Fish | Aapplemint

Baby Barracuda

All, Featured, Non-Vegetarian 19 Responses »

Apr 102010

When you think Barracuda, what comes to your mind ? … ( no not the song by Heart ! ) … the fish – big, long, vicious, sharp teeth, ugly but nice chunky meat, barbecue And then you come across Baby Barracuda … small, delicate, kinda cute, soft edible bones, deep fried !!! Yup these little babies can give anchovies a run for their money. Add a couple of spices to flour, toss them in it and deep fry … an instant hit and I promise you , once you start you cannot stop eating these.

Ingredients

Baby Barracudas
100 gms all purpose flour
2 teaspoons corriander pd
2 tsps red cayenne pd
2 tsp dry mango pd
a teeny weeny pinch of turmeric
salt to taste
lemon wedges to serve
oil for deep frying

Clean and gut the fishes, but leave them whole. Pat them dry. Mix the spices and flour together. Toss the fishes in it and coat them well, making sure you get some of the flour mix in the belly of the fish too. Deep fry in hot oil, till crispy. Drain on kitchen towel, and serve immediately with lemon wedges.

And please don’t write me off as an obnoxious rude gal who’s stopped dropping by your wonderful blogs. I’m in the midst of shifting homes and travelling. Will drop by as soon as I settle in.

Fish Taouk

All, Non-Vegetarian 28 Responses »

Jan 222010

This is one of those dishes, which after eating you give yourself a pat on your back n say ” Well done !”. I’ve eaten Chicken taouk, lamb n beef taouk but Fish taouk ? Never ! So I wondered how’d it be … and trust me when I tell you this … its bloody delicious ! The thing is you needn’t be fancy to make a delicious meal. I think the tastiest of foods are the simplest. This recipe takes hardly any time to prepare but the results are so rewarding. I used my most favourite fish ( well one of my most fav ) – Tilapia. Its a very popular fish here in Ghana, and think its ideal for grilling, its a fresh water fish and the flesh is firm and its not too bony like the snapper. You can start ahead by preparing the taouk spice mix. Honestly I’ve made this marinade before even without it and it tastes gr8 even without the spice mix, but hey a little extra flavour never hurt right The spice is a blend of White pepper, grated nutmeg, ground cloves, corriander power, onion powder, salt, cardamom, and red paprika.

Ingredients

Serves 2

1/4th cup olive oil
3 tablespoons good quality tomato paste
1 tablespoons taouk spice
3 tablespoons lime juice
3 fat cloves of garlic grated
salt to taste

Clean and gut the fish. Make gashes and lightly salt it. Smother the fishes liberally with the marinade and keep at room temperature for about an hour. When ready set them on the bbq and cook till done. Serve with pita bread and Lebanese pickles. East isn’t it ?!?

Simple Fresh Food

All, Non-Vegetarian 5 Responses »

Mar 012007

Most of the times its not the cooking that is difficult, its thinking what to cook that’s difficult ! Specially when its hot you’re stuck indoors and u feel like having nothing else but some chilled iced tea/beer. As usual it was D who came up with “lets eat something real light..err.. rolls for lunch”. And the rest was super easy.We’ve been eating a lot of fish lately, blame it on the trip to the fish market which stocked us up for the entire week.Not many shrimps, prawns and crabs to be seen but plenty of grouper, cassava, red snapper, squid, swordfish, tuna, sardines…wow that is a lot of variety.Don’t know why I’m complaining.Maybe cuz I’ve never seen any mussels, scallops or clams or similar shell fish here in this market in Tema which is the fishing harbour. All the fish eaten in Accra goes from here.But its nothing compared to the seafood variety we get back inHong Kong( cant wait to get back).Its insane …so often i cant name over half the things i see.Will definitely do a post on that when i get back home. All these yrs of visiting the wonderful markets and not a single shot.Well cant blame me…didn’t have my camera or the blog then.

So lunch today was light Summer Fish Rolls with Cucumber & Soy dipping sauce.

For the rolls

Rice paper sheets
Red capsicum finely sliced
Carrots finely sliced
Onions finely sliced
Cucumber finely sliced( i didn’t put them in this as i ran out of them)
Corriander
Finely shredded spring onion
Grilled fish(marinated in soy sauce, rice wine, seasme oil)

Soften the rice paper sheets in warm water.Place them on a clean board and start piling up the ingredients one by one starting in the order I’ve mentioned the ingredients.Having done that very tightly fold in the two ends rolling to enclose the contents.Cover with a damp tea/kitchen towel until u ready to eat them.

For the dipping sauce

2 tbsps Light soya sauce
1 chopped green chilli
1 chopped cucumber
Chopped corriander
2 tbsps white vinegar

Mix them all together making the dipping sauce.Personally i like it real spicy.Without the sugar.

By now u must’ve figured out that I’m not very elaborate with my recipe writing … i guess i always run out of patience by the time i reach this stage. Hehe like D tells me…Everyone has a prayer, and yours is, “God give me patience ……. and give it to me NOW !!”

Green Tea Risotto with Pan Fried Cassava

All, Non-Vegetarian 6 Responses »

Feb 282007

Was sipping on some green tea and thinking of trying a healthier version of risotto when it suddenly hit me.Green tea risotto ! No butter, no cheese, no cream, green tea instead – Cant get healthier.Must confess was a little skeptical though, hoping the tea would not be too bitter and over power the taste (as i was sure D would not like green tea in his risotto)but to my surprise it turned out amazing. It added a very subtle aromatic flavour to the rice n my hubby kept saying its very tasty and when i revealed the secret ingredient to him he was quite amazed.As he never drinks green tea and kinda freaks out at the copious amounts i consume i didn’t want to tell him before hand, scared that he might refuse to eat it.It did pay to keep my mouth shut as he adored it and said i shud put it up on the blog(as if i already wasn’t going to ). Haha but I’m glad it turned out nice and would encourage u all to try it out.

Its pretty simple actually – most of the food i make is )). I started with sauteing a clove of crushed garlic and sliced leeks(2) in olive oil, some sliced onions too.As they softened i put in the Aborio rice, stir fried it a bit and added a tablespoon of chicken bullion powder, as i wanted a good base.The rest you know…instead of stock i used green tea.No alcohol splashes as i just didn’t feel like it.

And then when the risotto is almost cooked, taste for salt and put some freshly crushed pepper.

For the Cassava, i marinated it in a spice mix comprising of :-sea salt, corriander seeds(crushed), yellow mustard powder, garlic powder, black pepper, fenugreek seeds crushed, crushed red chillies, oregano, marjoram, paprika.Then drizzled it with olive oil and pan fried it.

Put it all together and squeeze a few drops of lime.The lime really goes well with it as it livens up the flavours bringing freshness to it.

2 Swords

All, Non-Vegetarian 3 Responses »

Feb 232007

Was just reading this interesting article on Lucullian delights – “Do we need editors?” where it is discussed that do bloggers need editors to write well?Cuz if u might’ve noticed that we have beautiful blogs out there with wonderful pictures and recipes and above all the perfect text.Suddenly everyone is writing well and “proper” without any mistakes.Rather professional looking matter just like you would read in a magazine or cook book.Aren’t blogs supposed to be a media to express yourself and not having to worry about hiring blog designers or using editors…isn’t it supposed to just be something u did from your heart as it flowed out without tweaking and editing it.Just like cooking is…from the heart.I would love to read blogs with a more informal touch to it where people are using slang, writing stuff that may matter to them, and just being themselves.That would make reading more fun.Like peaking into someones personal diary ….well so everyone here too is free to leave a comment and share with me how u feel on this issue…while i do a little ‘show and tell’ about what i had for lunch today.

For a change today i’m not posting anything sweet, but just something i had for lunch.

“Steamed swordfish oriental style with fresh salad rice.”

Step1: Try and get your hands on some banana leaves…very very imp.I took an easier option though…i spotted some plantain(almost bananas) trees in my neighbours house and decided to use that instead.So make sure if u have that option that u ask

them first and i dont see why anyone shud mind that but if they do then just wait till he/she steps out and then very quietly just jump over a steal a couple of them.Make sure they have no dogs or i would suggest then that u either go buy some or use baking paper instead.But thats no fun.So having got your hands on some leaves,wash them-well,and then trim off the fat stem at the back of the leaf so that u can manage it better and fold it..or else the leaf will snap and tear.

(neighbour’s plantain tree)

Step 2 :Run the leaf over a gas flame at a distance.what this does is softens the leaf a bit releasing its oils and all the flavours.Also making it very managable and easy to fold.Saw this on Jamie Oliver’s naked chef a couple of yrs ago and been doing it ever since.

Step 3 : Marinate the fish(i’ve taken swordfish)any fish of ur choice…grouper goes really well with this as well so does fresh tuna or cassava..in light soya sauce, grated ginger, chopped green chilli,sesame oil,pinch of salt.Place this in the centre of the banana leaf a

nd place some spring onion greens and corriander on top.Now fold the leaves making a neat parcel and tie up well.

Step 4 lace in a bamboo steamer and steam for about 10 mins.

For the rice just steam it and once its ready mix in some chopped corriander, spring onion greens,salad leaves chopped ,and salt.This adds freshness to the rice and goes wonderfully with the fish.

Could’ve made this with lemon grass and coconut milk with garlic and red chillis with a dash of fish sauce and corriander and that would be a Thai version of the same thing.But my hubby is not a big fan of coconut so we opted for the Chinese version.The steaming makes the fish release its own juices and so there was sufficient sauce to go with the rice.

P.S. – note i forgot to put a piece of fresh corriander for the garnish to make a pretty picture as i didn’t have the patience and wanted to dig my chopsticks in and eat it before it got cold.Hope u don’t mind.Why the header 2 SWORDS …..cuz i used 2 pieces of swordfish …duh..!