Hello Again!
Its been a while since I posted. All the while I have been cooking but transferring the recipes to my blog required more discipline than I have, unfortunately. However a couple of friends have been asking repeatedly for me to post some recipes so I decided to start again.
For Christmas instead of making my huge buffet of food I decided to go small and gourmet. I decide to serve baked Chilean sea bass over lemon rice, with a coconut sauce topped with a mash of potato and cauliflower. I garnished the dish with two different sauces. One was a beetroot and coconut with yogurt sauce and the second was a tomato ginger sauce.
I basically made a deconstructed Fish Mollee. Fish Mollee is a dish from Kerala in India.Everyone enjoyed the dinner.
Its been a while since I posted. All the while I have been cooking but transferring the recipes to my blog required more discipline than I have, unfortunately. However a couple of friends have been asking repeatedly for me to post some recipes so I decided to start again.
For Christmas instead of making my huge buffet of food I decided to go small and gourmet. I decide to serve baked Chilean sea bass over lemon rice, with a coconut sauce topped with a mash of potato and cauliflower. I garnished the dish with two different sauces. One was a beetroot and coconut with yogurt sauce and the second was a tomato ginger sauce.
I basically made a deconstructed Fish Mollee. Fish Mollee is a dish from Kerala in India.Everyone enjoyed the dinner.
So here is the recipe for the different elements on the dish. The measurements are for two plates.
The 3 Sauces
Tip: After using the sauce for this dish you can use the leftover sauces with other dishes.
1. Fish Mollee Coconut Sauce.
Ingredients
4-5 White pearl onions chopped
1 sprig of Curry Leaves
2 Green chillies sliced
1/2 inch piece of ginger finely julienned
Mustard for seasoning
1 cup of Coconut Milk
Salt for tasting
2 pinches of Turmeric powder
I tsp of lemon juice
Oil
Directions
Heat the oil in saucepan.
Put the mustard in and heat till it splutters.
Now add the curry leaves, sliced green chillies and julienned ginger and fry till they start to slightly brown.
Into that add the chopped onions and saute till onions are translucent.
Once onions are done add, the turmeric powder and saute till the onions are well coated. Make sure to not burn the turmeric.
Add the coconut milk to this mixture. Stir well till mixed well.
Let the mixture come to a slow boil on medium heat. As soon as sauce starts to boil, turn the stove off. Add the salt to taste.
Once the sauce cools, puree it in a blend so that there are no pieces in the sauce. Two to three pulses of the blender should puree the pieces. Once you take the sauce out of the blender add the lemon juice, mix well and keep aside.
2. Tomato Ginger Sauce
Ingredients
2 tomatoes chopped
1 medium onion chopped
1 sprig of Curry Leaves
2 Green chillies sliced
1 inch piece of ginger finely julienned
Mustard for seasoning
Salt for tasting
1 tsp pinches of Turmeric powder
1 tsp of red chilli powder
1 cup of water
Oil
Directions
Heat the oil in saucepan.
Put the mustard in and heat till it splutters.
Now add the curry leaves, sliced green chillies and julienned ginger and fry till they start to slightly brown.
Into that add the chopped onions and saute till onions are translucent.
Once onions are done add the tomatoes and saute till they are soft and mushy.
Add the turmeric powder and chilli powder and saute till the onion, ginger and tomato mixture is well coated.
Add the salt to taste.
Add water and let the sauce simmer for 10-15 minutes. Make sure to not let the sauce get burnt and stick to the bottom of the pan.
Once sauce is thick and and the tomatoes and onions are well cooked, take off the stove and cool.
Once the sauce cools, puree it in a blend so that there are no pieces in the sauce. Two to three pulses of the blender should puree the pieces.
3. Beetroot Pachadi - Beetroot in a coconut and yogurt sauce
Ingredients
1 small can of beetroot
1 sprig of Curry Leaves
2 Green chillies sliced
Mustard for seasoning
A pinch of cumin seeds
1 cup of grated coconut
Salt for tasting
1/2 cup of yogurt
I tsp of lemon juice
Oil
Directions
Heat the oil in saucepan.
Put the mustard in and heat till it splutters.
Now add the curry leaves, sliced green chillies and fry till they start to slightly brown.Keep aside
In a blender, grind coconut with the cumin seeds into a fine paste.
Into the coconut add the beetroot and puree till no pieces.
Add the fried curry leaves and chillies into the blender and pulse till well blended.
Now add the yogurt and pulse till well mixed.
Once you take the sauce out of the blender add the salt and lemon juice, mix well and keep aside.
Lemon Rice
Ingredients
1 cup of rice - For this recipe I used jeera rice
I dry red chilli
10 pieces of split cashew
1 tsp of turmeric powder
3-4 curry leaves.
1 tsp of mustard seeds
Salt t taste.
3-4 tbsp of lemon juice.
3 tbsp of oil
Directions
Soak rice for 15 minuted before cooking.
In a deep pot add the oil and the dry red chilli, mustard seeds, curry leaves.
when the mustard starts to splutter. add the turmeric powder and cashews and saute till slightly brown. Keep an eye and do not let the cashew burn.
Next add the rice and the water. For one cup of rice soaked for 15 minutes, you should add 1 and 3/4 cup o water.
Add the salt and cover the pot. Cook on medium. Once the water reduces, turn the flame to low and keep the pot covered. The rice should cook in the steam. You do not want soft rice. So make sure to fluff the rice with a fork.
Potato and Cauliflower mash
Ingredients
One small potato cubed
3-4 florets of cauliflower cut into small pieces
Salt to taste
A pinch of turmeric powder
A pinch of chilli powder
1 tsp of oil
Directions
Put the cubed potato in the microwave for 2 minutes so that it is semi cooked.
Now in small pan add oil and saute the microwaved potatoes till they are slightly browned.
Add the cauliflower and fry.
Add the turmeric, chilli powder and salt and let cook on low flame till slightly mushy.
Chilean Sea Bass
2 pieces of Chilean sea bass. You could use any other meaty white fish such as cod or haddock.
I used a cast iron pan to sear the fish and then bake it.
Season the fish with salt and pepper.
When the pan is hot, add 2 tsp of olive oil.
Now put the fish in and let it sear on one side. Flip it and sear the other side. This should not take too long.
Then put it into an 350 degree oven for 10 minutes. In the last few minutes in the oven, add a small dab of butter to each piece of fish. Take the fish out and cover with a foil while preparing the plate.
Assembling the plate
This is how you wish to make your plate look. You have the different parts of the dish and you can be the creator of the plate. I chose to stack.
I molded the rice using a small dish and then putting it on the plate.
I then put the fish on top of the rice.
Next I poured the Fish Mollee Sauce on the fish
On top of that I put the Potato and Cauliflower mash.
I garnished the plate with the Tomato and ginger and Beetroot sauce.
