Two posts in a day, I am already patting my back……… well I had a lot of catching up to do and that too without any further postponing ,but do you really want me around, I wonder, alright I will do it for myself like I said I would. The heavy weekend got over and we all started getting back to our lives, we all began to think of all the wonderful things that the little one showed us and smiled about it. It was time that I didn’t wait for the weekend to come so that I could cook again and I did get the opportunity to do the same.
After a very crazy Monday and Tuesday I got off work early on Wednesday, I guess I wanted to cook so I planned the day in a way I could finish work as well as do my bit of cooking. Did I forget to mention, that my boss was hitching a ride to the workplace for the last two days and he too cooks to an extent, hence it was fun unwinding discussing recipes. He told me some really interesting ones. Those that registered the most was “Keema” (minced meat), Bhetki Patori(fish wrapped with spices and baked in banana leaf) and capsicum stuffed with prawns. I was only too inspired to get on with it and cook some of it, so I chose the first two and let the third one be for now. I chose Keema primarily because I always ended up messing it up and his recipe did sound like a winner. Once again the same two friends were to be over for dinner, sweet of them as they come every time I call them to give their valuable inputs or just be a scapegoat to my crazy fascination for cooking. I was also informed that there would be three other friends who would be joining so that made the task all the more difficult, performance pressure you see,(didn’t know two of them all too well, but that was inspiring) and after the last debacle I was very keen to get back on top of things and keep myself inspired.
So, after work I headed out to procure the ingredients for the dinner, the plan was to go for the spicy Keema , a medium spiced fish with Paratha’s (Indian bread) which of course I cannot make as yet and would just have to buy it. Getting the minced meat was easy; the tough part was getting the right hard flesh fish for the Banana wrapped rolls. I didn’t not get what I wanted but eventually settled for Basa (it did the job eventually).
This is how it went; the minced meat was first drained of any water and then marinated in ginger, garlic, crushed green chillies, a little curd and a drop of vinegar. While this happened, onions were sautéed separately with red whole chillies and crushed garlic. Once browned, spices were added to it and this was deglazed with a little tomato puree. When it became a thick paste with the consistency that I liked the meat was added to it and cooked for an hour on low flame. Once the meat started cooking all I had to do was stir it occasionally, so I set out to prepare the fish. For this you have to first prepare a paste of crushed green chillies, mustard seeds, ginger, garlic and grated coconut with a pinch of coriander powder and a pinch of cumin powder, just mix all of it in a blender and it’s done. I just had to make sure it was a thick gooey paste so that it coated the fish well. I left the fish in it for ten minutes in the refrigerator so that the paste just binds around the fish well. In between that time I made my banana leaf pieces in which I was to wrap the fish eventually. The tough part here was to make sure that the leaves did not tear when I tied the wrap with a string to hold it all together. Behold my luck, what I feared came true almost immediately, it tore and tore most of the time so I had to add a double coating to most of the pieces.(I later learned that if you boil the banana leaf for a bit before using it, it will work just fine). This was then just put on the microwave tray but not before basting it with some oil, and applying oil on the tray as well, the mode was changed to convection and the fish baked for 30 minutes, turning it around after 15 minutes. I was told that it is done in 12 to 15 minutes, but I wasn’t too sure so why take the risk. And paid off, it did. Since, I had done most of the work before the guests walked in I could for a change spend relatively more time with them, which I for some reason am not able to do and they are in the kitchen drinking to give me company. I have been chided for it and have tried to work towards improving on it. Plus this recipe didn’t require me to be in the kitchen all the time, so that helped.
We had our round of drinks and some more food had to be called for as the initial plan wasn’t for 7 people, what was heartening though was to see that the food made at home was preferred over the ordered food. The fish I was told was excellently done and that it melted in the mouth. The keema was good to taste but I thought of the comparative review and all it meant was that the keema could be worked upon some more. They loved the food though and I was happy after the disaster.
I did get some of the leftovers to work the next day and they loved it here too, in fact the man who had given me the recipe was pretty impressed. I now plan to do a lunch on Saturday for some of my friends. The menu is still to be planned but I do plan for more than two dishes. I hope I can pull it off, wish me luck ….
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