Goan Fish Fry

Tastiest fish fry ever...We have been to Goa with you our daughter once till now..we went with her cousin !! She and her enjoyed every bit of it. 

In the Goan cuisine, Rawa fish fry finds a very important place. On one of his trips with his friends,  hubby got this goan fish fry masala for us. This is a dish that he prepared for us and of course was a hit.

Below are the methods and ingredients. If you are not able to find the masala in stores wherever you are, you can actually prepare it yourself, recipe is available here . 

Ingredients:

- Basa Fish - 2 cutlets, you can use fillets too if you don't want to deal with the bones. But the cutlet holds the shape better.

- Karma Goan Fish fry Masala - 5 tbsp

- Semolina and poppy seed mixture - a bowl

- Salt - 1 tsp for marinade

- Oil - to shallow fry

 Method:

- Marinate the fish with masala and salt for 30 to 40 mins

- Coat the fish in the poppy seed and semolina mixture and put it the fridge for 20 mins. This will help bind the mixture to the fish.

- Heat oil in a pan for shallow frying the fish

- When hot, fry the fish until brown. 

- Serve hot with Kashundi sauce or mustard sauce.

Sambar

Sambar...a lentil-based stew mixed with vegetable and tamarind juice. This is a stew very famous in the south of India. Goes very well with idli, dosa, rice or any south Indian delicacy. I personally like it hot with rice. 

Now the question, does my daughter like it? She liked it as a small kid when she was 5-7 years old. Now her taste has changed. As a 10 year old, she does not like 'anything Daal'....😆- This is in her words. But this stew is very very healthy so she finds this in my menu plan at least once a week. 

Ingredients:

- Toor Dal - 1/2 cup

- Tomato - 1

- Garlic - 3-4

- Ginger paste - 1 tsp

- Hing / Asafoetida - a pinch

- Salt - 1.5 tsp

- Sugar / jaggery - 1 tsp

- Curry leaves - a bunch

- Pepper corns - 5-6 

- Oil - 2 tbsp

- Sambar Masala - 3 tbsp

- Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

- Veggies of your choice (I have used pumpkin, okra, raddish and drumstick)

- Mustard Seeds - 1/2 tsp

- Cumin Seeds - 1 tsp

- Tamarind pulp - 2 tbsp (This can be easily prepared by soaking tamarind in hot water)

 Method:

- Wash Toor dal and throw away the water. Wash till the water is clear.

- Put dal in a pressure cooker, add garlic, ginger, tomatoes (cubed/halved), a pinch of salt, turmeric.

Cook in low flame. Switch the flame off after 2 whistles. Do not open the lid of the cooker.

- In a wok add oil

- When hot add pepper corns, curry leaves, mustard seeds, cumin seeds, hing and let it splutter.

- Then add all the veggies and let it cook, stir occassionally.

- In 5-7 minutes add the sambar powder and a little water (this is to prevent the masala from burning).

- When veggies are cooked, add dal from pressure cooker into the wok and mix well.

- Add salt and jaggery and the tamarind pulp.

- Let is come to a boil. Add coriander leaves and serve hot with rice, idli or dosa.

Doi Begun

 Begun or eggplant is one of my favourite veggies. I love having it fried, in curries, in mixed veg stir fries or in bhartas (mashed eggplant). However, everyone in the family including you hate Begun.

Someone asked me once if there was only one veggie in the world you could eat for the rest of your life what would it be - and pat I gave the answer - Eggplant. 

This curry that I am talking about today is Doi Begun (eggplant in a yogurt gravy). One of my favourites and goes amazingly well with hot rice. I have used small eggplants (Indian or Thai) for this curry. You can use any just make sure you cut them into right size pieces.

Ingredients:

- Cumin seeds - 1 tsp

- Mustard oil - 2 tbsp

- Mustard seeds - 1/2 tsp

- Curry powder - 2 tbsp

- Turmeric - 1/2 tsp

- Ginger Paste - 1 tsp

- Onion Paste - 1 tbsp

- Tomato paste - 2 tbsp

- Salt - 1 tbsp

- Sugar - 1 tsp

- Yogurt - 1 cup

- Vegetable oil (or any white oil of your choice) - 1/2 cup

Method:

- Halve the small eggplants and marinate well with the turmeric and 1/2 tbsp salt.

- Heat 1/2 cup white oil in a wok.

- When the oil is hot, add the eggplants and fry them well, set aside.

- In the same wok add the mustard oil and let it heat.

- When hot add cumin and mustard seeds.

- When they splutter add ginger paste and onion paste, fry well until raw smell is gone.

- Add the curry powder and tomato paste and fry well for 4-5 mins. Add 1 or 2 tsp  water if it seems too dry.

- Add remaining salt and sugar and fry till oil separates.

- When oil separates, add yogurt on low flame and mix fast and well. Let it simmer.

- When cooked (oil separates again) add eggplants and 1/2 cup water. 

- Let it boil, let water reduce to desired consistency.

- Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and serve hot with rice.