Garam Masala Tuesdays: Goan Style Fish

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Goa, a state located in the West of India, is famous for its beaches, its relaxed culture and of course its cuisine. The long period of Portuguese rule, besides that of the Muslim and Hindu kingdoms has led to a different and unique style of food with a combination of spicy flavors in this beloved vacation state.

The Portuguese dominated Goa for centuries coming in the 1500s and leaving in 1961. Thus, the Goan culture heavily reflects the Portuguese influence. The Portuguese culture is known for their happy go lucky nature, love for drinks, late night parties and gala dinner. And that’s how Goa is perceived all over India and loved by all.

The taste of Goan food involves tangy, spicy and other lip-smacking delicacies. Most Goans, unlike the rest of India, eat all kinds of meat- including beef, pork and all types of seafood, besides the regular chicken. Prawn Balchao, Pork Vindaloo and Chicken Xacuti- yup they are all goan dishes.

One of Goa’s staple dishes is fish curry and rice, something I will be sharing today.

I was watching an Indian food channel when I came across this recipe. The original recipe uses lobster as the choice of meat and I am sure the lobster complements this dish perfectly. But all I had on hand was halibut and thought the flavors in the recipe would be a perfect way to eat the fish steak I had.

If you have lobster, go ahead use it and follow the same instructions as given. Except for searing the lobster before putting it in the curry. If you use lobster meat, just marinate it and then when the curry is ready add to the dish. But if all you have is halibut, don’t worry, it works fine- in fact absolutely perfect.

The dish is very spicy, but that’s how most goan dishes go. Even if you don’t feel like making the curry (though I can’t guess why because all of it comes together quickly), just grilling the fish in the marinade is a great meal in itself, especially if you are a looking for an Indian, spicy flavor in your fish.

The original recipe calls for a feni flambe. Feni is a spirit made from either coconut or the juice of the cashew apple, made in Goa. It tastes bitter as hell (at least that’s what I remember of it), but that’s what the tamarind concentrate is supposed to take care of- the bitterness of the Feni. But I didn’t have access to Feni, still I added the tamarind concentrate since I think it cuts a little into the spiciness of the dish, which for me was very much welcomed.

The dish fit perfectly with my gluten free diet that I plan to be on for this month. Gluten free and sugar free. It’s not that I am allergic to gluten (at least not something I am aware of), but it’s a way to challenge myself and go a little healthier in things I eat. And that’s why this month I will be (or at least try to be) gluten free and sugar free. And to challenge myself even more I plan to go raw for a week in between.

You can follow my gluten free month on Facebook. I still haven’t gotten the hang of twitter, even though I am on it. I have never been one of those witty people who come up with smart one liners. Probably that is why twitter is still something I just can’t get used to. So, if you want to know about how my month of gluten free, sugar free and one week of raw diet is going on, check my Facebook page for updates (and do pass in a motivating word, because with my love for all things unhealthy I sure would need it!).

Goan Style Fish Curry

Recipe Type: Main, fish
Cuisine: Indian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 2-3
This might not be the traditional fish curry, but I am sure you will still like it!Since I was cooking for one, I just added one steak, but feel free to add another halibut steak- just make sure you double the marinade
Ingredients
  • 1 steak halibut
  • For the marinade:
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
  • roasted spice masala
  • 1 tsp lemon juice
  • salt
  • Roasted Spice Masala:
  • 1/4 inch Ginger, finely chopped
  • 1-2 cloves Garlic, slivered
  • 1/2 tsp Cumin seeds
  • 8 Black Peppercorn
  • seeds from 2-3 Green cardamom
  • 1 medium sized Dried Red chilli
  • For the curry
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 cup finely chopped onions
  • 2 small tomatoes, finely chopped
  • 1 tsp Ginger paste
  • 1 tsp garlic paste
  • 1 tsp turmeric powder
  • 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1/4 cup coconut milk
  • 2-3 tbsp chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp freshly chopped coriander leaves
  • 1 tsp tamarind concentrate
  • salt, to taste
Instructions
  1. Dry roast the spices under roasted spice masala. Grind to a paste with 1-2 tsp water. Start with 1 tsp water and if not fully ground add another tsp of water. Mix this with the lemon juice and salt and rub it on the halibut steak.
  2. In 1 tsp olive oil, sear the fish for 1-2 minutes on each side. You don’t want the fish to be completely cooked. Just seared a little. You could skip this step entirely, but I prefer cooking the fish a little to get that raw taste out before putting it in the curry. Remove the fish steak from the pan and place on a plate. Debone and cut into bite sized pieces.
Make the curry:
  1. In a pan, heat the olive oil. Add the chopped onions and the ginger garlic paste. Brown the onions. Add the turmeric powder and the red chilli powder and mix well. Add in the chopped tomatoes and 2-3 tbsp stock. Don’t let the masala burn. The stock is added so that the masala doesn’t stick to the pan and burn. Add in the marinated fish and cook till the oil separates.
  2. Pour in the coconut milk and chopped coriander and tamarind pulp. Adjust seasoning. Remove from fire and serve with rice.

 

 

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Garam Masala Tuesdays: Chicken Tikka Pizza

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If you love chicken tikka, and you love pizza- this is totally your kind of Pizza.

I made it last week for V and me, using some leftover pizza dough I had and both of us really devoured it!

Now, V is not a pizza person. He is mostly a dal roti person, but for this pizza he changed his mind. He actually was sad when it got over and even though he knew there was no more pizza left he was talking about how he felt like having this pizza the next day. He still talks about it. And while writing this post, I wish I had some pizza dough so that I could make this again now.

You do need to take out some time to make this pizza. Well, any pizza for that matter.

The pizza dough recipe I use requires a rest overnight and since I always get fantastic results with it, when I want a really good pizza crust I prefer to use that recipe. Plus, you need to marinate the chicken and keep it for atleast 4 hours. The sauce is a breeze to make if you have canned tomato paste- it will require a little more effort if you try making your own.

But while it takes time- most of it is just resting time. The dough kneads in ten minutes and then you just need to let it rest overnight. The marinade is ready in two minutes- but you have to wait for at least 4 hours for the chicken to soften, before grilling. If you plan the pre-prep properly- that is if you already have some pizza dough in your freezer that you take out the night before and put in your refrigerator, and marinate the chicken the night before while you thaw your pizza dough base, making the pizza the next day won’t require too much effort or too much time in the kitchen.

Either way, whether you think it takes a lot of time or not- this pizza is totally worth it.

And the pizza sauce makes plenty. You can use it for future pizzas.

Chicken Tikka Pizza

Recipe Type: Appetizer, dinner, main course
Cuisine: Indian, fusion, italian
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 3 pizzas
The pizza dough requires overnight rest. I generally have some in the freezer, so when I let the dough thaw overnight, I marinate the chicken along with it. Next day the dough is ready and the chicken is ready to grill. The sauce makes more than required for two pizza bases. But it’s good to have on hand for further pizza making days.
Ingredients
  • For the chicken tikka:
  • 440 gm chicken, cut into bite sized pieces
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/4 cup yogurt, whisked
  • 2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
  • 1 tbsp roasted cumin powder
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala (if using store bought you might need a little more)
  • 1 1/2 tsp red chilli powder
  • salt, to taste
  • 1 tsp mustard oil (or use vegetable oil)
  • 1 tbsp gram flour (besan)
  • 1 1/2 tsp coriander powder
  • 1/2 tsp onion powder
  • For the Chicken Tikka Pizza sauce:
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 inch stick cinnamon
  • 3-4 green cardamoms, crushed slightly
  • 1 tsp fenugreek seeds (methi seeds)
  • 1 1/2 tbsp ginger garlic paste
  • salt, to taste
  • 2 tsp red chilli powder
  • 1 can tomato paste
  • 3-4 green chillies, finely chopped
  • 1 tbsp kasoori methi (dried fenugreek leaves)
  • 1 tbsp roasted cumin powder
  • 1 cup water
  • For the topping:
  • 2 tbsp melted butter or olive oil
  • cornmeal or semolina flour for dusting
  • 1 tbsp slivered garlic (optional)
  • few sprigs Coriander or mint leaves to top
  • Freshly grated Mozzarella cheese, as much as you like
  • For the dough, check this recipe(you would need to make this one day ahead)
Instructions
For the chicken:
  1. Marinate the chicken with the lemon juice, yogurt, ginger garlic paste, roasted cumin powder, garam masala, red chilli powder, oil, gram flour, coriander and onion powder. Let marinate overnight or for atleast 4 hours. Broil on high for 8-10 minutes, turning over once. Or grill till cooked. Once cooled, shred the chicken into smaller pieces.
  2. For the sauce:
  3. Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the cinnamon stick, green cardamoms, fenugreek seeds and let sizzle. Add in the ginger garlic paste, and chilli powder and fry the paste for a few seconds. Add in the green chillies, tomato paste, salt to taste and fry for a minutes. Add in the water, salt and the roasted cumin powder. Cook till the oil separates. Take off heat. Let cool.
  4. Making the Pizza:
  5. Follow the instruction for the pizza dough. Two hours before you are ready to bake your pizza, remove your pizza dough balls from the refrigerator. And let rest on a lightly floured surface while you grill your chicken and make the sauce.
  6. Preheat oven to the highest setting on your oven. Mine goes to 550F. If you have a pizza stone, place it in the oven. I do not have one, and I use the back of my sheet pan. You do not have to preheat your sheet pan. Dust your sheet pan or peel with cornmeal or semolina flour.
  7. Roll out your pizza dough. Add some melted butter or olive oil on top of your rolled out pizza. You can add slivered garlic if you like. Slather 2-3 tbsp of pizza sauce. Top generously with the chicken tikka. Sprinkle mozzarella cheese. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cheese has melted and crust has cooked. Sprinkle chopped coriander or mint leaves. Let cool a little and serve.

 

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Vegan Chocolate Cake

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275 meters swimming, 16km bike riding over our hilly town and a 5K run. Finally, completed my first triathalon!

Now, the embarrassing part- I was one of the lasts to finish. While my swimming and run timings were pretty decent, everyone dusted me off in the cycling round. Do understand, for me, the cycling part was the toughest. I only started cycling a month and half back, after more than a decade of not getting on a cycle. And it was a real task for me to do uphill cycling, which was almost 50% of the whole route. One of the roads we biked on is actually called Mountain road (not even Hill road- its called mountain!). So it wasn’t easy for me. And that’s why it took me a lot of time. And the wind didn’t help either when climbing uphill on the cycle.

Anyway, the idea this time for my first triathlon was to complete it. Next time I’ll probably think of actually competing!

To celebrate my completion of the triathlon, I decided to bake a cake.

A few weeks back, one of my juniors from college had messaged me on Facebook asking for good eggless cake recipes. This other friend of mine had tried this eggless cake recipe from Passionate About Baking (originally published by Barbara from barbarabakes.com) and had highly recommended it. Before trying this recipe, I tried another one that I had copied from one of my mom’s recipe books. While that recipe produced a really moist and spongy cake, I had baked in a bundt pan and while removing it, it broke at several places. Also, it wasn’t as chocolatey as I wanted it to be.

Since I knew this recipe was tried and tested, for my next attempt at baking eggless cakes, I decided to use Barbara’s recipe. Plus, this one was vegan as well.

 While I followed the recipe to a T, I made a few changes. One of them- instead of using 2 9 inch round pans, I used a Bundt pan. In spite of my last bundt cake tragedy, I decided to bake it in a bundt pan and this time I made sure to grease and flour the tin well. And it cam out beautifully.

I also added a few chopped walnuts to the batter. And next time would probably add a few chocolate chips as well.

I didn’t frost it like Barbara or Deeba, keeping it simple.

This cake is very simple to make. It doesn’t require any beating of butter with sugar. Heck, there is no butter in the recipe. Nor does it require too much work. While the oven is pre-heating, you mix your dry ingredients and wet ingredients in two different bowls. Mix them together till just combined. Add any chopped walnuts and chocolate chips if you like and pour the  batter into the prepared tin. Meanwhile the oven has preheated and you just pop it in the oven and bake for 35-40 min (it took mine 45 minutes- probably because of the different pan). I had some problem with the mixing- a tiny part of it didn’t mix, and that’s why you see a portion of white on the cake. That aside the cake was spot on- moist, chocolatey and spongy.

Vegan Chocolate Cake

Recipe Type: Dessert, eggless, vegan, vegetarian, chocolate cake
Author: from BarbaraBakes.com
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 1 bundt cake
Ingredients
  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 cups sugar*
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used KA Double-Dutch Dark Cocoa)
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda*
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 cups hot water*
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon instant coffee granules
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
  • *I used Barbar’s suggestions and made the following high altitude adjustments: Decreased the sugar by 2 tablespoons, used 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda and 2 1/4 cup hot water.
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350º with rack in the center. Spray and flour a bundt pan really well, making sure you get all the nooks and corners. Or you could use two greased 9×2 inch round cake pans.
  2. Whisk the dry ingredients except instant coffee together in a large mixing bowl. I suggest sifting all the dry ingredients except the sugar in the large bowl and then whisking in the sugar.
  3. Combine the wet ingredients- water, oil, vinegar, instant coffee, and vanilla in a large measuring cup.
  4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and whisk just until combined, a few lumps are OK.
  5. Pour batter into the well greased and floured bundt pan, or divide batter between pans.
  6. Bake until a tester comes out clean, 35-40 minutes. For me, it took 45 minutes.
  7. Let the cake cool in pan for 10 minutes. Run a skewer or knife around the edges to loosen the cake. Do not forget to run the knife/skewer around the center of the bundt pan. Invert on wire rack. If you have greased and floured well, the cake should pop out immediately. Let the cake cool completely before cutting yourself a slice.Yo could do a chocolate ganache glaze, if you like or just keep it simple

 

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