The Café Spice Cookbook: 84 Quick and Easy Indian Recipes for Everyday Meals (22 page)

Mix together semolina and the flour on a large plate. Remove the fish from the marinade and place it on the mixture of flour. Press on all sides and coat, creating a generous coating of the dry mixture all over the fish.

Heat the remaining oil in a large nonstick saucepan over medium heat. When hot, add the fish. Cook on low heat without moving the fish for four minutes, then turn over and cook on the other side for another 3–4 minutes or until done. Serve hot with lemon wedges and mixed greens.

Pan-Fried Snapper

This makes an exquisite presentation and can be served as a plated, individual course. As fillet of snapper cooks very quickly, it’s best to make this dish at the last minute. You can make the sauce ahead of time and refrigerate it before you serve this dish.

Serves
4

Prep time:
15 minutes

Cook time:
15–20 minutes

3 tablespoons oil

10 fresh curry leaves

1 red onion (about 5 oz/150 g), sliced

1 piece fresh ginger, 1-in (2.5-cm), peeled and cut into thin strips

4 fresh green chili peppers, slit open lengthwise

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

2 cups (500 ml) coconut milk

2 teaspoons salt

4 red snapper fillets (about 6 oz/175 g each) or other firm white fish like cod or bass, skin on

1 teaspoon toasted and ground coriander seeds

1 teaspoon toasted and ground cumin seeds

½ teaspoon Asian red chili powder or cayenne pepper

For the sauce:

To make the sauce, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the curry leaves, onions, ginger, and green chilies and cook, stirring until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes.

Add the turmeric, followed by the coconut milk and 1 teaspoon of salt and bring to a simmer. Cook for 3–5 minutes, until the sauce begins to turn glossy and thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon lightly. Set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a large, heavy-bottomed skillet over high heat and add the snapper, skin-side down, and sear for about 1 minute per side, until golden brown. Move the pan off the heat. Sprinkle the remaining salt on both sides. Mix together the coriander, cumin, and the chili powder and sprinkle over the fish evenly. Place the pan back on heat and cook for another 30 seconds on each side. Serve with the coconut sauce.

Chapter 7
POULTRY AND MEAT

India owes its delectable cuisine to its rich heritage and culture. In fact, religion, along with key chapters in India’s history, have played a big role in determining its cuisine and palette. For example, with the advent of the Mughals, and a country that was largely vegetarian slowly embraced meat and poultry over the course of nearly 200 years of Mughal rule. Military invasions and the country’s key positioning on trade routes also helped shape some of today’s more popular dishes. Vindaloo from the Portuguese as well as kebabs and pilaf (or
pulao
) from the Greeks and Persians are examples of such influences. Geography too had a role to play in giving Indian cuisine its regional variations. For inland populations, lamb, goat, and chicken started forming the basis of many popular dishes owing to the inaccessibility of fresh seafood, which only the coastal inhabitants had in abundance. Moreover, dishes from the south are spicier than those from the north, and their distinct flavor comes from the generous use of locally available tamarind, coconut, and mustard seeds.

Turkey is almost unused in India, owing to its unavailability. However, I have tried many of these recipes using turkey, and it works well. For those who prefer using leaner meat, you can substitute turkey for chicken in some of these recipes.

In India and on the subcontinent, lamb is rarely eaten in the average home, although you may find it in restaurants. We in the West are rather reluctant to eat mutton, in no small part because of its scarcity here. Traditionally, Indian meat recipes would generally call for goat, but feel free to substitute beef or lamb, per your preference.

There are hundreds of ways to prepare meat in the Indian style. You can mince it and mix with spices to make various kinds of kebabs and
kofta
s, use pieces in stews mixed with lentils, or just braise it with spices and serve with bread or rice. All the dishes in this chapter are treated as the main dish in a meal, with the side dishes (appetizers, vegetables, and accompaniments) planned around it.

Kerala-Style Chicken Stew

Use boneless country chicken for this recipe, as it gives this dish the best flavor. The traditional recipe from Kerala uses a paste of fresh coconut, green chili, ginger, onions, and turmeric, but here the recipe uses canned coconut milk for quick and easy preparation. Cook this warming stew when you need some comfort food. Serve it with hot over steamed rice.

Serves
4

Prep time:
15 minutes

Cook time:
30 minutes

10–12 (about 1 lb/500 g) small new or baby potatoes

Salt, to taste

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

2 tablespoons oil

1 tablespoon ghee

½ teaspoon mustard seeds

1 cinnamon stick, ½-in (1.25-cm)

1 bay leaf

4 green cardamom pods

2 cloves peeled garlic, crushed, and sliced lengthwise

1 piece fresh ginger, 1-in (2.5-cm), peeled and thinly-sliced

20 curry leaves

1 teaspoon black peppercorn, crushed

2 onions (about ¾ lb/350 g), chopped

2 fresh green chili peppers, slit and crushed

1¼–1½ lbs (600–750 g) skinless, boneless chicken pieces cut into cubes, 2-in (5-cm)

1 carrot, peeled and diced (about ¾ cup/112 g)

Salt, to taste

3 cups (750 ml) coconut milk

½ cup (125 ml) water, if needed

½ cup (60 g) green peas, fresh or frozen

¼ teaspoon Café Spice Garam Masala (page
22
)

Scrub the potatoes and parboil them in their skins with a pinch of salt and turmeric.

Heat the oil and ghee in a medium saucepan over medium heat and add the mustard seeds. When the seeds crackle, add the cinnamon, bay leaf, and cardamom. When the mixture turns fragrant, about 5–10 seconds, add the sliced garlic, sliced ginger (saving a little for a garnish), and curry leaves and continue to stir-fry. After 20 seconds, add the crushed peppercorns, onions, and green chili peppers and stir-fry for about 2–3 minutes. Add the chicken pieces and sauté for 2–3 minutes.

Add the parboiled potatoes and carrots. Salt to taste and cook, covered, for 2 minutes. Finally add the coconut milk, ½ cup (125 ml) of water (if needed), the green peas, and remaining thinly-sliced ginger. Sprinkle with the Garam Masala, cover, and cook until the chicken is fully cooked. Serve hot.

Omelet Curry
Masala Anda

This recipe evokes fond memories of my aunt’s kitchen back home. I remember that my young cousins were not particularly fond of eggs in their curry, so my aunt used this innovative method to add pieces of omelet instead—kids love omelet in a curry. You can use any filling in this omelet to give it your own twist. Play around with the masalas to create variations of this omelet curry.

Serves
2

Prep time:
15 minutes

Cook time:
30 minutes

2 tablespoons shredded unsweetened coconut (frozen or freshly grated)

½ teaspoon cumin seeds

½ teaspoon fennel seeds

1 tablespoon coriander seeds

½ teaspoon Asian red chili powder or cayenne pepper

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric

½ teaspoon Café Spice Garam Masala (page
22
)

3 eggs

1 red onion, minced (about 1 cup/200 g)

2 fresh green chili peppers, seeded and finely chopped

2 tablespoons fresh coriander leaves (cilantro), chopped

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Salt, to taste

3 tablespoons oil

1 large onion (about 8 oz/250 g), sliced

2 fresh green chili peppers, chopped

2 tomatoes (about 1 lb/500 g), chopped

Juice of ½ lime

3 cups (750 ml) water

2 tablespoons minced fresh coriander leaves (cilantro)

Put the coconut, cumin and fennel seeds, coriander, red chili powder, turmeric, and Garam Masala into a blender with 2 tablespoons of water and grind to a paste. Set aside.

To make the omelet, whisk the eggs in a small bowl. Add the onion, green chilies, coriander leaves, and black pepper; salt to taste and mix well.

Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick pan or a skillet over medium heat. Add the egg and spread around to make a thin omelet.

When the lower side of the omelet is cooked, about 2–3 minutes, turn the omelet over gently using a large spatula. Once the other side is cooked, remove from the heat and cool.

Cut the omelet in half and then cut crosswise into strips, 1-in (2.5-cm) wide. Roll up the strips and set aside on paper towels.

To make the curry, heat the remaining oil in the medium nonstick skillet and fry the sliced onions over medium heat for 8–10 minutes until slightly brown. Add the ground spice paste and fry for another 3–4 minutes. Add a little water if the mixture sticks to the pan, but make sure the spices cook until fragrant.