Vendakkai Meen Curry - Fish Curry with Okra. Yes, definitely one Meen Curry!

This fish dish got my vote as the high performer in the Indian cuisine I learned in school.

I posted on Indian cuisine while I was still with the culinary school. Since then, I have received many requests for the full recipe. So, let me at least provide one of those recipes today. Warning: as with all Indian cuisine, expect a long list of ingredients! But the taste that is going to explode in your mouth is going to be so worth it.

The name of the dish is called Vendakkai Meen Curry and it originates from South India. "Meen"means Fish.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
2 Tbsp Cooking Oil
1/2 tsp Fenugreek Seeds (good with fish and lamb)
3 sprigs Curry Leaves
2 Garlic Cloves sliced thinly
1.5 pc Ginger, julienned
1 medium Onion sliced thinly
1 Green Chilli Padi, slit into 2
4 tsp Fish Curry Powder (or standard Madras curry powder)
(Fish curry powder is 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1 tsp cumin powder, 2 tsp red chilli powder, 1 tsp coriander powder)
25g tamarind (pulp obtained by soaking in 1 cup cold water)
240g Sea Beam Fillet, cut into 4 equal pieces (sea bass, mackerel, cod are fine too, but not garoupa, salmon or snapper)
100g Lady's Finger or Okra, cut diagonally into 3" length
1 medium Tomato, cut into 8 pieces
2-3 Tbsp Coconut Milk
Coriander leaves for garnish
Salt to taste

Method:
1. Pour oil in a pot over medium heat. Saute the fenugreek until fragrant without burning it. Let it crackle and brown.
2. Add curry leaves, sauté. Then add ginger and garlic. Saute for a minute. Timing is not critical.
3. Stir in the onion, cook till light brown. Add green chillies and the fish curry powder. Low heat.
4. Add tamarind water and salt to taste. Bring liquid to boil.
5. Add tomatoes and okra, cover with a lid and simmer for 5 minutes.
6. While tomatoes are still firm, place fish fillets in gently, add coconut milk, season and simmer gently for 5 minutes. Don't use ladle after adding fish so as not to break it.
7. Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with steamed rice.

I can still remember the taste and I remember Chef saying as a little boy, he remembers that his mom usually made the dish a day before serving for a deeper infusion of all the wonderful flavors!

Do come back here and let me know if you try it! Typing this out makes me want to do it all over again!

Basmati Rice with Grated Coconut

This is what I packed for this week's Vegan lunch with the girls - Basmati Rice with Grated Coconut. This dish was inspired by my recent success in utilising the rice cooker to make a one-pot Hainanese Chicken Rice. I thought about what else I could do using just the rice cooker. So, out of curiosity, I tried this dish today, using a method very similar to how I made the Chicken Rice.

2 Tbsp of oil in a heated rice cooker, followed closely by a cinnamon stick, one star anise and a clove (instead of the shallot-ginger-garlic combo). I replaced jasmine rice with basmati. It requires a pre-soak - don't skip this step as I did.

Again, I got soft fluffy rice and maintained the integrity of each grain whole. And that's it, you can stop right there and serve with any vegetable or meat dish.

Just for experimental purposes, I ventured further, adding roasted cashew nuts, grated coconut and raisins, gave it a quick fry over high heat on a non-stick pan, then laid them out on a pile of baby spinach.

My friends seemed to enjoy it more than I did - maybe they were just being polite, but then again, knowing these friends, they wouldn't have bothered to be cordial if it sucked. I did not go ga-ga over it because I felt I lost some moisture after the stir fry, and the grated coconut worked my jaws hard. I've been told recently it's good to work your jaws as food these days are way too processed and artificially tenderised.

Well, try it for yourself and let me know if you can help me improve this dish.

Check out my previous Vegan lunch contributions -

- My Pretty Ratatouille

- Sunshine Salad

Tandoori roti and naan

I have been asked a few times for the roti and naan recipe since I first blogged about it - click here for my Tandoor post. It's taken a while but here it is finally.

Recipe A

Tandoori roti (Tandoor bread with whole wheat flour)
Origin: North India
Serves: 2

180gm Whole wheat flour/ Atta
1/2 tsp Baking powder
2 Tbs Oil
100 ml Water
Salt to taste

Method:

1. Combine flour, salt and water to make a dough that is very soft yet not too sticky. Let rest for about 10 minutes, cover with damp cloth. Dimple the dough to catch the oil. Then add oil and turn the mixture out onto a floured board and knead by hand for 5 minutes.

2. Roll the whole dough into a ball and cover with a damp cloth and set aside for about an hour.

3. Knead the dough again for a few minutes and break it into 4 even pieces.

4. Flatten each ball with hands while dabbing with a little flour. Using a rolling pin, create circles about 6 inches in diameter

5. Using a pad stick the rolled out bread on the wall of a hot tandoor.

6. Cook for a minute and take out using the special skewer.

7. Brush with butter and cut into two before serving.

You can see which ones are done by Chef, and the one done by me!

I have not tried doing this in my home oven. Temperature in the tandoor is about 500C so if I try, I would set to the highest possible temperature in my own oven, the same way I would do for pita bread and pizzas. 

Special skewers to remove bread from the tandoor.

Recipe B

Naan (Tandoor bread with plain flour)

Origin: North India

Serves: 2

225gm Refined wheat flour/plain flour

25 ml Oil

80 ml Water

30 ml Yoghurt

5 gm Sugar

1/2 tsp Baking Soda

60 ml Melted butter for brushing

Salt to taste

You have to watch an Indian knead his dough. Some things are taught and some things are caught!

Method:

1. Combine flour, baking soda, yoghurt, salt, sugar and water to make a dough that is very soft yet not too sticky. Let rest, cover. Dimple. Then add oil and turn the mixture out onto a floured board and knead by hand for 5 minutes.

2. Roll the whole dough into a ball and cover with a damp cloth and set aside for about an hour.

3. Knead the dough again for a few minutes and break it into 4 even pieces.

4. Flatten each ball with hands while dabbing with a little flour. Using a rolling pin, create circles about 8 inches in diameter

5. Using a pad stick the rolled out bread on the wall of a hot tandoor.

6. Cook for a minute and take out using the special skewer.

7. Brush with butter and cut into two before serving.

As I'm on a low carbo track, I have not come back to try this recipe since graduating from the culinary school. I'm posting this specially for readers who are keen on trying. Please come back and tell me if you try this. Good luck!

Dal Makhani cooked in Chinese home with Dutch oven

My Dal Makhani that smells and looks more like baked beans for Western breakfast

I learned this dish in at-Sunrice culinary school from an Indian chef. Click here to see how he taught us. It's called Dal Makhani meaning lentils stewed with butter and tomato. The cooking method and process is simple and straightforward but the preparation for the ingredients was something else. You can see from the recipe here that there are almost 20 ingredients in this dal. Especially for someone like me in a Chinese home where such ingredients are not common, I procrastinated on this dish just thinking of the massive mise en place needed. Until today.

What you see here are just half of the ingredients needed!
Clockwise from top left: Kidney beans, bay leaf, channa, urad, cumin,
Kashmiri chilli powder (more for colour than kick), tomato paste, ghee
(which I didn't use in the end), cloves, cinnamon sticks, cardamon, fenugreek 

The beans are soaked overnight and boiled for a good 2 hours.
My beans were soft but not disintegrated enough.
They smelled good during the boil.

I used my Dutch oven and I tried to do a step-by-step photography and my camera almost ended up in the stew. It almost became Dal MaCanon! 

The beans are still very much in its individual state. Maybe this may look more like authentic dal tomorrow
when I reheat it. The taste is not too bad, except I may have used a little too much tomato paste and it smelled like oxtail stew and looked like baked beans.

I think garnishing is particularly important in Indian cuisine where everything tastes great when they're all mashed together. Here, I pick some fresh basil from my garden.

Need another attempt on this dish and I should be ready for Diwali. Meanwhile, read this on the numerous benefits of Indian herbs and spices and see if you'll be more tempted to try this recipe.

Moist heat cooking on Indian cuisine

Pulao - Basmati rice with 3C (cinnamon, cloves, cardamon), star anise, mint leaves and coriander leaves. I like!

The dishes we learned today are:

1. Pulao or Basmati rice cooked by pulao method (moist/steam)

2. Murgh Methi Masala (Chicken masala with fenugreek leaves)

3. Vendakkai Meen Curry (Fish curry with okra) - This one is very good! Recipe provided here

4. Aloo Gobi (Potato and Cauliflower masala)

This fish dish takes my vote as today's high performer with minimal
effort. I am so going to try this knowing how much my husband loves fish.

Cauliflower and potatoes. OK OK lah! A good side dish.

Top view. Hard to show Indian cuisine through amateur photography!

And now, may I introduce you to my new friend, Fenugreek, whom I met for the first time today. 

Fenugreek seeds. Yes, I hid her in my chef's pocket and brought her home.

Soak in water for a few hours till cloudy, then serve as a drink. Reduces heat in the body and is also commonly administered in India to babies to comfort them and settle them if they cry incessantly. You can also drop some into your masala tea. 

Dal Makhani - Lentils stewed with butter and tomato

This is a big pot of lentil goodness - red kidney beans, black beans with

15 or more different spices. My son asks, Mom, why are there ants in the pot?

I posted more than a week ago on our Tandoori lesson in which we stewed a big pot of lentils. With Indian cuisine, everything is about big pots. I love the one big happy family gathering around food concept. No fine arts about it. Forget any sophisticated plating. Everyone can dig into the big pot altogether.

I'm still thinking about this dish although I haven't had a chance to try it - too many recipes, too little time! I'm going to write the recipe here even though it's so very long. It's a very worthy recipe to me. Worthy of an attempt, worthy of taking the trouble to understand all the ingredients, and worthy of a massive mise en place. In fact, worthy of a trip to Little India! The taste is rewarding, satisfying, inspiring, and as a bonus, it's also highly nutritious. Note: need an overnight soaking of lentils and kidney beans.

Here goes.

Serves 4

Ingredients
90g black gram dal/urad
30g kidney beans/rajmah
15g bengal gram/channa

75g butter/ghee
1 bay leaf
2 cinnamon sticks
4 green cardamon
2 black cardamon (v strong)
4 cloves
75g onions, sliced
20g ginger, julienned
10g garlic, sliced
1 green chilli, slit
2 kashmiri chilli powder (not strong, more for colour)
2tsp fenugreek leaves (v strong)
125ml tomato paste
1 tsp cumin powder
Salt to taste

To finish: 50ml cream and 50g butter

Method:
1. Soak lentils and kidney beans overnight. Boil them separate with enough water till well cooked (kidney beans will take 2 hours)
2. Melt butter in a saucepan, add whole garam masala, saute for a minute
3. Add 3G - ginger, green chilli, garlic, stir over medium heat until the raw flavour goes off
4. Add onions and saute till it caramelizes
5. Add in fenugreek leaves and red chilli powder
6. Saute and add tomato paste, simmer (small bubbles) for 10 min
7. Pour into cooked dal, finish with cream, butter and cumin powder
8. Garnish with coriander leaves and cream drops.

Practise this for upcoming Diwali, and write and tell me about it!

Afternote: I've since tried making this dish - see how mine looks. Also, one of my readers also tried it with some good success. She used fresh tomatoes instead of tomato paste - look at hers.

Tandooreeeeeeee!

I was excited to hear we'd be working on the tandoor today. It's a deep clay urn with burning charcoal at the bottom and can hit a temperature of 500C. We're using a modern tandoor today, it has a gas stove at the bottom! Chef had an effective way to convey that safety was of utmost priority by showing us his tandoor scar. 

The full name of the dish is called Tandoori Murgh Tikka (Tandoor Roasted Marinated Chicken). Tikka means long marinate. Origin of dish is North India. We must have used something like 15 different spices. Garam Masala - an ingredient I see alot in Indian recipes - is a standard base for tikka. It is made up of bay leaves, cinnamon, cardammon and cloves or BCCC as Chef calls it. Another one he said was 3G and he didn't mean telco. 3G is ginger, garlic and green chilli. This means massive mise en place for Indian cuisines. But I like to do mise en place because it makes me feel well prepared.

We used about 15 different spices!

We used a giant skewer that went all the way into the tandoor. 

At a temperature of 500C, it took only a few minutes before we saw the chicken darkening.

Skewers removed when chicken is half-cooked for basting with butter
before we put them back into the tandoor again for a bit of crispy charring.

There should be some black charring on tips of chicken pieces. Great with the mango chutney we blended.

My group also prepared mise en place for Dal Makhani (Lentils stewed with butter and tomato) and Pudina Chutney (Mint and Yoghurt sauce).  Another group prepared Naan (Tandoor bread with plain flour) and Roti (Tandoor bread with whole wheat flour). Recipes available if you seriously intend to try these dishes. Do leave a comment on this post if interested. 

Some things are taught. Some things are caught. You have to watch an Indian knead his dough.

How did he get them so round??! I did one - you can easily tell which one!

I slapped my roti dough onto the wall of the tandoor and it stuck. Some others fell when people become afraid of the heat. Julia Child says, Be fearless!

After just a minute, remove with 2 long skewers.

Authentic Indian roti

This is a big pot of lentil goodness - red kidney beans, black beans with 15 or more different spices. I helped myself to a whole ladle!

I love North Indian food. Incredible India!