60DC day 4: finally the fish

Day 4 and the Andhra fish curry finally made its entrance. It was worth the wait though –  a rich, spicy very more-ish curry with a thick gravy-like sauce. I did the prep before I left for work in the morning so all I had to do when I got home was cook the sauce, add the fish and make the rice. That’s a second success, which I’m thrilled about since I’ve been known for making claggy rice for years. I used cod loin which has a firm texture and enough taste to stand up well to the sauce.

I got up early this morning to make saag paneer for tomorrow’s lunch (today’s is leftover fish curry). It took longer than normal since my spice grinder has packed it in so I’m having to all the spices and pastes in a mortar and pestle – a minor annoyance although I’m trying to look at it as an extra opportunity to burn off all those calories I eat 🙂

Also had time to prep the makings for homemade granola. It’s so peaceful in the kitchen as the sun starts to rise and the birds are chirping away. The prep table stands by floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking our garden, which is starting to come into flower and the squirrels and foxes are starting to visit again. I appreciate being able to ease gently into the day with my lovely ingredients – vanilla oats, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, walnuts, pecans, almonds, dried sour cherries and a new maple syrup I’m trying out. I’ll make that tonight so I have something better than cafeteria food that’s been sitting under warmers for hours. Some greek yoghurt on top, maybe an additional drizzle of honey (depending on how sweet the new maple syrup is). Yum!

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60 day challenge: day 2

Day 2 went pretty much to plan except I switched the fish curry for a Ladakhi chicken curry, and the saag aloo for a chana dhal with spinach. The rice stayed on the menu as per the original plan. It’ll be fish curry and saag aloo for tonight.

The curry recipe came from Christine Mansfield’s “Taste of India”, a gorgeous mix of travelogue and cookbook and a must for anyone who wants to play with different types of Indian food. She covers regions from Bengal and the Punjab in the north to Andhra Pradesh in the south. The combination of commentary, photos and recipes has reinforced my desire to spend a couple of months travelling through India improving my Indian  cooking skills. Christine is well known particularly in her native Australia; anyone who watches Masterchef Australia will have seen her. The book’s major shortcoming is that it’s covered in silk which is gorgeous but highly impractical in the kitchen. I did manage to find it a home where the cover is safe, although the pages themselves are less so. I have flagged so many recipes in there that I’ll be in experiment heaven for months.

The meal came out well although when she says use ripe tomatoes for the sauce, she means RIPE. I’ll have to try this one again after the challenge is done to see if I can get the sauce a little more saucy. The recipe has very few ingredients for an Indian dish but packs a nice flavour punch. I used Kashmiri chilli powder, which has a good kick but also has a very pleasant taste rather than just heat.

The chana dhal recipe is definitely a keeper – I added a few tweaks and cooked it for longer than the recipe said so it was nice and creamy. I tried an experiment with the rice and it came out better than any I’ve made before. I warmed a little butter in the pan and covered the rice in it before adding the water. One stir after the water was boiling, cover on, turn down to simmer, one stir right before the end and voila, great rice.

So now it’s 7:30am on Sunday and I’m getting ready to prep today’s offering. We’re heading into London to have lunch with friends at a Chinese restaurant called China Tang so it’s a shorter cooking day than yesterday.

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