I haven’t been cooking anything new lately. That explains the quiet here. Today when I was checking pictures on my laptop, I saw many that I am yet to post. So I thought of posting them before I forget the recipes. Sorry for not being able to take any new recipe requests or not being able to reply to emails/queries. Aayi got her computer/internet problems fixed recently, so I am hoping she would be able to post somethings here (if she finds time).
Snakegourd ( paddale/padwale in Konkani) was one of my favorite vegetables while growing up. The staple at my home, with this vegetable was padwale randayi . I wanted to try something different this time and I made these. I had tasted them few years ago at a friend’s place in Belgaum. I don’t have her recipe, so I created my own version. It was yumm.
Ingredients: 1 tender snakegourd (about 10-12 pieces) Oil
Stuffing: 1/2 cup onion 1/2 cup tomato 1 tea spn chilli powder A pinch turmeric 1 tea spn garlic chopped 1 tea spn ginger chopped 2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut 1/2 tea spn garam masala 1/4 tea spn amchoor powder(optional) Salt
Method: Cut the snake gourd into about 2 inch round pieces. Cut open each piece on one side and remove all the seeds. In a bowl, mix all the stuffing ingredients (all of them are used raw). Stuff the stuffing into snake gourd pieces. In a thick bottomed pan (or non stick pan), add a little oil. Keep the stuffed snakegourds, if there is any stuffing remaining, add that on top. Add 1/4 cup water, cover a cook on a very low heat. If required, you can gently move them around, but be careful not to break any of the pieces. Instead of cooking in a pan, you can even cook in cooker to same some time.
Serves : 2-3 Preparation time : 30-45mins
While growing up in coastal India, we always had luxury of getting very fresh fish. Though I don’t miss it much, V misses the Sunday fish lunches very much. So last time when we went to buy fish, I remembered a baked fish which I had seen on TV many times. We came home with Halibut (Please do not ask me what is this fish called in one of Indian languages, I have no idea).
This was the first time we tasted this fish and I just made up the recipe from what I remembered watching on Food Network sometime ago. It came out delicious. I served it with fettuccine pasta with white sauce . It made a nice dinner.
Its mostly a method, not an exact recipe, you can change, mix and match ingredients to suit your taste.
Baked Halibut: Preheat the oven at 300F for about 10mins. Take the halibut piece on a parchment paper or silver foil. Season generously with salt and pepper.
In a bowl, mix together onion, tomato, chopped garlic, chopped black olives, red pepper flakes, chopped jalapeños, red pepper flakes and little salt. Pile about 2 tbl spns of mixture on the fish piece. Top with few fresh basil leaves.
Fold the foil/paper over the fish.
Bake in the hot oven at 300F for about 30-40mins or till the fish is completely cooked. Serve with pasta.
