Fish Curry, My Style

I’ve always been a fan of hot and spicy food and really wish I had time to experiment more frequent with it. This fish curry is one of the most appetising dishes at home. My hubby is a sucker for this dish. Believe me, he could just eat platefuls of rice with just the gravy. Apparently, you can prepare this with any kind of fish, but most of the time, garoupas and pomfrets are preferred. It took me less than half an hour to finish cooking this dish.

This gravy is very easy to prepare. I just make use of ready made BABA’S fish curry powder and mixture with A1 instant curry paste. I love both mixtures of the fish curry paste's tempting aroma. Everyone has different tastes and expectations though. If you like a spicier gravy, simply add more curry paste.

Here goes my recipe of fish curry:

Ingredients (serves 4-5):

1 large pomfret (500kgs)
Garlic: 5-6 flakes
Small onions - 8
3 stalks of Fresh Lemon Grass (smashed)- remove all the hard outer leaves until you have only the soft inner core.

2-3 sprigs of curry leaves
2 tablespoons of Baba's fish curry powder (mix with 2 tablespoons of water to get the curry paste)
2 tablespoons of instant curry paste
1 cup fresh coconuts or 1 cup coconut milk
10 pieces of ladies fingers/okra (steam for 5 mins until tender, keep aside)
2 tbsp of assam jawa (tamarind paste). Soak this in 1 cup of warm water. Extract juice and keep aside
Salt & sugar to taste
Oil - (5-6 tablespoons)
Water

Methods:

Clean and marinate cut fish pieces with little salt. Heat oil in wok and add garlic, unions, lemon grass and curry leaves. When translucent, add in curry paste, 3 tablespoons of coconut milk and continue frying until the aroma rises,

Now add in the rest of the coconut milk and a cup of water.
Add in the tamarind juice, fish and about 1 cup of water.

Be sure the tamarind juice that you added isn't too sour. if this happens, add in more water to make it less sour.
Simmer on low heat until the fish is cook,

Add in sugar and salt to taste,

Now add in the okras,

Don't boil the curry for too long as it will overcook the fish.

Serve hot with rice or bread. The one I made was a mild spicy curry.

My Spaghetti Bolognese

If you’re like me, it's either you don’t have the time to cook daily or you don’t want to take the time to cook at all. I've to confess that I prefer to eat rather than cook but cooking is one thing and cleaning up is another! :-) However you’ll have to take the time to do your cooking at some point, so when is the best time to do it?

Normally I do my cooking for the week on Saturday and Sunday. Since I learned how to cook 13 years ago, I’ve also learned how to polish my cooking techniques.

My kids simply love spaghetti. It also happens to be the most favorite pasta dish in my household. My hubby will eat whatever I cook though and it is such a great sense of accomplishment whenever my hubby compliments my cooking.

Spaghetti Bolognese

I didn't follow any book recipes for this spaghetti. I've been experimenting a couple of times cooking my own style of spaghetti with various sauces and so far my favourite is Bolognese sauce, my family's all time favorite. You know, sometimes, when you come across so many recipes that you don't even know which is which anymore. Anyway, I would not recommend it when preparing for a crowd, but for a small lunch for three or four, it seems no big deal.

This is my version of spaghetti bolognese (serves 3-5)

Ingredients:

• Olive oil
• About 200g of mince meat/chicken/beef
• 1 small onion (diced)
• 2 small cloves of garlic
• Spaghetti- 3/4 portions, cooked according to instructions on the packet. Coat with a little bit of olive oil.
• handful of herbs- basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, whatever goes
  chicken stock or water
• Parmesan cheese- to sprinkle on top
• 3 tablespoons of black pepper sauce
• 5 tablespoons of Pasta sauce (Prego brand)
  1 capsicum (diced)(optional)
• salt and sugar to taste

Methods (cooking the sauce):

heat the olive oil in a pan, saute garlic and onions until light brown.
add in the mince meat- cook for 5 minutes
add the mushrooms - cook for 1-2 minutes
mix in the pasta and black pepper sauce
add a little bit of chicken soup or water
add in the capcicums
let cook for another 5 minutes, medium heat fire
salt and sugar to taste

cooking the pasta:

boil water
add 2 tbs of salt and 2 tbs of oil
put in the pasta
cook for 5 minutes in medium heat fire
drain the pasta under the cool water
mix olive oil to avoid sticking up

serving suggestion: sprinkle with loads of parmesan cheese. garnish with handful of herbs.

Enjoy!