Fish Molee or Molly (i still cant figure out the right spelling)

I have taken this liking towards dishes made in coconut milk. Its easy to cook and comes out brilliant. Its impossible to go wrong, or so i think. Have been wanting to try out a fish molee recipe for quite sometime, but never got down to it till yesterday. It came out really nice, except for the colour and consistency which was more like a mooru curry. Well, who the hell cares, it tasted so good, we finished up the entire thing at one go. Its perfect with bread or appams, but i don't know how to make the latter and bread, we were kinda sick of having em. So we decided to be a bit adventurous and tried it out with puttu. We were not big fans of puttu or uppuma till we got to UK. Suddenly Ro had these cravings for puttu and once when an aunt came to visit us she brought along home-made puttu podi (fried rice flour) and the utensils. Now, its part of our staple diet...or so it will be till we run out of the podi. As for uppuma, our very own MTR instant uppuma comes to the rescue. Its easy to make and tastes awesome. Do i have to keep reminding you, I'm lazy?

Fish Molee

Fish- 250gms of any fish i suppose. I used cod loins

To marinate

Pepper pwd- 1/2 tsp

Turmeric pwd- a little less than 1/4 tsp

Lime juice- 1/4 tsp

Salt- to taste

Onion- 1, thinly sliced

Green chillies- 2, thinly sliced

Tomato- 1, cut into bite size cubes

Ginger garlic paste- 1 tbs

Cardamom- 2 pods

Cloves- 2 pods

Cinnamon- 1/4inch stick

Thick coconut milk- 1/2 cup

Thin coconut milk- 1

Cornflour- 1 tbs

Curry leaves- 1 sprig

Oil- 3 tbs

Salt- to taste

To temper

Coconut oil- 1 tbs

Mustard seeds- 1 tsp

Dry red chilli- 2 (optional)

Marinate the fish pieces with all the ingredients in the 'to marinate' section and keep for half an hour.

Crush the ginger garlic paste with the chillis in a small bowl and keep ready.

In another bowl, mix half cup coconut milk with 1 tbs cornflour without any lumps to make thick coconut milk. Keep aside.

Heat about 2 tbs of oil in a wok and fry the fish for two to three minutes. This is just to keep the fish intact. Don't over do it. Remove and drain on paper towels.

In the same wok, add the remaining oil and once hot throw in the spices. When they start to splutter, add the onions and the ginger garlic chilli paste. Cook till the onions become translucent and oil starts separating. To this add the thin coconut milk and let it boil. Add the tomatoes and curry leaves and mix well and then the fish slices, making sure they don't flake. Add enough salt required and let this boil on medium fire. Once the tomatoes are cooked add the thick coconut milk and leave it on low fire till it starts to boil, stirring at intervals. This way the fish gets nicely coated with all the masalas and coconut milk. Take it off the heat and just before serving do a tadka with the oil, mustard seeds and dry chilli and pour over the curry. Ta daa....your fish molee is ready.

I am not elaborating on how puttu is made, since I'm sure every Tom, Dick and Harry would know except yours truly, who had to google it the first few times.

Notes: I used freshly ground pepper to marinate and it was nice and strong and spicy.

Since i used canned coconut milk, i had to use cornflour to make thick milk. This is however optional. If you don't want thick curry, you can omit this and just use the top creamy layer instead.

The tadka part is completely optional. Like i have mentioned before, i love what the tadka does to the flavour of the curry. Its just my addition.

If you use coconut oil for all of the above, it does make a difference i guess, health wise and taste wise :)

Roasted Chicken with Garlic Bread

I'm not bragging here, but this is one of my signature dishes adapted from a recipe passed on by a friend. I have tried and tested this quite a number of times and it has always tasted so good. In fact, this is the only dish i am confident of making, when i have guests over. Yes, i panic when people announce they are coming over for a meal, invariably ending up causing havoc in the kitchen and a not-so-great outcome. Ro comes to my rescue and he is so confident about cooking and gratefully takes over. I give moral support, BTW!

Chicken Roast

Chicken- 500gms (Thighs, drumsticks, breasts anything but bone-in pieces are the best and preferably without skin)

To marinate:

Chilli pwd- 3 tsp

Coriander pwd- 2 tbs

Ginger garlic paste- 2 tbs

Turmeric pwd- 1/2 tsp

Garam masala- 1/4 tsp

Meat masala- 1 tsp

Lime juice- 2 tsp

Fennel seeds- 1 tsp

Butter- 1 tbs

Salt- to taste

To bake:

Onion- half, cut in rings, or more if you please

Mix all the ingredients in the 'to marinate' section and make a paste out of it. Make gashes on the chicken pieces and generously rub the paste on to the pieces. Keep the marinade refrigerated over night or at least for 5 hours.

Pre-heat the oven to 200C. Transfer the marinade onto a baking dish and cover with foil paper and bake for 30 minutes on one side. Take the dish out, flip the chicken pieces, cover and bake again for 30 minutes. Remove the foil paper, stir in the onion rings and bake open for another 30 minutes (approx) or until the chicken pieces become a dark brown and the onions are well mixed in the gravy. Serve hot with rice, roti or bread.

I wanted a bit of gravy so i didnt leave it on till it became dry and thats why the colour isnt a dark brown yet. But the longer you keep the better it is, if you need it dry, that is!

Notes: The dish is very very spicy and if you are not a fan of spicy food, reduce the chilli pwd quantity. I personally love the spice.

If you don't want the chicken dry, you do not have to bake it for the last 30 minutes, you can reduce it to about 15 minutes, just enough to cook the onion rings. This goes great with rice.

Marinating it for a minimum of 5 hrs is apt, but its ok if you reduce it to about an hour or so, if you are in a hurry. It tastes just as nice. Have tried it :)

You can throw in any veggie possible. I have tried it with baby potatoes, carrots, trimmed beans and peas and is a whole meal on its own.

Garlic Bread

The one in the picture is store bought since its just move convenient, cheap and tastier (well..i am not sure i should have mentioned that, since i am trying to promote my blog and not blurt out that store bought ones are any day better). But my mom makes yummy garlic bread back home and this is her recipe.

Bread- 1/2 a loaf

Garlic paste- 1 tbs or more depending on how strong you want it to be

Butter- 2 tbs at room temperature

Mix the garlic and butter and make a paste out of it. Spread the paste on the bread slices and arrange them one over the other (stack them up). Cover the entire loaf with foil paper and bake in a pre-heated oven at 200C for about 20 minutes or till the ends start becoming nice and crispy. Serve hot with soup or as mains.

Note: If you want to jazz it up a bit, add some herb like thyme or sage.