Tiny fish Fritters

We found these at the local fish market – these tiny fish whose name in English we are unaware of (incidentally if any of you do know the name, please enlighten ).

The boy believes this is what his people call kaski mas & google says this maybe what the Italians call Bagiggi. And I definitely know my grandmom dries or fries them at our place.

Either way, we had fun making fritters out of these tiny little things.

What We Used:

Tiny fish – 1/2 lbs

Finely diced onions – 1/2 an onion

Finely diced garlic – 4 cloves

Finely diced ginger – 1/4 tsp

Finely diced green chilli – 3 small ones

Red Chilli Powder – 1/2 tsp

Turmeric Powder – 1/2 tsp

Salt & Powder – according to taste

Flour – 1/2 a cup or enough to cover the entire fish

Corn starch – 1 tsp

Lemon – 1

Olive Oil

Knife

Mixing bowl

Frying Pan

Cutting Board

How We Did It:

1. Place the entire batch of fish on a cutting board and chop roughly. The idea is to cut the fish into smaller pieces so that they can be mixed and fried easier.
2. Heat the olive oil in the frying pan over medium heat (pour just enough oil to cover the surface of the frying pan as we aren’t going for deep fried fritters).
3. In the bowl, combine all the ingredients. Adjust the flour to ensure that everything sticks well together.
4. Once the oil has heated, drop by spoonfuls on to the pan.
5. Flip to the other side and let cool over a paper towel covered plate.
6. We squeezed a bit of lemon over it and enjoyed it for an afternoon snack.

Our Suggestion:

Use minimal spices, fry an individual fritter first, eat to see if the spice combination is to your taste & adjust accordingly. We had finished making a whole batch till it dawned on us that there wasn’t enough salt .

Shrimp Pasta

It’s been raining non-stop for three days here. And what could be better than a warm bowl of shrimp pasta with delicious mushrooms to watch the rain go by?

That’s all. No personal anecdote. Just a warm dish, a lovely boy, and beautiful rain – & all does seem right with the world

What We Used:

Time: 30 minutes

Whole Wheat Fuseli Pasta – 1 box

Peeled Shrimp – 1 lb

Sliced Portobello mushrooms – about 10

Diced Garlic – 4

Diced Ginger – a inch

Sliced Onions – 1 1/2

Canned crushed tomatoes – 1 can

Diced Basil – 2 tbsps

Diced Cilantro – 2 tbsps

Chicken broth – 1/2 cup

Cayenne Pepper – 1/2 tsp

Salt & Pepper – to taste

Red Wine – 1/2 cup

Olive oil

Large pan – 1

Pot for cooking Pasta – 1

How We Did It:

1. Cook fuseli according to package directions. (Note – I always add a bit of salt to the boiling water before putting in my pasta. An absolute must from my mom, who swears it adds flavor ). Once the pasta is done, drain and keep aside.
   
2. In a large pan, add oil & cook the cleaned, peeled, deveined shrimp till it curls. Once cooked, remove shrimp & keep aside.
3. In the same pan, heat some more oil. Add the sliced onions and saute for 5 minutes. Add ginger, garlic and sliced mushrooms and cook, until the mushrooms turn color and are tender.
4. Add wine (we used a Merlot), canned tomatoes, broth, basil, cilantro, cayenne pepper, salt & pepper. Reduce heat and let the sauce simmer for about 10 minutes or so. Add the shrimp to the sauce and continue to simmer for another 10 minutes.
5. In a bowl, top the pasta with the sauce and enjoy.

Stuffed Whiting

We have never made anything with Whiting but it just looked so pretty at the Farmer’s market that I couldn’t resist buying it. What I like best about our fishmonger/fishwife is that she descales, deguts, debones, cleans, cuts – you name it, she does it!

If you don’t have a fishmonger who does all of above, most supermarkets sell cleaned packaged fish.

And if you are really adventurous, I found plenty of websites that showed you how to clean, gut, debone a fish.

What We Used:

Cleaned, descaled Whiting – 3

Garlic paste – 1.5 tsp

Ginger paste – 1.5 tsp

Chilli Pepper – 1 tsp (less if you don’t want it too spicy)

Coriander Powder – 1 tsp

Half a lemon

Salt – 1.5 tsp

Pepper – 1.5 tsp

Parmesan Cheese – 1 cup

Olive oil

Large Bowl – 1

Squares of Aluminum foil – 3

How We Did It:

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degrees
2. Clean the descaled, deguted fish (you can never have it too clean). Make horizontal stripes on the flesh of the fish with your knife, sort of like grill marks. This makes it easier for the spices to be absorbed during marination
3. In a large bowl, combine garlic, ginger paste, chili pepper, coriander powder, salt, pepper, a little olive oil, and squeeze the lemon into the mixture.
4. Place the 3 pieces of fish in to the large bowl. Cover and marinate for 1 hr. The longer you marinate, the more the spices will get into the fish
5. Once you are done marinating, stuff the fish with shaved Parmesan cheese
6. Take 3 square pieces of foil, large enough to cover the fish, spread oil so to make sure fish does not stick
7. Place the fish in the foil, fold foil over and seal the edges well
8. Bake on a cookie sheet for 45 minutes or until done
9. We ate the fish with baked potatoes/sweet potatoes, and fresh salad. But really it can be eaten with rice and dal, for it’s that versatile!

Sorry about the bad quality photograph, my only excuse is that we were in a hurry to gobble up this yummy fish

Shrimp Coconut Curry

I love shrimp. I love how it curls up into a tight circle when it cooks. Living in Florida is such a blessing because every Friday, our local farmer’s market gets tons of fresh fish, all laid out pretty like for us to go choosing.

If you are new to buying shrimp, here’s an interesting link that tells you what to look for when buying shrimp, the different sizes, how to devein, everything you ever wanted to know about shrimp but were afraid to ask.

This curry is the simple version of what my mom makes, but it really does taste wonderfully close.

What We Used:

Large Shrimp – 1 lbs

Garlic Paste – a little more than 1 tsp

Ginger Paste – 1 tsp

Garlic and Ginger Paste can be purchased at your local Indian store or any ethnic store, or if you are adventurous enough can be recreated by dicing garlic, and mashing it up or even just putting it in the processor.

Onion – half finely sliced

Tomatoes – 2 finely chopped

Green Chillies – 1 finely diced

Red Chilli Powder – 1 tsp

Coconut Shavings – quarter cup

Salt

Pepper

Olive Oil

Heavy Bottom Pot

a little preview of what’s in store:

How We Did It:

1. The Mostafa cleaned out the shrimp by removing the shell and deveining it. There are arguments for and against deveining but having grown up seeing our moms devein it, the Mostafa & I prefer deveining. You think I used the word devein enough ?
2. Heat a large heavy bottom pot, pour some oil, saute the onions, when they are soft enough (adding a little salt will help wilt them faster), add the garlic & ginger paste, salt and the green chilli
3. It’s going to start smelling heavenly in a minute, because really there’s nothing as divine as the smell of onions and garlic together with a gingery smell lurking around (unless you really don’t like garlic, in which case, you are quite sadly screwed _ )
4. Once the smell wafts toward you, add in the diced tomatoes. When they are soft enough, pour in half a cup of water because you do want a bit of gravy (for this is curry after all) and lower the heat to medium
5. Once your gravy starts bubbling along, drop in the shelled, cleaned and deveined shrimp,
6. They will start curling up soon enough and when they do, add in your coconut shaving and pour in about half a cup of water, close the lid and continue on low heat. After about 5 minutes, check to see if it’s well salted and if it tastes slightly coconut shrimpy with a chilli flavor – if it does, you are all done.

Serve with roti, parathas, or warm rice. Enjoy!