FISHY FISH FINGER AND NON FISHY PANEER FINGERS

The adjective " FISHY" in front of the fish is not qualifying the fish...it was quite fresh and good. My wife came in and demanded ' You were supposed to make some fish Orle or fish fry, what happened to that ?" To have  a demanding wife is a privilege for a husband. I gave a  smile and said " I am making fish fingers".

" Normally you don't change mind at the last moment . Your making of fish finger sounds quite FISHY  , let me check what are you up to..." . Actually I changed over to fish finger because I had few fillets and it looked too little. So I chopped them into many pieces. It is like , instead of eating one big piece of fish, cut them into 4 pieces and feel good that you ate 4 pieces of fish. Hence the name Fishy Fish finger....

The net is packed with fish fry, fingers, orle , cutlets etc etc. I am not writing any thing new except some minor changes. It is like " Old fish in a new Pond"

INGREDIENTS

-Fish Fillet cut to finger size,300 to 400 gms  ( approx 12 X 12 mm and assorted length as per the fillet geography).

-1st marinade

lemon juice 1 tbsp, freshly ground black pepper 1/2 tsp and salt,

-1tsp corn flour.

-2nd marinade 

Garlic 6 pods, ginger 1/2 inch , coriander leaves 1  cup, green chili 6, roasted jeera powder 1 level tsp, freshly ground black pepper 1/2 tsp , mustard powder 1/2 tsp, Mustard oil 1 tsp. ( The mustard and oil is for Bengali foodies ,others may put too but optional). Grind and mix thoroughly with little salt.

- Bread crumb from market or  freshly made at home.( I use freshly made crumb from bread)

-1/2 egg

-Oil to fry

 PROCESS

Wash the fish fingers and drain adhered water. Make few pokes with a fork. Dont break the fish. Add 1st marinade and leave aside for 20 minutes with few mixing in between.

Remove fish on to another plate, add 1 tsp corn flour and mix. Leave aside for 5 minutes.

Add the fish into 2nd Marinade along with leftover 1st marinade. Leave aside for 20 minutes.

Break one egg, mix separately (don't whip) and add 1/2 of it to the fish and mix.

Take bread crumb in sufficient quantity, Take one piece of fish at a time and drop on to bread crumb (with as much marinade solids, sticking to it , as possible., Cover the fish with more crumb and lightly press and roll to ensure that the crumb is sticking to it and it appears dry.

Fry the fingers at low heat till the surface is brown. I use fresh crumb to prolong the frying without burnout.

NOTE:

To make fresh bread crumb, use a mixer or take a slice at a time in between your palms and rub with a circular motion of the palms. Bread particle will fall below on to a plate or a news paper. Moist bread crumb can take longer cooking time without turning dark brown or burn out.

VEGETARIAN OPTION

Use Paneer in place of Fish. If you don't take egg, add 1tsp corn flour and mix before rolling the pieces on bread crumb.
If you like Feta cheese , you can try too.

CHICKEN 65

Oh! Not again Chicken 65...everywhere it is Chicken 65..I am tired of the name.

But I am not , I love this dish. This dish is spreading like wild fire, from Kanya Kumari to Kashmir, in the Gulf , in London etc. The specialty  of this dish is, the taste is not the same in any two eating joints. So you eat a new type of Chicken 65 every time. In Kuwait it is very  bland to terribly spicy. Even while staying at  Golconda Hotel, Hyderabad, I had an opportunity to cook few portions of this, under the supervision of an expert chef...but over the time I cant reproduce the same taste anymore. (Lack of practice) 

There are many stories behind the name, some people say, the chicken has to be 65 days old, some say 65 types of spice required to cook it. The story which I find more logical or realistic is that it was the Chicken dish at item No  65 on a menu at Madras regiment mess. So people just used to order " Bring Chicken -65".

 THE RECIPE

Basically it is a boneless chicken dish colored red, with a high spicy note of fried garlic, ginger, Curry Leaves and quite hot (Chili), slightly tangy due to a tangy sauce and lemon juice added at the end.

INGREDIENTS

Chicken boneless 200 gms ( I always use thigh portion as it is juicy and soft, one can use the breast piece), cut to small pieces say 25 mm X 12 to 20 mm) approx..

For the marinade

ginger garlic paste 1 tsp heap

freshly ground Pepper 1/2 tsp ( or more)

Yogurt 2 tsp level

corn flower 2 tsp heap

flour 1 tsp

Azinamoto 1/4th tsp ( optional) ( Mono Sodium glutamate)

Salt

egg 1

for the dish
cumin seeds 1tsp level
dry red chili 1
ginger chopped 2 tsp

Garlic chopped 1 tbsp heaped or more the merrier.

Green chili long chopped, 4 number of more , about 1 cm long and slitted.
Curry leaves 10 leaves

ginger garlic paste 1 tsp

Chili garlic sauce / spread 2 tbsp ( from the market any thing will do with a sour note, normally Tomato.) or I shall tell you how to make it. But buying it saves trouble.

Red chili powder 2 tsp ( or more)

Cumin powder 1 tsp level

Black peper powder 1/2 tsp or more.

Vinegar 2 tsp ( optional)

red color

Azina moto 1/4 tsp optional

coriander leaves chopped 1 tbsp

lemon juice 1 tbsp

salt

Oil for frying chicken

PROCESS

Wash chicken and cut into pieces

1st add yogurt , salt, ginger garlic paste, black pepper, Azina Moto ,mix well and leave aside for 20 min.

Add corn flour and flour (maida) , mix well and leave aside for 10 minutes.

Break egg into the chicken and mix .

Caution: Do not whip the egg, just mix it.
Heat oil in a KaDai or frying pan  and fry the chicken in batches. Immediately after adding chicken reduce heat and fry for 3-4 minutes. ( don't over fry, 5 minutes is more than enough to cook the chicken).

Keep the fried chicken aside. ( Dont worry, the chicken will not drink the oil)

In a deep frying pan, take 1 tbsp oil ( used in frying the chicken or fresh oil).
Give seasoning of Jeera and one red chili, add ginger and stir fry in low heat for 15 seconds
Add chopped garlic and stir fry to light brown, add curry leaves stir and add chopped green  chili.

Add ginger garlic paste followed by black pepper, cumin and chili powder stir ( remove from heat time to time to prevent burn out)
Add chili garlic sauce/spread and vinegar , keep stiring. Taste the sauce and add required salt to taste. ( The chicken already has some salt) 
add red color made in 1 tbsp water
stir and add 3 tbsp water or more to make a thick sauce. (This is the skill part to be acquired after cooking few times. The sauce consistency should be such that after mixing the chicken, it should not be too dry or too sticky and fluid.)

Stir the sauce well and with heat, add the chicken and mix well under low heat so that the sauce is well coated. Remove from heat and keep mixing.

The water in sauce will percolate into the chicken to some extent. So wait for some time to assess if you need more heating to drive some extra moisture out.
Please be assured the taste will not be affected if you don't fine tune the moisture.
Garnish with chopped corander and lemon juice ( optional) 
Eat as a starter, snack or with roti, rice.

NOTE: Dont over fry chicken. This size of the pieces should be tender within 3 minutes and one can eat straight after frying. Unnecessary frying will make the chicken hard and  dry.
You can fry excess amount of chicken and store in deep fridge for future use, not only for this also for all kinds of Indo-Chinese chicken dishes.
Add as much chili as you want. The red color is a traditional addition to dish and has nothing to do with the taste. But without the red color, no one will recognize it as chicken 65 


Happy Eating 


AWARDS


Dear Prasu , (http://myculinaryworld-prasu.blogspot.com/)
I am overwhelmed to receive so many awards from you. It is a great recognition from a great foodie like you..Thank you so much ....

Dear Sangeetha  ( http://kothiyavunu.blogspot.com/)
I am so happy to receive this award from a great cook like you ..Thank you so much!!! I think I will have more awards on this page than recipes, Ha  ha 

UDAD DAL WITH FENNEL (SOUNF) , GINGER AND GREEN CHILI

THE STORY

After eating  health food continuously, I was planning to cook a real healthy food in Badshahi style. A health food  ensures that you will die healthy but a healthy food makes you live healthy. So I thought once in a while I should eat healthy food. But my luck was  else where.

 I got a call from a friend and she wanted to know the recipe of a simple Dal, which she used to eat in her childhood days and liked it very much. Well that was a very difficult specification. How to find out a recipe of a Dal, which one used to eat in her childhood days and doesn't remember the name of the Dal even!!!

After doing a bit of cross examination like a lawyer, I could gather that it was Bengal origin, very thin, looked white with  some nice and very different fragrance and there were few green chili visible. I realized she was talking about a common Dal made from Udad dal ( Kalai and Biuli in Bengali and Biri Dali in Oriya). I gave her the recipe, she cooked and called back to thank me next day.

But by then the damage was done to my healthy food eating ..I also felt like eating this particular  dal ( like getting an  infection) even if I had at least well tried 2 Badshahi Udad dal recipes in my data bank.

THE RECIPE  

 The recipe is very old, well known and  simple , Udad dal ( de-husked, white ones)  boiled with SouNf  and  ginger paste and seasoning of  Sounf , dry red chili added at the end. Green chilis are put too. It has a unique fragrance,  very mild and quite flat, devoid of sourness, high spice and onion garlic influence. Normally needs a BaDa accompaniment , mostly, BaDas made from Khus Khus ( posto, popy seeds) base with coconut, green chili, a binder  etc. It is a thin  dal.
You can try the Badas mentioned in this blog " Mulo Badas and others". If you need a posto Bada recipe let me know or it should be available on the net.

While planning to cook the Dal I suddenly remembered, I had introduced, long back, a little variation ( not my original) to this Dal, which was appreciated by the Guinea pigs ( sorry, I mean the people on whom I had carried out the test of the recipe, 1st time) even my JFs liked it . The variations are minor and given below.

(Oh sorry ! JF means "Jealous Foodies ", to qualify as a JF  one has to be a friend to the other, in other respects except recipes . Like me and my wife are JFs. It improves the over all food development and leads to good food for the JFs too. )

Lets get down to business , I mean cooking .

INGREDIENTS

1. Udad dal 120 gms ( 1 standard cup, 150 ml size), de-husked white ones.

2, SouNf paste 2 tsp ( heap) alternatively use 1 and 1/2 level tsp powder 

3. Ginger paste 2 tsp heap

4. green chili 4 to 8 numbers, hot or mild , you decide

5, Arvi 6 numbers ( saru in oriya, Kochu-r mukhi in bengali..) (Optional not part of traditional dish, but many people add, some people add other vegetables too.) 

6. salt to taste

7. Sugar 1 tsp to taste (not to sweeten)

For seasoning 

1. fennel (sauNf) seeds 1 tsp slightly heaped

2. Jeera (cumin) 1/2 tsp ( optional , not part of traditional dish, I am trying a fusion from oriya style)

3. dry red chili 2 No

4. Bay leaf :one

5. Ghee (2 tsp for health food, 2 tbsp for healthy food , many tbsp say 3-5 for connoisseurs and JFs). I used 2 tbsp, 

6. Juliens of Ginger 1 tbsp 

PROCEDURE

1. Roast Udad dal ( variation,) (normally straight raw dal is used) in low flame and when it changes color ( faint brown and few will be brown) remove to a plate for fast cooling. DONT OVER ROAST. You will get that faint aroma of roasted Udad dal....Yumi...

2. When the Dal is cooled, wash thoroughly and soak in water for 2-3 hrs.

Soaked Dal

3. Peel the Arvi and cut into 4 pieces each, lengthwise and wash 2 -3 times.

4. Take a non stick pan or Kadai, add ghee and heat. Add the Arvi , stir fry for 3-5 min or when the sliminess goes and few brown spots arise on pieces. Remove and keep aside. Keep the ghee for seasoning.

  STIR FRIED ARVI

5. Take a pressure cooker, add water about 1.5 times the volume of soaked dal, start heating and bring to boil. Add dal, Fennel and ginger paste, salt and sugar and stir fried arvi..

6.  Cook for 5 minutes under pressure. The dal should almost melt away.

7. Cool and open lead.

8. Heat the pan used for stir frying ( the ghee will be there or make up). When hot, give seasoning of SauNf, Jeera, red chili, bay leaf reduce flame, add Juliens of ginger and stir fry for a minute and add to the dal.

THE SEASONING 

(This photo was taken when the bay leaf was blown away under fan)

9. Add green chili,.mix well and bring to boil for a minute and remove from heat. 

10. Add the balance Ghee for the connoisseurs ( optional)

FINALLY THE UDAD DAL WITH FENNEL AND GINGER

11 Eat with rice and  Bada / Alu bhaja accompaniment.

If you do any experiment with additional spices, vegetables etc please do let me know.


DISCLAIMER

This is a traditional dish. If you dont like it , I am not responsible. I like it. Even the JFs liked it.

DEEPAVALI GREETINGS

MULO (RADISH) BADA AND OTHERS

BaDas ( not dip fried pakoDa or Medu BaDa, Orissa BaDa etc, but Tawa fried) are my favorite. These are made out of typical  vegetables, coconut too. As a Bengali, my Dal and rice eating is not complete with out some " Bhaja" or BaDa.

Of course these were great accompaniment with the great " Pakhala" ( Basi or saja or with dahi (Oriya), panta bhat in Bengal) in my childhood days and also lately in Vietnam and Kuwait summer days.

So here is a BaDa I relish among others. Variations and options are also given.Try it out as a snack too.

INGREDIENTS.

The quantities are immaterial , do whatever you like.

1. Coarse grated Mulo ( Radish)about 3-to 4 mm thickness and long strand ( as it comes out off a coarse manual grater). Don't grate fine and should be thicker than what you see in the photo below.

2. Chopped green chili as much as you like or tolerate.
3. Grated ginger ( not much)

4. Chopped coriender leaves ( optional)

5. Grated Coconut ( optional ) use if you have it handy. Don't waste time making it.

6. Dash of red chili and cumin powder.(Optional)

7. Binder (important) . NO BESAN SHALL BE USED. If you have a Tempura mix nothing like that  else use a mix of  70% rice powder, 15% Semolina, and 15 % whole wheat flour ( ata). If you dont have rice poweder use 50: 50 semolina and Ata....if this is oppressing , use 100%b Ata. ( No Maeda )
8. Salt to taste.
9. Oil for shallow frying.

PROCESS

1. Salt the grated Muli, mix well and  keep aside for 15 minutes. Squeeze our water and keep aside.
2, Mix all ingredients. Add few spoons  of the dry  binder mix so that it just coats the material and not visible. Excess binder will spoil the taste. Add just enough to stick the material together. NO WATER TO BE ADDED. Leave aside for 10 minutes.
3. Take a non stick Tawa ( frying pan) and put oil for shallow frying ( tawa Fry) and heat.
 3. Make flat rounds 30-40 mm and  about 6-8 mm thick. ( Dont worry about the thickness or size, will be taken care )
4. Place one by one on the Tawa and allow to fry

5. Reverse the BaDas one by one and flatten it as far as possible with the spatula, (Khuni , Pitha KhaDika)

6. sprinkle oil if necessary.
7. Reverse again if necessary. A little burn out here and there is OK and adds to the taste and crispiness..

8. Now eat the BaDas hot  as it is or as an accompaniment with Dal and Rice.

It will be surface crispy.

WHAT ELSE YOU CAN USE.

1. Replace Mulo ( Radish) with chopped coriander leaves or thinly sliced cabbage or  Sag, ( Saga / Amaranth half boiled and sqeezed out) or  grated potato or coconut grated or stretch your imagination.. Don't use Spinach.
  
DON'T USE BESAN FOR THIS KIND OF BADAS.  Besan flavor is very strong and  over powering for this recipe.

HAPPY COOKING AND EATING 

FISH IN GARLIC, GREEN CHILI, TOMATO, MUSTRAD OIL

FISH IN GARLIC, GREEN CHILI, TOMATO, RED CHILI, MUSTARD , CUMIN AND MUSTARD OIL. ( Veg alternative to fish is also given for my Vegi friends) 

The other day I was pretty  bored and did not feel like doing anything even did not feel like cooking too..( I was scared, because if I didn't feel like cooking means I was sick).

So I decided to do something fast and landed up with this dish. This is nothing new at all  most of you know it.

The base is famous " Bati cha-chaDi " from Bengal. Nowadays the Besara is in my head , so I thought I would infuse a bit of Jeera powder and tomato chunck to make it bit tangy. So you can call it a fusion dish 

INGREDIENTS 

4 pieces of fish ( rui or any other)

6 green chili chopped to 20 mm pcs

6 pods of garlic sliced thin longitudinally

1/2 tsp Everest tikha red chili or less hot chili powder 3/4 tsp.

3/4 tsp Korean or cookme mustard powder ( you can use mustard paste) 

½ tsp jeera powder ( roasted and ground if you don't have it in stock, use raw powder)

1 tsp leveled turmeric powder

2 tbsp mustard oil ( olive oil )

¼ tsp hing ( LG brand (optional)

salt to taste

one large tomato cut to 2 cm pcs

PROCEDURE

Mix all ingredients except fish in a thick bottom vessel.

Add ½ cup water and bring to full boil . cover it and simmer for two minutes.

Add the fish and keep boiling, turn the fish and slowly dry out with little water left.

The tomato , garlic, green chili will remain visible 

( The oil should come out )

 Serve with rice.

NOTE

Fish to be used. Any fish sea fish , sweet water fish, small fish etc etc

Increase spice and ingredients proportionately for larger quantity fish. 

You can use more oil no limit…

.Turmeric powder shall not be reduced.

 The spice shall not be fried  and all ingredients must be mixed cold and then heated up.

 You may garnish Coriander leaves

 Fry the fish lightly ( not dip fry) if you don’t eat dish prepared from un-fried fish.

CAUTION

If you don’t like hot chili, use kashmiri deghi mirch powder and lesser hot green chili…

To make Mustard paste

In most of the dishes I use Korean mustard powder which is quite good. 

To avoid bitter taste in mustard paste, it must be wet-ground very fast and for very short duration so that the husk (outer skin) doesn't break into fine pieces. It must be  filtered off immediately to separate the husk. Use the yellow filtrate and discard husk. (During grinding an enzyme is released from the husk and  the whole mass turns bitter due to enzyme reaction on long standing.)

In some dishes ( not this one) the paste is not filtered, and used as it is. In such case , make the paste just before using.

VEGETARIAN VARIATION

In place of fish , use long pieces of two Potatos ( skinned and pre-boiled ) or four small Baigan (brinjal) halved or both together.

ANOTHER MEMORABLE DATE WITH DEAR ARISHA

(NOTE FOR THE READERS WHO DO NOT KNOW ARISHA: Unfortunately Arisha is no beautiful lady in my neighborhood. It is one of the finest sweet dishes (Pitha in Oriya) made in Orissa. It is also made throughout South India but with different names).

PREAMBLE

Arisha Pitha has been my favorite sweet dish from my childhood days. It was not made in my home. So I had to rely on my friends and neighbors and eagerly waited for some festival to come by. However Arisha Pitha could be preserved for quite some time without the intervention of refrigeration. (There was no fridge those days, anyway). Therefore the supply was almost continuous in between festivals too. My neighbors loved me as a little kid and most of the time I used play in their courtyard. So when I used to get tired or pretended to be tired, I would get Arisha and may other pithas immediately to gain energy.

It has been always in my mind to make Arisha someday. You may ask what is so great about this pitha or sweet? Well I dont have the answer, in fact some people ,( my friends) never liked it beyond a bite or two. I just like it, and may be the childhood memories are playing a great role in this. Arisha is kind of obsession ( Joonoon) for me, one of my magnificent obsessions.

Dates with Arisha in the past had been disastrous. Either it came out too hard to bite or just disintegrated while frying. I am now doing lot of research to produce some thing which will be close to the one which lingers in my memory. ( I frequently receive consignments of Karnataki version of Arisha here in India or abroad, it is tasty but different and made of Sugar mainly. It obviously lacks the aroma of fried Jaggery base.)

It is very difficult to make, simply because it is based fully on cooking skill , which one can only acquire by participating in the making process and with a skilled persons ( like Mom, Grand Mom etc). So in absence of this, I am trying it out by talking to experts and reading.

After doing lot of research on internet I came across many publications but most were copied and pasted from one another. I took some ideas from my Boudi in Bangalore and Vijaya in Bhubaneswar, both are experts. The normal guidance was " come here we will make for you and teach you too, dont waste time trying on your own etc".

The other day I came across one recipe at " homeoriyafood.blogpost,", which referred to Mom's method and not the blogger's. Well that was it, some thing real!!. It contained some key processes and had come from an experienced person. But it was not enough , as I said one had to participate in the making to perfect it.

So I decided to try it out based on the blog and with some possible conference call to Bangalore and Bhubaneswar, in case I was in trouble.

INGREDIENTS

The ingredients are only three. But there were too many information about the ratio of ingredients. So I decided to stick to the proportion in homeoriyafood blog..

1. Rice 2 cups

2. Jaggery 2 Cups. ( Sugar doesn't give the true flavor of Arisha)

3. Water 1 cup ( I had information for using 1/4th cup to 2 cups, it was a big trouble to decide with such              wide variations.!!!)

4. Oil/ Ghee to fry ( approx  2 cups )

PROCEDURE

1. Wash and soak rice for 3-4 hrs, drain and air dry on a cloth or paper to remove adhered moisture.

2. Grind the rice in a grinder. The powder should not be too fine. ( It should be mostly close to Suji ( semolina) and some fine powder is OK.)

3. Crush Jaggery lump to small chunks and major 2 cups. ( Crushing to small chunks gives good measurement)

4. Take a thick bottom Kadai , add water 1 cup and the jagery, slowly heat to make a solution.

5. Start boiling the solution to foaming. Feel the stickiness without burning finger. ( This stickiness part is tricky to assess and must see some one doing it. I used an old method, I put 1/2 spoon of boiling Jaggery in  a cup of cold water to see it was not dispersing in water and one could hold the sticky mass and feel).

Boiling Jaggery being sampled

6. Start adding Rice flour to the mix slowly  and stir continuously.

7. Continue stirring as the mix thickens. This a tricky step. I didn't know when to stop. It remains quite fluid as it is very hot. Last time when the dough was formed it became a hard mass after cooling and could not do any thing further). So at the end I started taking out small portion and cooled fast to see if it remained a dough fit for shaping.

The Dough in the making , when should I stop ??

8. The dough would stop sticking , switch off burner and allow to cool .

9. Make round shapes like puri about  7 to 8 mm thick ( even thicker) and 3 to 4 inch in diameter. You may sprinkle rashi ( sesame ) to give a nice aroma, which goes well with Jaggery.

Shaped Arisha ready for frying 

9. Heat Ghee or oil in a Kadhai, thick bottom.

10. Fry the Pitha both sides under very low heat. It will turn  dark brown because of Jaggery.

11. The Arisha was quite tasty and finished too.

Arisha being fried, ( Oh! Poor dear!!) 

The pitha looks darker because Jaggery and it was difficult to control heat. Next time I would take a bigger Kadhai and fry 3-4 at a time to control heat.

Ready to eat

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 

Many thanks to homeoriyafood.blogspot.com, Sm. Vijaya Nath, and Sana Bhauja for the recipe, useful tips and encouragement.

NEXT STEP

More research and a practical training

APOLOGIES

Dear Arisha , sorry I could not live up to your full expectation this time. But trust me I will make it up during our future dates. Will miss you really...