All posts tagged: Fish

Cookbook Review: The married man’s guide to creative cooking

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With the gazillion cookbook’s I own, it would be a shame to let them collect dust. I do pick up my favorites and rummage through the pages greedily for some ‘flashbulb’ recipes, but the rest of them are read once and relegated to the back shelf. Samar’s book runs the ambiguous path of a cross between ramblings of one’s life and recipes that relate to that phase, scribbled onto pages of a scrummy diary. As he states in the preface to the book – he is a glutton. And if he needed to feed his rambunctious appetite without upsetting the balance at home (his wife is a vegetarian), he had to learn how to cook. Years of living away from home, coupled with hosting innumerable impromptu parties has given him the ammunition to be creative with his cooking techniques. The book is a result of him documenting his attempts to create palatable meals through a blog in the Hindustan Times and a column in the Mint.

Masala Fried Fish for rasam rice and other world problems

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Yes, I know what you’re thinking. A recipe for Masala Fried Fish?? I mean, how basic right?! You chuck some chili and turmeric paste and deep fry the fish and it’s done. Fini. Like honestly, why even bother listing it here. But I have, because we make this at home very often and it’s used as a bait to eat the rasam rice. It’s part of the family repertoire of quick fix meals when all we want to do is put our legs up and chill or in most cases, order in some greasy Chinese.

Fizzy Batter Fried Fish

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Chemistry was an exciting subject in school – at least the part that required us to don lab coats and act like scientists. No matter that the only thing we were actually allowed to do, is heat some substances (washing soda/ copper sulphate) and note down the properties. I don’t want to give you the spiel about how recreating a recipe is nothing but chemistry, but in this case it’s true. I was supposed to use carbonated water or soda, in combination with soda bicarbonate powder to get the desired ‘fizziness’ to make the batter light and crispy. It’s anticlimactic that the actual reaction was nowhere near the explosion that I expected, but more of a tame bubble bath! But the end product was right as promised – crisp, light and almost see-through-lace like batter. Now that’s an experiment recipe worth repeating. Fizzy Batter Fried Fish Prep time: 20 mins Cook time: 10 mins Serves 4 What you need: 125 gms Plain Flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of Soda/ baking soda 1 tsp Paprika 150ml cold, …

Thai Fish Cakes with Coriander, Lime Mayo

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I love fish cakes. Especially the ones made with Sear fish. Sear fish is a delicacy in South India and Sri Lanka and is generally the costliest fish in the market after Pomfret. In Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu it’s called “Vanjaram” and in Kerala its christened “Neimeen”. Some people also refer to them as king mackerels. I am partial to the seer, because a. it’s an ocean fish, b. it cooks beautifully in a curry or a fry, c. It’s isn’t riddled with too many bones, d. It’s so tasty! My mom-in-law makes the best fish cutlets (south Indian style with loads of masala!) and the co-resident can’t stop eating them. Since I can’t compete with the mother recipe, I din’t try to replicate it. Instead I found one that uses thai red curry paste to give a fantastic spin to the basic fishcake recipe. It’s really simple to make. You can even make the cakes in advance and refrigerate them, just pull out and fry before serving. Now isn’t that what we all …