V’s grand mother is a very enthusiastic cook. It amazes me to see her interested in cooking even at an age of 85+. Everytime I call her, I ask for V’s favorite recipes. V has loads of childhood memories associated with her, she knows his likes and dislikes.
Few days ago when I had found Spanish mackerel here , she told me to make this dish. She makes this amazing Iswana sukke – king fish in a spicy coconut paste. When I told her I don’t have coconut, she asked me to follow this recipe. It came out very delicious.
Coconut oil gives it a very nice aroma. You can leave it out if you don’t like it, but according to me coconut oil takes this simple dish to a whole new level.
This time I got the fish nicely cut by the Whole foods. So this dish got ready literally in minutes.
Ingredients: 1 lb (0.45kg) king fish(seer fish/ surmai/ Iswan) 1/2 cup chopped onion 2 tea spns chilli powder 1/2 tea spn tamarind extract 1 tea spn coriander seeds A pinch turmeric 1 tea spn chopped ginger Coconut oil Salt
Method: Heat a little oil and fry coriander seeds. Powder them. (Ready made coriander powder gives a very different taste, so make it at home). Heat coconut oil and add onions, ginger. Fry till the onions turn translucent. Now add fish, tamarind, salt, coriander powder, chilli powder, 1/2 cup water. Cover and cook till fish is done. While serving, drizzle some coconut oil on top.
Serves : 3-4 Preparation time : 20mins
About 2 weeks ago, we had invited our friends for lunch. I made a simple spread for them. At the last moment, I realized I had not made any sweet dishes. Somehow sweet dishes always slip out of my mind as we both don’t have sweet tooth. So I wanted to make something that gets ready very fast, but something special. I saw a big batch of dates and I decided to go ahead with this. This became a huge hit, infact the highlight of the meal.
I have seen many versions of this payasa with coconut milk. I made it with milk like aayi – she substitutes coconut milk with milk in all her payasas .
Some other versions of this payasa by Sia , Ramya , Bee
Ingredients: 1/2 cup chopped dates 3 cup milk 1/4 cup sugar(or jaggery) 2 tbl spns cashews 1/4 tea spn cardamom powder 1 tea spn ghee
Method: Chop the dates. Cook them in milk (if using dates with seeds, remove the seeds before cooking) for about 6-7mins. Grind the mixture. Do not let the dates grind completely. Few small bits of dates gives an amazing taste and texture. Now add sugar to the dates mixture and cook again for about 5mins till it thickens. Heat ghee and fry cashews. Add them and cardamom powder to payasa . Serve hot or chilled.
Preparation time : 20mins Serves : 2-3
Updated 12/29/2013 : I prepared this slightly differently this time, it came out really good and took about 8mins from start to finish. I used about 20-25 dates and about 10 almonds. Added about 3 cups milk to it and microwaved for 2 mins. Then grind it. This gets a thick consistency due to number of dates and gets good sweetness from them too. Then I just added cardamom powder and cashews fried in ghee. Served chilled.
