An Invitation to Indian Cooking - Madhur Jaffrey [54]
To serve: Remove fish carefully, place on warm platter, and serve with Plain Basmati Rice. A tomato or onion relish would also go well with it.
Codfish steaks in yogurt
SERVES 2
This easy-to-make dish is absolutely scrumptious. My Bengali sister-in-law, Maya, makes it with cut-up chunks of rahu, a very popular fresh-water fish. Not finding any rahu around, I’ve turned to cod. (You could also use fresh-water carp.) Cod flakes rather easily, so handle it very gently as it cooks. I leave the codfish in steaks (instead of cutting it into smaller sections) to avoid disintegration. In India, sliced hot green chilies are added to the fish 2 or 3 minutes before the cooking time ends. I have used cayenne pepper instead.
2 codfish steaks, ¾ inch thick (about 1 pound offish)
¼ teaspoon ground turmeric
¾ teaspoon salt
3 medium-sized onions
6–8 cloves garlic
½ cup plain yogurt
Freshly ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
⅛ teaspoon sugar
6–8 tablespoons vegetable oil
6 whole cardamom pods
2 cinnamon sticks, 2–2½ inches long
Wash the codfish steaks. See that no scales adhere to skin. Pat them as dry as possible. Sprinkle steaks on both sides with the turmeric and ¼ teaspoon of the salt, rubbing the seasonings gently in.
Peel the 3 onions. Chop 2 of them very finely and set aside. Chop the third one coarsely and place in the container of an electric blender.
Peel and chop the cloves of garlic. Put them in the blender container along with the yogurt, remaining ½ teaspoon salt, black pepper, cayenne, and sugar. Blend at high speed until you have a smooth, thin paste.
Heat 5 tablespoons of the oil in a 12-inch skillet over a medium flame. Put in the 2 steaks and sauté them lightly, about 3 minutes on each side, turning them over gently and carefully. (They should not get brown or crisp.) Remove with a spatula to a plate. Pour the oil from the skillet into a small bowl, leaving behind any sediment or pieces of fish.
Wash and dry the skillet. Measure the oil in the bowl and put it back in the clean skillet. Add more oil to make up 5 tablespoons. Turn heat to medium, and when the oil is hot, put in the 2 finely chopped onions, the cardamom, and the cinnamon. Fry the onions lightly, stirring, until they turn a light, golden brown, about 5 minutes. Turn the heat down to low and pour in liquid from blender. Simmer (do not boil) on low heat for 10 minutes, stirring now and then.
Remove half of the sauce to a small bowl. Spread out the sauce in the skillet evenly, place codfish steaks on top, then pour the reserved sauce over them, spreading it evenly on top of the steaks. Cover and keep simmering at low temperature for about 10 minutes or until fish is cooked through.
To serve: I like to serve these steaks with plain boiled rice and a green salad with an oil and vinegar dressing, but you could choose any other rice dish and green beans, cauliflower, peas, or okra.
Stuffed flounder
SERVES 2
Get your fishmonger to slit the whole flounder from its stomach down to its tail on the underside, and to remove its backbone. (You could do this yourself with a little patience and a very sharp knife, taking care not to destroy the outside appearance of the fish.) Make sure all the scales are removed and that the fish is washed out thoroughly. In this recipe, again borrowed from one for pomfret, the whole fish is stuffed with a mixture of potatoes, fried onions, ginger, and fennel, and then broiled. It is quite delicious. You can easily double or triple the recipe if you are feeding more people.
3½ tablespoons oil, preferably olive or mustard oil
1 tablespoon whole fennel seeds
4 medium-sized onions, finely minced
A piece of fresh ginger, 1 inch long and 1 inch wide, grated
1 large potato, boiled and roughly mashed
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
⅛–¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)
½ teaspoon garam masala
1½ tablespoons lemon juice
1 flounder, about 2 pounds, with head and tail on, cleaned,