Sautéed Prawns & Zoodles with Pesto Sauce

Since clean / healthy food has become popular in these days, I've, then, seen lots of posts and recipes about zoodle (which seems fallen into the category) from the food blogs I've been following and finally, I managed to make myself up-to-date with this easy but gorgeous dish!!

The recipe ( slightly adapted from here.)

Indian Style Fish in Mustard Curry

It's not often that I use fish to cook for Indian dishes. So,when I saw this interesting fish curry recipe a while ago, it ,of course, caught my attention at the first sight and I undoubtedly wanted to give it a try ! Finally, I managed to make the dish and was very happy with my outcome!


The recipe

500 grams halibut
1 and half tbsp yellow mustard seeds
2 tsp ginger paste
2 tsp garlic paste
A pinch of fenugreek seeds
1 medium tomato (pulp)
2 green chillies, slit
3-4 tbsp mustard oil (for frying)
2 tbsp mustard oil for frying the masala
½ to 1 tsp chilli powder (depends on how hot you want the curry)
½ tsp turmeric powder + ½ tsp tsp for sprinkling over the fish
1 tsp coriander powder
½ tsp roasted cumin powder
1 tsp garam masala
Salt to taste
Fresh coriander for garnish



Wash the fish under running tap water. Strain the fish and place it on a plate. Sprinkle it with salt and keep it aside for 2-3 minutes.
Wash the fish again under running water and place the fish on a separate plate. Sprinkle the fish sparingly with turmeric powder and keep aside for 5-7 minutes.
During this time, you can prepare the masala for the curry. Ground the yellow mustard seeds to powder and add 3-4 tbsp or more of water. Again pulse it till a fine paste is formed. Keep this aside.
Heat the oil in a pan. Since this oil has a very pungent smell, you need to let it smoke on low flame.
Once that is done, carefully slip slices of fishes in the pan (be careful since the fish can splutter oil; I use a large spoon with a long handle to do this job)
Cook the pieces of fish on high flame till they are golden brown. Remove from the oil and keep them aside. Fry the fish in batches.
Remove the oil from the pan and in the same pan pour 2 tbsp of oil and again smoke it. Carefully add green chillies (if you want lesser heat of green chillies, you can add it towards the end of the frying process to obtain only its flavour) and add the fenugreek seeds to the oil.
Then add the mustard paste along with ginger and garlic paste. Fry it on medium heat till the masala becomes almost dry. You need to constantly stir the paste to prevent it from getting burnt.

Once this is done, add 2 tbsp of water and re-fry it till it becomes dry again. Add the tomato paste alongwith the dry masalas – red chillies, salt, coriander powder, garam masala powder and cumin powder. Fry for about 30 seconds and then pour 450 ml of water.


Once the water starts to boil, add the pieces of fish* to it. Let the water boil again. Now, reduce the flame to low and let it simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Remove the fish from the fire and transfer it to the serving bowl. Serve the fish, garnished with fresh coriander leaves, with steamed or cumin fried rice.
Serves 4

Malted Pretzel Crunch

I've been making this lovely crunch for a few times and it never fails to please people which are both adults and kids who I serve for. Pretzels are good enough to be eaten alone but with few extra ingredients, it amazingly makes the thing much more scrumptious !   Please except my apology for a late post /sharing this amazing recipe..anyway, it's better to be late than never happened!

The recipe

Ingredients

4 cups salted mini pretzels - about ½ of a 16-ounce bag
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup milk powder (like Nestle)
⅓ cup malted milk powder (see Note)
1 teaspoon salt
14 tablespoons butter ,melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 275 F.
Pour the pretzels in a ziplock bag and hammered them with a mallet - or anything hard, breaking them up into one-quarter of their original size. Add the milk powder, malt powder, sugar, and salt, toss to mix. Add the butter and toss to coat.
Spread the mixture on a parchment lined baking sheet and bake for 20-22 minutes. It should look toasted a little toasted. Cool completely and break into clusters.
Stored in an airtight container at room temperature, the crunch will keep fresh for 1 week; in the fridge or freezer, it will keep for 1 month.

Cauliflower Cheese

Cauliflower is not my favorite vegetable , thus it's not an ingredient I would normally use for my cooking. However, a friend of mine made this dish as a side dish for dinner when we visited her house a while ago and it turned out to be a big hit for the kids, especially my daughter. Consequently, she kept asking me to cook for her and I had no reason to say no !


So, this is the first time ever that I made the dish..and surprisingly, I got a very very good feedback from my tasters !!  


The recipe ( Note : I added more milk to the sauce since it's too thick )

Ingredients

1 medium head cauliflower, broken into large florets
40g/1½oz butter
40g/1½oz plain flour
400ml/14fl oz milk
1 tsp English mustard
100g/3½oz mature cheddar cheese, grated
salt and freshly ground black pepper



Method

Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Wash the cauliflower thoroughly and place in a large saucepan of salted water. Bring to the boil and cook for 3-5 minutes, until the cauliflower is almost tender, but still fairly firm. Tip into a colander and leave to drain.
To make the sauce, melt the butter in a medium, heavy-based pan and stir in the flour. Cook over a gentle heat for one minute. Remove the pan from the heat and gradually add the milk, a little at a time, stirring well between each addition. Return the pan to a medium heat and bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly. Simmer for two minutes, then remove from the heat.
Stir in the mustard and two thirds of the cheese and set aside. Arrange the cauliflower in and ovenproof baking dish. Carefully pour over the sauce, ensuring the cauliflower is completely covered. Scatter over the remaining cheese and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the top is golden-brown and bubbling.
    

Fresh Orange Cake

I didn't feel like cooking or baking since I got a flu two weeks ago but now I am back in shape and started looking for something to play with... and I found this cake which is perfect to come back with because it's very easy ,yet provides such a wonderful outcome !

The recipe could be found here. ( Note : I reduced sugar to 1/3 cup for both batter and syrup and add some Grand Marnier to the syrup to jazz it up.