Rohu fish eggs bhuna with shatkora

I've been craving a dish from my favourite restaurant Grameen Khana in Birmingham for a while now, which is Hilsha fish egg bhuna. I thought i would cook it at home, but lo and behold my local Bengali grocers didn't have Hilsha fish eggs so i had to settle for Rohu eggs.

The texture is the same between the two, only the taste is different. I added the Bangladeshi citrus fruit shatkora to it because the restaurant does this too!

For this i used:

2 tbsp oil
8 cloves minced garlic
1 and 1/2 small onions, finely sliced
Salt to taste
Chopped coriander stalks
1 tomato, blended
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tsp coriander powder
1 and 1/2 tsp Bolsts Hot curry powder
1 packet Rohu fish eggs, washed gently with salt and turmeric and then marinated in a pinch of salt and turmeric
2 slices frozen shatkora
8 chillies to garnish
Chopped coriander to garnish

In a wok, heat your oil, then add minced garlic to brown.

Once browned, add your onions, salt and coriander, cover and cook on a medium heat for 10 minutes until onions have browned and softened.

During this time while your onions soften, put a non stick pan on heat, and fry your fish eggs. Put it on a low heat and cover whilst cooking. The fish eggs should take 10-12 minutes to cook, turning once in the middle. Take these off when golden on each side and cooked all the way through. Cut into cubes and set aside.

Add to the onions your blended tomato, and cook for a further 5-7 minutes until oil has released from the onions and tomato. Stir in your powdered spices now, adding a little water, and put it on a low flame. Stir regularly, adding little water if required, until oils release from your spices.

Put the fish egg cubes in the onions and spices and mix gently. Add a little water and holding the pan by the handles, give it a little shake. Cut your shatkora into 8 pieces (4 each) and add to your curry. Mix gently again, top it up with a little water again (not much as this is a bhuna), cover and cook for a further 10 minutes on a low heat.

Take off heat, garnish with the chillies and coriander and serve with hot rice.

Et voila!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥

Aloo Bhaji

Aloo bhaji is a quick side dish, requiring minimal ingredients, which you will probably have at home. Eat it with rice for lunch or if you want a fast and easy snack, just put it between two slices of warmed bread – divine!

For this, I used:

2 tbsp. oil

3 small onions, finely sliced
Salt to taste
½ small red capsicum, chopped into small cubes
6 whole green chillies (for more spice, you can slit these in half)
Coriander stalks
1 tsp. turmeric powder
4 medium potatoes cut into thin matchstick size juliennes
Coriander to garnish

In a non-stick pan, pour in your oil, and once hot, add in your sliced onions, salt, capsicum, green chillies and coriander stalks. Fry these for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. During this time, peel your potatoes and cut them into thin matchstick size juliennes (if you like, you can cut them slightly thicker. Allow more time for cooking if the potato is thicker).

Add your turmeric powder and a little water and stir well. Fry for 3-4 minutes, then add your potatoes. Cover and cook on a low heat for about 20 minutes, checking regularly that the potatoes are not burning. Stir regularly also, but gently, so that the potatoes do not break. If required, then add a little water to stop the potatoes from burning, but do not add to much water as the potatoes could turn into mush!

Once the potatoes have softened, turn off the heat and garnish with coriander.

Et voila!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz

Cod/Fish kofta curry

So today I am posting a very highly requested recipe - my kofta fish curry.

The first time I cooked this, it was only because I had to cook a quick curry for my husband for Eid day, and I didn't want to go shopping, so I searched my deep freezer and found 1 piece of basa fillet, and 1 piece of cod fillet. I also found a bag of prawns, but I didn't include this because as soon as I opened the bag, the smell - I'm gagging just thinking about it! They were off basically. I just thought let me try blending the fillet pieces, and making little koftas from them, and adding them to a curry sauce and see what they turned out like. Needless to say, it was delicious (humble ol' me!)

One unusual thing I have started to use a lot of recently is Kashmiri red chilli powder, or namely MDH Kashmiri Mirch powder. I like my curries to have a distinct red colour, for which I used to use just blended tomatoes before. However since using Kashmiri mirch in a curry and I saw that the colour was so beautiful, I started to use that as well as normal red chilli powder. Kashmiri mirch is not as hot as normal chilli powder, but it gives a beautiful colour, so I use half and half in my curries now. Because I do not use normal chilli powder in todays recipe, I have substituted green chillies to get the heat instead.

So I remade the fish kofta curry today, using cod fillets only, and it turned out exactly the same! you can of course use any fish for this, just remove the bones first, and blend!

For this, I used:

3 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. panch puran (a mix of cumin, methi, fennel, nigella and mustard seeds)
3 small bay leaves
5 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 inch ginger, minced
2 small onions, finely sliced
Salt to taste
Coriander stalks
1 tomato, blended
1 tsp. turmeric powder
2 tsp. Bolsts Hot curry powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. Kashmiri red chilli powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. cumin powder
1 and 1/2 tsp. coriander powder
4 cod fillets, thawed
7 green chillies
Coriander to garnish

In a wok, I poured in the oil, and after heating it I added the panch puran and bay leaves. Once the oil is infused, add your minced garlic and ginger, and fry until brown. Then add your finely sliced onions, salt and coriander stalks. Fry this under cover for about 10 - 15 minutes until onions are soft, and starting to mush down.

To this, add your blended tomato and cook for a further 5 minutes, until the oil starts separating. Once oil has separated, add in your powdered spices (turmeric, curry powder, red chilli powder, cumin and coriander powder), and a little bit of water and stir well. Put the heat down, cover and cook for a further 5 minutes. After 5 minutes, add about 250ml of water to this, stir well again and leave to cook on a low heat.

In a blender, take your cod fillets, and blend until the fish is fully broken down. Then take a small amount of the fish in your palm, and squeeze out the water. Shape into a bowl and put on a plate to one side. Repeat this until you have used up your blended fish. By this time, your spice masala should have separated from the oil. Add a little bit more water, and carefully put in your fish koftas. Do not stir the curry, just gently cover the wok, and poach the koftas in the sauce for 5 minutes, before removing the lid and gently turning them over. Check that the kofta does not break (they should be 3/4 cooked by now and shouldn't break), and turn them all over and allow to cook in the sauce for a further 5 - 7 minutes. Adjust the water consistency now if you would like it more saucy, but if it's fine as it is, then add your green chillies. Gently shake the pan, then turn off the heat. garnish with coriander. And serve!! This would be lovely with just plain basmati rice.

I hope you enjoy, and keep those requests coming.

Yaz

Tandoori Chicken legs

A requested recipe is for my tandoori chicken legs. Now obviously, because it is a homemade tandoori chicken, you will never get that “restaurant style” fragrance because obviously, we have no tandoor ovens at home (a gigantic clay oven in which most tandoori food items and naans are baked in). If your other half or a family member works in a take away or restaurant, of course you can marinate the chicken at home, and send them off to be baked that way, but if you have a grill or oven, just make it at home! (If you have a barbeque, even better but as we are hitting winter temperatures in Birmingham already, I think it unlikely now).

Now most people will marinate their chicken for a minimum of 6 hours, (I do not believe in marinating for any less time) but I have to go one step further and marinate the chicken for 2 whole days (yes you read that right!) If it is in the fridge, that’s fine, the chicken is not breeding any bacteria in there, but remember to take the chicken out half an hour before you cook it. This way the core temperature will come down, and when you flash bake it/grill it, the outside of the chicken will not cook before the inside.

I used:

4 whole chicken leg pieces (thigh and leg joints)

3 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tbsp. dried methi leaves (fenugreek leaves)
4 cloves garlic
½ inch piece of ginger
7 stalks of coriander
1 tsp. Salt
1 tbsp. oil
5 tbsp. low fat natural yoghurt
¼ tsp. turmeric powder
½ tsp. cumin powder
½ tsp. coriander powder
½ tsp. garam masala
½ tsp. paprika
1 tsp. tandoori masala
2 tsp. Kashmiri red chilli powder
½ tsp. red food colouring
Melted butter for basting
 
Firstly, you need to wash your chicken legs, then make shallow cuts across the thigh and leg piece so the marinade soaks into the chicken.

Once the cuts have been made, place the pieces in a bowl and add your lemon juice and dried methi leaves. Mix well and allow to sit in this mix for about 30 minutes.

Then in a blender put your garlic, ginger, coriander, salt and oil and blend into a paste.

Once the 30 minutes has elapsed, add yoghurt and the green paste to your chicken pieces. Also add the rest of the ingredients (apart from your butter) and mix well until everything is incorporated. Cover the bowl with cling film twice and put into your fridge.

As I mentioned, I left mine for 2 days so that the marinate soaked into the chicken well, but as long as the chicken has had at least 6 hours, you can then bake/grill your chicken pieces.

I used a deep baking tray, with foil lining the bottom, and then a metal tray was placed in it. The chicken pieces were put on the tray, and then basted with some melted butter. The tray was then put into a very hot oven on the top shelf. After 10 minutes, I turned the pieces around, then basted, and put back in the oven. I did this until I felt the chicken was cooked and the outer had a black chargrillness to it (is that a word?).

Unfortunately, my oven is not working and slightly temperamental, so I am unable to provide temperatures/times as to how long you need to cook the chicken for. I did it by eye and baking the chicken pieces took me about 30 - 40 minutes, turning frequently and basting with melted butter every time I turned them around.

And that’s it! Serve the chicken with basmati rice, or as I did with egg fried rice and some Kashmiri Dum Aloo (my next recipe) and a nice salad.

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ♥