies
2” piece of ginger
2 big lemons juice
1 Tsp Salt

Remove the scales of the fish, wash it well. Make a slit from both sides and clean the fish nicely inside. Wash and pat it dry. Apply salt & 1 tbspn outside. Also apply salt inside. Put it in a Baking tray and leave it aside.

For the stuffing:

Finely chop the dill, coriander leaves, green chillies and ginger. Put everything in a bowl. Add the lemon juice, ½ tsp salt. Mix it well. Now stuff this mixture into the fish. Preheat the oven to 200 deg./C. Put the fish inside the preheated oven and bake it for 30-45 minutes. Fish is ready to be served.

We were so hungry that couldn’t wait until it was baked for 45 minutes so we fried the fish and enjoyed every bit of it. It tasted absolutely delicious with lovely flavour of dill and tangy lemon.

CRAB THERMIDOR

5 Medium Sized Crabs
2 tbsp salted butter
4 tbsp full fat cream
1 tsp crushed black pepper
½ onion very finely cubed
10 cloves of garlic finely chopped
5-6 tbsp grated Parmesan Cheese

De-shell & clean the crab. Now wash it under cold water and leave it in a pan to boil for 15 minutes along with the whole shell of the crab washing it nicely with cold water.

Once the crab is boiled very carefully scoop out the crab meat and keep it aside.

Take a pan put it on fire. Once the pan is hot add the butter , once butter melts add the finely chopped onion and fry until it browns. Add the garlic and brown it too. Add the crab meat , crushed black pepper, a pinch of salt and stir it.. Now add the cream, mix it well and put of the flame. Crab sauce is ready to be filled in the shell case.

Now take the Crab Shell Case, fill it with crab sauce. Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over the crab. Light the top flame of the oven and leave it in the oven for 10 minutes until the cheese melts and browns. Once browned remove it from the oven and serve the crab thermidor as an appetizer.

Egg Masala

Ingredients

8 boiled eggs
5 medium Onions thinly sliced
2 chillies chopped
4 medium ripe tomatoes chopped
2 tsp gingergarlic paste
2 ½ tbsp of Mehran kadhai gosht masala
1 tbsp amchur powder (mango powder)
6 tbsp oil
Few coriander leaves for garnishing

Boil the eggs with a little salt then remove the shell chop them roughly and keep it aside.

Take a saucepan put it on slow fire, now pour the oil in it once the oil is hot put the sliced onions and fry it until brown, add the chopped tomatoes and keep frying it on slow till the pan leaves oil now add the gingergarlic paste fry for 1-2 minutes. Add the chillies, kadai ghost masala and amchur powder. Mix it well for another 2-3 minutes. Add ¼ cup of water, salt to taste mix and add the chopped boiled eggs stir and put of the flame. Garnish it with finely chopped coriander leaves. Serve it with Malabar Parrotha.

Sweet & Sour Toor Dal

In some parts of India it is common to combine a sweet & sour taste, particularly in lentil curries such as this one. Plan in advance when you want to make this dish as the dal has to be soaked before you cook it.

Ingredients

250 gms Toor Dal (yellow lentil)
5x5 cm of Kokum
1 tsp coriander seeds
11 tsp cumin seeds
2 tbsp oil
2 tsp mustard seeds
5-6 curry leaves
4-5 cloves
5 cm piece of cinnamon stick
4 green chillies, finely chopped
1/2 tspn turmeric powder
400 gms of chopped tomatoes
10 gms of Jaggery
coriander leaves chopped

Wash & soak the lentils in cold water for 2 hours. rinse the kokum, remove any stones and put the kokum in a bowl with cold water for few minutes to soften. Drain the lentils and put them in a heavy based sauce pan with 1/2 litre of water along with the soaked kokum. Bring to a boil, then simmer fro about 40 minutes, or until the lentils feel soft when pressed between the thumb and index finger.

Place a small frying pan over low heat and dry roast tthe coriander & cumin seeds until aromatic. Grind the roasted seeds to a fine powder.

For the final seasing, heat the oil ina small pan over low heat. Add the mustard seeds and allow to crackle. Add the curry leaves and the roasted powder. Mix well and cook for 1 minute. Add the tomatoes and cook for another 2-3 minutes untill the toamto is soft. Add the jaggery, then pour the spicy mixture into the simmering lentils and cook for another 10 minutes. Season with salt to taste. Garnish with corainder leaves. Serve hot with chappatis or rice.

Egg Masala & Sweet Sour Toor Dal

Got fedup wit the normal tadka dal, palak dal so planned to make something different. Normally Adrian prefers only Masoor Dal and he never allows me to buy or try any other dals. So I decided this time not to listen to him and try out toor dal.

I got this recipe from my new book the food of INDIA.

While I was making the dal adrian boiled some eggs and wanted me to make Egg Masala too.

Will post the recipe later.

Stuffed Bread Rolls

These bread rolls were one of the hit snacks my mom made when we were little. Me & my Sis would wait for an opportunity for my mom to make these for us. She deep fries them which gives even golden color to these rolls and they taste even better & yummier but they are too greasy so I decided to bake it in the oven. It is also another variation of a toasted sandwich unlike the square or triangle. Kids are probably bored so they need some oval sandwiches which taste different, look different.

Any leftover dry potato vegetable, paneer, mince is fine. I prefer to make the stuffing out of mince.

Stuffing

1 pack of mince meat washed and drained
1 big Onion chopped fine
1 tsp chopped green chillies
1 tsp of chopped ginger
¼ tsp of pepper powder
½ bunch of coriander leaves (chopped fine)
¼ tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp vinegar
2-3 Tbsp Oil
1 tsp salt

Take oil in a medium pan, once hot put the chopped onion fry until it browns then add the green chilies, ginger. Once it is slightly brown add turmeric powder, pepper powder & the vinegar. Mix it well.

Now add the mince stir well , add 1 tsp of salt or as per your taste, add the coriander leaves and keep it on slow flame covered for 15 minutes until the mince is cooked and dry. Leave the mixture to cool.

HOW TO MAKE THE ROLLS.

Take a slice of bread apply butter on one side, dip the other side in water, remove it at once (or else the bread will get too soggy) immediately press it hard in between your palms to squeeze out the water. Now take 1 Tbsp full of mince filling and put it in the centre of the bread and pull the bread from all side to form like an oval roll. Make as many rolls you wish, now arrange them on a greased tray and put it in a preheated oven @ 200 deg C for 20 minutes until they are nicely browned. You may light the top flame for 2-3 minutes to give that beautiful brown color. Serve it with any chutney, ketchup, yoghurt or just eat it plain. We couldn’t wait to relish it as it is. If you are not worried about putting on those few extra calories then I suggest you deep fry them until golden brown and ENJOY.