Tag: radish

Categories
Featured Recipes

Fish, Radish, Buttermilk

I found myself in a very comfortable place, where I was using the same ingredients over and over and quite happy doing so. Yesterday evening, I knew I had some fish in the freezer and what else would I do other than coat it in haldi, namak and mirch and shallow fry the lot and eat it with dal chawal, one of our favourite meals? A little thinking and this thought came up and it turned out to be light and delicious. I hope you like it too.

Here’s a quick video that might make the process clearer.

Ingredients:

  • Fish, sliced and coated with a paste of haldi, namak, mirch, shallow fried on all sides until partially cooked. I used about 700 grams.
  • Radish leaves from 3 radishes, chopped
  • Radish root from 1 medium sized radish, finely sliced
  • Ginger, 1.5 inches, finely diced
  • Mustard seeds, 1.5 teaspoons
  • Kadi patta, 2 stems
  • Green chillies, 3, finely sliced
  • Masala Buttermilk, 600 ml (I used Mother Dairy)
  • Oil for initial frying

Method:

  1. Heat oil. Splutter mustard seeds. Add green chillies and kadi patta. Lightly fry.
  2. Add radish leaves. Saute for a while until significantly reduced in quantity. Add radish root, mix well.
  3. Place the partially fried fish in the pot.
  4. Add 3/4 of the buttermilk, leaving a little aside, keeping it warm.
  5. Simmer for 10 minutes or until the fish is cooked, whichever is earlier.
  6. Add the remaining buttermilk. Turn off the heat.
  7. Serve hot with rice.

Notes:

  • I used Indian basa as my choice of fish. It has a nice bit of fat and is better than Vietnamese basa IMO.
  • Your haldi, namak, mirch paste can be of any proportion you like. I use 1 measure each of haldi and mirch, and half a measure of namak.
  • My fish were fried in mustard oil. You can use whatever you like.
  • Buttermilk splits while cooking. The reason for not adding the whole and keep part of it warm and adding that part at the end is an attempt at retaining some of the white colour. This is purely cosmetic. If it doesn’t matter to you, add all the buttermilk in one go.

Categories
Recipes

Phat Green Mama

Yesterday I went to a shopping complex and remembered we didn’t have any vegetables at home. There was a shop in the complex, and I went there, and left in perhaps 5 seconds. Nearly every vegetable there was not only high priced, but wilted and quite sad. You see, the mandi tends to spoil us and that’s where I headed to next. When there, nearly every stall had crisp, fresh greens discarded alongside that apparently no one wanted to pay for or eat. The healthy cheapskate in me took over and I asked for them and every vendor happily stuffed my bag, no questions asked. Now greens tend to wilt and go yellow and other such undesirable colours quite quickly and so we made a lunch almost entirely out of them. I call it, the Phat Green Mama. These are the type of meal changes that have helped me and my clients lose oodles of weight, feel better and ultimately, live better.

Phat Green Mama tastes cool, refreshing, crunchy, very green and is almost entirely guilt free. There’s crunch coming from the fresh greens, warm comfort from the eggs and the not-totally-dry yolks, the mushrooms have their own lovely flavour enhanced by butter and garlic and no carbs. When you’re done eating, you’ll feel fulfilled, satisfied and not at all heavy.

Ingredients:

  • 6 – 7 Beetroot greens, washed
  • 2 – 3 Radish greens, washed
  • 1 packet Mushrooms, washed and trimmed
  • 2 tbsp Garlic, chopped
  • 1 medium Onion, sliced
  • 1 medium Tomato, quartered
  • 400gm Yogurt
  • 2 tbsp Olive oil
  • 1 tbsp Butter
  • 1 tbsp Black peppercorns, freshly ground
  • 2 Eggs, boiled
  • Half a lemon, quartered

Preparation:

  1. Beetroot greens: Separate leaves and stalks, chop stalks, chiffonade leaves, except for four large ones.
  2. Radish greens: Separate leaves and stalks, chop stalks, tear leaves
  3. Mix the olive oil black pepper and salt to taste into the yogurt

Cooking:

  1. Melt butter
  2. Add garlic, brown slightly
  3. Add onions, keep till transparent/pinkish
  4. Add mushrooms, cook for 3 minutes on gentle heat or until cooked
  5. Add salt, mix well.
  6. Take off the heat and add all the chopped stalks.
  7. Set aside.

Assembly:

  1. Place two large beetroot leaves in every bowl
  2. Add beetroot leaves (chiffonade) at their base, to one side
  3. Place mushrooms alongside
  4. Add tomatoes, radish leaves, eggs and lemon as you see fit.
  5. Top with or serve accompanied by the cool yogurt sauce.