Love and Calories!!

Sometimes you don't have to  cook really fancy. You just have to meddle with few fresh ingredients and boom...you get a masterpiece. This is one such dish which I make for my mid week supper and it takes no more than 30 minutes to prepare. Salmon is something that I stock up in my fridge all the time and the fish being so versatile, I  often try different marinade to get a different dish each time. Today I am sharing  an Asian inspired dressing for your lovely pink salmon and to go as accompaniment, what better than mashed spuds. Wasabi lovers out there...add a teeny weeny amount to your mashed potatoes and see that instant kick that you will get. ;)  Asian style Salmon Ingredients: 2 boneless salmon fillet 1 tbsp soy sauce 1 tsp honey 1 tbsp sesame oil 1/2 inch ginger (grated) 2-3 cloves of garlic (grated) 1 tbsp sesame seeds pepper to season Method: Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius. For the marinade, Combine the soy sauce, hone...

Fish make a quick, easy yet delectable dish with the ingredients readily available in your pantry. Haddock fillets came to my rescue on a Saturday night when I was tired of the general weekend routine. The dinner was done and dusted within twenty minutes and it looked like a Michelin  star restaurant dish. Arun was ready with two glasses of wine while I served him a great looking and delicious dinner!! Saturday was well spent at home. Ingredients: 2 fresh haddock fillets  handful of cherry tomatoes (I used the normal ones as I didn't have cherry tomatoes) 2 tbsp mayonnaise 2 cloves of garlic (peeled and grated) 1 cup of breadcrumbs (I used Japanese penko crumbs, you can use the normal ones too) juice of 1/2 lemon handful of fresh parsley or 1 tbsp of dried parsley 1 tbsp olive oil salt and pepper to season Method:  Preheat the oven to 220 degree Celsius. Lightly oil a large baking tray, then lay the haddock and tomatoes alongside each other. In a s...

Not a very good looking fine dining dish this is, but it is an absolutely delicious grub if you are a seafood fan.  This typical British food is very filling, very creamy and has all the strong flavours going through it. You either love it or hate it but you can't ignore it. :) Ingredients: 200 gm ready cut fish pie mix from any super store (which includes cut pink salmon, cod & smoked haddock) or buy a fillet each of salmon, cod & smoked haddock separately from the fish monger.  5-6 pieces of prawns (optional) 1 egg (hard boiled) 3 large potatoes (I used 1 &1/2 jacket potatoes) 2 cups milk + 4 tbsp milk 1 tbsp plain flour (sifted) 1 bay leaf 1 tsp ground black pepper 50 gm butter + 2 tbsp butter grated cheddar cheese (optional) salt to season    Method: Heat 2 cups of milk in a saucepan & put the bay leaf in it. Also add the cut fish pieces along with the prawns and poach in milk for 4-5 minutes.  Remove the f...

"In love with Spain" continues & I cooked up another popular dish from the sunshine country, Espana. The world famous "Paella" pronounced as Pa-e-ya is a popular Spanish Rice dish cooked with mainly seafood. It is cooked in a special pan known as La paella (from where the dish gets its name too), which is a wide mouthed thick shallow pan made of iron that helps in quick heat absorption and helps cooking the rice really fast. The authentic paella takes a decent amount of time to cook but nowadays who has time for those elaborate sessions in the kitchen so here is one quick paella recipe which you can make in a jiffy (well about a maximum of 20 minutes). :) The image below is that of an authentic paella pan & the paella rice. You can swap these two with any of the wide mouthed shallow pans already at home & long grain rice respectively. Vegetarians need not be disappointed as they too can substitute the chicken stalk with vegetable stalk & prawns with...

While I was going through the "Index" of my Blog, containing the list of recipes that I've tried, I realized that I have not made anything from the eastern region of India. I have always mentioned about North, South & Western Indian cuisine but never about the Eastern sector. I should be seriously ashamed of it. So I decided to introduce the "Eastern" Indian cuisine to all of you by including the recipe of the most popular dish of West Bengal "Macher Jhol". It literally means, Fish (Macher) & Jhol (Water). It is a typical runny Bengali fish curry cooked in mustard oil. Many of my friends are Bengali & I have truly relished the Bengali cuisine at their home. I can closely associate myself with Bengal as I hail from the state Kerala. Both the states are miles away from each other but there are umpteen similarities between them. Be it Communism (We shall not talk about it), football fans (for a change, is not cricket they fancy), the sweet...

Its been months, since I bought some fresh fish from a fishmonger. I always opt for the easy to clean & cook shrimps or prawns. But last Saturday, I saw this fresh sardines butterfly fillets, fully cleaned, scaled & bones removed. That was specially kept for Barbeques. My heart skipped a beat & asked me "You miss Kerala, Don't you? My mouth was salivating uncontrollably & my brain had already decided the menu for the day. "Malabar Fish Curry" & "Sardines Fry" with plain white Rice. I wanted it to be a "Pukka Malayalee lunch" with an hour long nap after that. The only reason why I avoid Sardines is, the more it tastes good, the more it makes the whole house smelly. And I just pray to god that no neighbours or friends turn up for a few days after my Sardine cooking. It is so very embarrassing when they sniff their nose frequently. :( Anyway, this will not stop me making some delicious fish curry & fry. The "...

Two days back. when I was browsing the TV channels, I came across some chef making a grilled Sea bass Thai style. It was so damn easy & healthy that I thought, this should definitely go in to my blog. I don't know the chef's name, neither do I remember the programme's name, what I do remember is the recipe. I have improvised a bit from the original recipe. It taste yum. Trust me, you should try making it. Within 30 minutes, your healthy dinner is ready. Ingredients: 1 whole sea bass (cleaned, scales removed, if you want keep the head & tails on, its ok but I usually cut it off) 60 gm coriander leaves (finely chopped) 1 lemon (cut into thin round slices) juice of 2 lemons 1 big onion (cut into thin round rings) 1 tbsp of olive oil 2 tbsp fish sauce (if not available, then use soy sauce) 2 tbsp of ginger ( julienne) 2-3 cloves of garlic (finely chopped) 2 thai red chillies (if not available, use the finger chillies) (cut into strips, seeds removed) 1 tbsp sesame ...

Now before you read the recipe, let me tell you, if you are a fitness freak, this is not for you. Extremely tasty but not healthy at all. Its the most popular pub dish of England, "Fish, Chips & Mushy Peas". Fish is healthy but not when it is deep fried in a beery batter. Chips is not at all fine when you know that it is double fried in this recipe. Peas...well yeah....whatever!! ;) But let me tell you, you will just love it if you make it. The golden crispiness of the fish & chips will make you forget the world for a moment. One need not waste time in making the fish, chips & the mushy peas at home cos you can buy it all instant outside, but isn't it good to know what goes in each of your favourite dish?? Don't mind the calories....u can run for an hour long more after having this one!! Ingredients: 2 chunky pieces of boneless cod or haddock or halibut fillets, preferably skinned 125 ml of any beer (heineken, budweiser or any other) 100 gm self raisin...

A dish has to come from Goa, the smallest, coolest & most happening state of India. I don't have to give an introduction of Goa as the whole world knows about it. It is the tourists HOT SPOT. So let me just move on to its FOOD. The long period of Portuguese rule has left a major influence on the original style of Goan cooking & this resulted in an exotic variation of tasty and spicy cuisine . I still remember my Goan trip during college days. Enjoying in Baga Beach with friends, relishing some amazing prawn curry and next day morning, had a cup of coffee to remove the hangover of the Cashew Fenny. (Well, That I just added up....I just had two sips and I puked). :) "Prawn Balchao" is a favourite Goan dish which can be preserved for a couple of days. In fact, its tangy taste is at its best after a day or so. It can be stored as a pickle for longer, if preservatives are added. But in my house, there's no need to add preservatives as it gets over the moment ...