Tag: fish

American, Continental Cuisine, European, For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger, seafood

Quick fix Dinner with Couscous, Asparagus and Fish

Contributed By Guest Blogger Vasudha Mukherjee Bal for ……………the Chef in u

This was one of those weekday nights where I was craving for something different for dinner and yet did not have the energy to spend a lot of time in my kitchen. I was feeling equally lazy to look for recipes and started with a blank slate – wondering what I could do with whatever little produce I had in my refrigerator.

I found that some asparagus stocks that screamed “Eat me before I die” loudly to me as I opened the chiller tray. So did some white fish I bought the other day without a clue of what I would do with them. Found some wilted parsley, a few florets of cauliflower and a lone tomato too as well as some couscous. So decided that I would use the trio of couscous, fish, and asparagus for dinner that day. The trio transformed itself to a memorable meal, so wanted to share my accidental gastronomic discoveries with everyone who cares to read. Here is what I did…

Asparagus with lemon agave vinaigrette

Asparagus with lemon agave vinaigrette

I first microwaved a bag of asparagus for a few minutes – you can blanch them if you don’t have the microwaveable variety. Next, I whisked up a dressing with the juice of a lemon, a dash of orange juice, a couple of diced shallots (or use little red onions), some agave nectar (use honey if you don’t have agave), salt and pepper. Next, heat a skillet, put a tablespoon of olive oil, sauté the asparagus, and spread the dressing over it. That is it!

Fish with lemon garlic sauce.

Fish with lemon garlic sauce

I used haddock fillets, but you can use any white fish that you have with you. I first spread some flour and a couple of teaspoons of panko crumbs on a plate and put salt, pepper and a dry rosemary-garlic rub that I had (use any dry herbs you have). Patted the fish on the flour mixture, shook off the excess flour and out it on a hot grill pan which I had earlier put some oil spray on. (You can use a regular frying pan too, but I love the grill marks that the grill pan gives me, plus cast iron distributes heat evenly).

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bengali, For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger, Indian

Machher Paturi (Bengali style Mustard fish in Banana leaf)

This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u

Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Super easy to make & Super good to eat……………

Machher paturi (fish in banana leaf)

U can try this with boneless fillets of fishes like betki or even with pieces of Hilsa (ilish) that have bones. U can try this recipe with prawns as well.

For all of u who stay in Coastal states of India, procuring banana leaf is easy. For the rest, there are markets in all cities that sell regional food – check those places out. In case u do not get it, use aluminum foil instead. The taste will almost be the same. The flavor of banana leaf will be missing.

banana leaves cut into square pieces for paturi

Take 1 inch size cubes of 300 grams boneless betki / standard sized pieces of other fish like hilsa.

Grind 3 tablespoons of mustard with 4 green chillies to a smooth paste. Grate ¼ coconut & keep aside.

The ingredients of machher paturi

Mix together the mustard paste, grated coconut, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder, 1 tablespoon mustard oil & salt to taste. Apply this paste to the fish pieces evenly & leave it to marinate for 1 hour.

marinated fish chunks

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Asian Cuisine, chinese, For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger, Seafood

Chinese Seafood Noodle soup

This is a part of the series ……. For the Chef in u

Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite Chef ANONYMOUS
Super easy to make & Super good to eat……………

On his fifteenth visit to Hongkong, YUMMRAJ suddenly came across noodle soup by sheer chance – serendipity. He liked it the first time & eventually liked it so much that he had five different versions of the same in four days of his stay. What struck me was the fact that supposedly this takes less than a minute to cook!!!!!

Healthy n tasty Chinese style noodle soup

I got only the stories sitting back in India.

So it was my turn to try out something of that kind so that at least I have an idea of how it tastes. Thus began my playing around with ingredients & hence this post.

Well, post that tiny story of mine, lets get to the cookology.

In Hongkong, almost any kind of seafood or meat slice is put into the soup. Sitting in land-locked Gurgaon, I did not have access to a variety of fresh seafood – so had to do with just prawns & fish. I chose betki. U may choose river sole or red snapper as well.

the seafood for noodle soup

U can also add thin strips of lamb/ chicken / tenderloin.

Marinate the prawns & fish chunks (as shown in the picture) in rice wine vinegar & soya sauce. Use white vinegar in case u cannot get rice wine vinegar.

marinated seafood for the noodle soup

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Indian, Mughlai

Nafees Restaurant, (30-B, Apollo Avenue, Old Palasia, Indore)

In a nutshell:

Traditional intricate & ornate look interiors, good service & some good kababs, curries & Biryani.

The view from outside

Address & other details: Nafees

Meal for 2: Rs. 300 onwards

Cuisine Type: Nonvegetarian & Vegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

I was told that this Restaurant is owned by The Uncle of Bollywood star Salman Khan.

The Glass inside the Restaurant & at the entrance has intricate floral design. The Furniture & the interiors look traditional & intricate. It has a feeling of a 19th Century Palace interior. There are separate seating sections for stags & family. A bit crowded but overall, a good ambience.

the interiors

With all that Grandness, the menu card looked quite ‘cheap’. It had bad quality badly edited photographs, strange fonts, inconsistent font sizes & overall a lack of class. I hope they imnprove it going forward.

The service level was beyond expectation – warm, knowledgeable, enthusiastic & friendly. When I told the guy serving us that such ‘passion & involvement’ is rare nowadays, he said – ‘U have come here for the first time. So I am taking special care of u so that u enjoy the experience this evening & remember us for long’.

The food was very enjoyable as well. I usually order three things in my visit to a Mughlai Restaurant – Sheekh, Burrah Kabab & Biryani as this is a test for the restaurant. I usually never revisit restaurants who fail in these basic dishes. On future visits to restaurants that pass the test, I usually try out other food.

cool visual display of accompaniments

The Sheekh kabab passed the test with Flying colors, the Burrah was enjoyable. The Biryani gave me mixed reactions – The rice of the Biryani was awesome. The goat whose meat was in the Biryani seemed to be a fan of Salman Khan – It must have been too muscular – .resulting in stiff, unedible meat pieces of Biryani.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

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Asian Cuisine, chinese

The Chinese (F Block, Middle Circle, Connaught Place, Delhi)

In a nutshell:

Great ambience, Good staff & fairly good food with some outstanding showstoppers in the ‘authentic Chinese section’.

The Chinese

 Address & other details: The Chinese

 Meal for 2: Rs. 1500

 Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

a view near the entrance

 Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

Chinese food always rings a few unusual bells in my head – unusual to most Indians except for those who have travelled to China, lived there or stayed there for some time. I freak out on food every time I am in China & in Hongkong. However the food that is served in most places in India as ‘Chinese’ are versions that the Chinese nationals wud be shocked to know about. So I will refer to the authentic version as ‘authentic’ & the Punjabified version as ‘Chinjabi’.

What is good about this restaurant is that they have two separate menucards for Chinjabi& authentic Chinese.

All other occassions we had been to thisplace, we just retained the authentic menu. Do not remember any major dissappointment regarding food here, in the past – rather have a very fond memory of dine outs here.

This time around we had guests who were not hardcore foodies like us & hence we thought of trying out some popular Chinjabi as well along with the authentic.

The decor in this place is wow – u can surely go for a romantic dinner. U can go with small groups of friends as well.

the dining hall

The staff is pretty smart & answer most of ur questions well. They however do not fill up empty water glasses if u have opted for filter water in place of Bottled water.

We loved the fish in black bean sauce, ate the ‘not bad’ crispy fried chicken, loved the mei foon (rice noodles), hated the fried rice, did not dislike the chicken hot pot, freaked out on fish in black pepper sauce & quite disliked the darsaan.

Detailed description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

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Asian Cuisine, chinese, Japanese

Dine Esty (Sushant Lok 1, near Park Plaza Complex, Gurgaon)

In a nutshell:

Pretty good Chindian / other Asian food & a very exciting & cool live Teppanyaki station – must experience it.

Address & other details: Dine Esty

Meal for 2: Rs. 1000 onwards

Cuisine Type: Vegetarian & Nonvegetarian

Short Description – In case u r in a hurry:

The Chindian (Indianized Chinese food) is tasty & nice but lacks on the authenticity front. For ‘close to authentic Chinese food’ in Gurgaon, YUMMRAJ recommends The Monk, Galaxy Mall. However, if u do not give a damn to authenticity & r willing to dig into anything tasty, Dine Esty is a good choice. Infact its a very good choice for a nice evening out with some good food.

The main dining hall – another view

We have been to Dine esty several times & always had been eating at the Live Japanese Teppanyaki  (Japanese Grill) Counter. This time around we decided to sit in the main dining hall & ordered some Chinese (turned out to be tasty Chinjabi) alacarte section.

starter at Dine Esty

The menu card was almost 10 pages long & really requires a great deal of study by foodies to decide on food. Too many interesting names pop up before the eyes & ity becomes a challenge (in a good way) to narrow down & finalize the order. In the menu card there are sections like soups, dimsums, starters, main course etc like everyone else but all these section in turn have detailed sub sections  – chicken, pork, lamb, vegetarian, duck, fish, crab, seafood. I saw some interesting items like seafood dimsum, crystal dimsum, pork gouza, prawn harkaw (a dimsum that has potato starch as wrapper) – I fondly remembered harkaw that we had at Royal china. To summarize, every Chinese place has sections but this one was in great details.

 The interior has three sections – a lounge & bar setting on the left (as u enter) & this is covered by a see-through wooden partition. Then there is the Main dining Hall with Restaurant setting & at the end is the Live Teppanyaki counter where u can sit on the counter & njoy seeing the food being prepared in front of u. A chat with the chef is also an interesting option. Getting the food made with ur choice of sauces is surely another option.

The lounge & bar setting behind the wood partition

The Japanese concept of teppanyaki is very cool though – it is essentially a flat Metal plate (say 1meter by 2 meters) that is heated at all times. The customers have the option to sit around this hot plate & the Chef stir fries veggies / fish / meats in front of u & serves fresh out of the Teppan.

Stir frying on the teppan right in front of the customer seats – u see the cooking right infront of u

Inspite of the fact that the sauces here r tweaked to cater to Indian tastes – the overall taste is very enjoyable. ………….. Infact not too many people might b able to appreciate the 100% original taste the way it is served in Japan or China. I Do love the original though & do not mind the tweaked versions at times.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

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Guest Blogger, Indian, seafood

Ritz Classic, 18th June Road ,Hotel Le Grande, Panaji, Goa

Contributed by Guest Blogger Rakesh Kumar The most important ingredient in any fish based dish is the fish. On that front, rest assured you get the freshest at this joint. Strictly be forewarned that you should be here for the local cuisine and don’t sulk if the dal makhani or the chicken manchurian is not upto the mark. We enjoyed everything we ordered and pity … Continue reading Ritz Classic, 18th June Road ,Hotel Le Grande, Panaji, Goa

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For the Chef in u……, Guest Blogger

Winter evening Barbeque with Indian style tangy Green Marination:

…………. for the CHEF in u

Contributed by YUMMRAJ’s favourite chef ANONYMOUS

Bored with the orange tandoori masala & yearning for more? ………. & that also at a time when the weather is just about appropriate for barbeque?

So read on…………………

While u can buy the tandoori masala from the market for making tandoori kababs, here I will b telling how u can create an interesting marinade that can b used for paneer or fish or chicken – as per ur preferences.

Choose fresh dhania (corainder) & pudina (mint) leaves, about 2 big bunches each. Wash these thoroughly to ensure that all dust & dirt have been terminated. Put the leaves with 4-5 big fat cloves of garlic & green chillies (to ur taste) in a blender jar.

thoroughly cleaned & unstemmed fresh pudina & dhania leaves

Even if I do not tell u, I am sure u will add salt to taste.

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Indian, seafood

Brittos (Baga Beach, Goa)

This is contributed by Guest Blogger Neha Manchanda YUMMRAJ found this restaurant to be best among all the restaurants visited during a 7 day trip. The seafood platter is simply ‘out of the world’ Detailed Description: Nothing beats a meal on a beach and what better place than Brittos. Situated in Goa, Baga Beach, Brittos promises to satiate your palate with the very best of … Continue reading Brittos (Baga Beach, Goa)

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Andhra, Chettinad, Kerala, malabari, Mangalorean

Zambar (South Indian Nonvegetarian – Ambience Mall Gurgaon)

In a nutshell:

Pretty cool south Indian non vegetarian restaurant (veg also available)

Address & other details: Zambar

Meal for 2: Rs. 600 onwards

Short Description – in case u r in a hurry:

The interiors of this restaurant look like a traditional Kerala houseboat……food is pretty cool, serving staff is OK OK……. moody, inconsistent, sometimes very sweet, very cold at other times.

Food is good specially the non veg platter & sea food platter. Rest we found Ok Ok. Few people have written in reviews in diff food sites (tripadvisor & Zomato) that they have fallen unwell after eating veg food here. We have eaten Nonvegetarian few times – Never had any health issues. Just thought wud let u guys know.

Detailed Description – In case u have the time to enjoy reading:

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