Something fishy!

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Fish lies precariously in our nutritional chain. Commercial fishing industries are now notorious for their non-sustainable practices. Farmed fish (like farmed meats and poultry) can be injected with growth hormones and antibiotics and your local fish-monger (if you live by the ocean) may be inadvertently selling you fish polluted by your own city’s sewage and effluents. Yet, fresh, untainted fish is fabulous for you and your children. It’s

usually low in fat, easy to digest, an excellent source of iron, protein and chock-full of vitamins and minerals. As far as flavour and texture goes, you can’t beat it. The fleshy, mild flavoured ones, like bass, are great bolstered with sauces and curries or battered and fried. The leaner fish with more personality, like mackerel, lend their own flavours to enhance other preparations or work, as standalone sides. And there are countless varieties in between — each with its own unique plus and minus points.
Along our meandering coast, Indian communities treat fish religiously — rarely breaking with tradition, serving up recipes honed over centuries — to excellent effect. In cities, we’re eating imports in restaurants, dressed up for the occasion, or buying fish off sanitized ice or from the freezers in supermarkets.
The month of Shravan, for those of us not fasting, is usually a fish bonanza. Especially in places like Mumbai where the fishmongers and usual suspect seafood restaurants serve you larger, fresher portions of fish because the demand dips. But decades of avoiding the fish market during the monsoon is tough to unlearn. So despite assurances that fish available locally is trawler-caught from deeper waters, away from oil spills and pollution and immune to the inclement weather, we ashamedly have started going to the supermarket freezer.
Indonesian Bass has arrived in a local supermarket. It’s cheap, filleted, has a beautiful texture, is sweet and versatile — all in all a winner. So I was alarmed to read that in some parts of Europe a few years ago, there was concern that this fish, originally from the Mekong River, were high in contaminants. Further research online seemed to suggest that this issue was dealt with. We’ve been buying canned and frozen fish for a while now with no adverse effects. Still, it’s up to you to research your food before you eat it. And always best to eat as close to source as possible.

You can start a conversation with the author about food at http://loveinthekitchenlaughteratthetable [2]. blogspot.com

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Almond Fish Fingers
After a few years of devouring fish like beach bums, my children have started to turn their nose up at fish unless my dad makes his special (aka secret recipe) lightly floured, crisp, fried fillets. I blame myself for this. We don’t cook as much fish as we should at home. And I’ve lost confidence with frying simply garlic’ed and lemon’ed whole fish after serving up a couple of rather large pomfrets that were yuckily translucent and pink near the bone. This is easy though — even if you overcook the fish a bit, it won’t suffer. And fish fingers are universally loved. These are lovelier because they’re made with almond crumbs instead of only bread crumbs.

Ingredients:
6 (1 cm thick) fillets of firm fleshed fish
1 cup of almonds
½ cup bread crumbs
6 large cloves of garlic
2 good quality eggs
1 cup cornflour
2 tbs fresh rosemary
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp freshly ground pepper
Lemons to garnish
Salt to taste

Method:
Cut the fish fillets into 1-inch-wide, 3-inch-long rectangles ideally — but work with what shape your fillet is. (As the picture indicates, I managed triangles.) In a pestle, crush the garlic with 1 tsp of salt until it becomes a garlicky paste. Add the rosemary as well and pound a bit more. Dry the fish fillets and rub them gently with this paste and let them stand, covered for about 10 minutes. In the meanwhile, toast the almonds for just 30 seconds and then grind them to as smooth a flour as you can. Toss the almond flour with the breadcrumbs, the dried oregano, pepper and add a little salt and taste. Smooth the garlicky paste off the fish gently and beat it with the eggs in a bowl. Take two large plates and empty the almond flour in one and the cornflour in the other. Put a heavy, non-stick pan on the heat and bring a very thin layer of oil to hot, but not smoking. Dip each fillet in the cornflour, dust lightly, dip in egg, dip and flip in the almond flour and place in the oil. Fry the fish for 3 minutes on one side and 2 minutes on the other. Check the first fillet you put in for degree of doneness. Repeat, serve immediately dressed with lemon and with the spaghetti or squidged into a bun with ketchup like a burger.

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Smoky Peasant Sauce for Spaghetti
This spaghetti sauce came out of a bowl of yesterday’s roast vegetables, some old chilli oil and some tomatoes from the bottom of the vegetable drawer that were well past their prime but still too good to be thrown away. I felt very righteous making this sauce and was rewarded with a lovely, textured, deeply flavoured topping for spaghetti.

Ingredients:
2 carrots
1 red pepper
1 whole head of garlic
8 large tomatoes
2 or 3 tbs chilli oil *
2 tbs butter
1 tbs sugar
1 tbs freshly ground pepper
100 gms fresh basil
Salt to taste
*In a tadka spoon or small frying pan, heat ½ cup of oil (olive or otherwise) and cut large, fresh, red and green chillies with scissors. Let the chillies simmer in the oil but not brown. Leave to stand and when cool, put in a bottle. Dress anything to bring a gentle heat with all the flavour for chilli-phobes.

Method:
Set your oven to 120ºC. In an oven-proof dish, peel and roughly chop your carrots, deseed and tear the pepper and throw in the whole head of garlic, skin on. Brush with a little olive oil, sprinkle with a few grains of salt, cover with foil and roast for about 40 minutes or until the carrots are tender. Open and let the carrots, garlic and peppers brown for another 15 minutes. Leave to come to room temperature. Knock the heads off the tomatoes and cut them into halves.
In a deep saucepan, throw in 1 tbs of olive oil and throw the tomatoes in and let them begin to simmer and lose their juices. Give them a good pounding now and then to help them disintegrate. Add the roast carrots, peppers, sugar, pepper and chilli oil, stir and keep them simmering.
Peel the charred skin off the garlic and throw that in as well. Add a little salt and taste. Keep stirring occasionally and the sauce simmering until the tomatoes and other veggies are soft and disintegrating. Turn off the heat, chop the basil and stir it in with the butter and serve on hot spaghetti.

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Ginger Soy Chilli Fillets
This is my sister Gynelle’s recipe. She made a huge batch in a matter of 20 minutes, served it with the noodles and it was all super delicious, very satisfying but so light. This recipe is quite versatile and if you aren’t eating fish, then try making this using firm tofu. You could add beans, snow peas or slivers of carrot as well.

Ingredients:
4 big -8 small fillets of bass or any sweet firm fleshed fish
6-12 fresh red chillies
4 cloves garlic
½ inch piece ginger
1 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
2-4 tsp brown sugar
3-4 tsp dried basil
½ cup sesame oil to blend

Method:
De-seed the chillies if you like, chop the ginger and garlic and blitz all the ingredients except the fish (of course) in a blender until you get a smooth liquid. In a large glass dish, layer the fish and cover with the marinade so all pieces are covered evenly. Leave in the fridge overnight or covered, outside for at least 1 hour. Heat sesame oil in a pan to a high heat. Lift the fish out of the marinade and sear each piece for about 2 minutes on each side or until done. Don’t overcook the fish as it will begin to disintegrate. When you’re done, scrape up the bits of sugar and chilli from the pan that have caramelised and throw over the cooked fish. Serve with the noodles.

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Sesame Noodles
Gynelle served the fish with these noodles. You can make them from scratch, using the ingredients list, or you can just use the leftover marinade and oil in the pan, toss the noodles and veggies into the mix and serve immediately.
For the sake of simplicity, I’m repeating myself. As usual, the veggie list is only indicative — use what’s at hand — ideally those last few beans that are far too few for a standalone dish, or save the last two spring onions from going to waste.

Ingredients:
2 pkts good quality noodles
2 fresh red chillies
2 cloves garlic
5 tbsp grated ginger
1 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce
2-4 tsp brown sugar
Pinch of 5 spice powder (optional)
4 finely sliced spring onions, greens and whites separated
½ cup red cabbage sliced
½ cup mushrooms sliced finely
½ cup French beans sliced
diagonally
2 tbs white sesame seeds (optional)
½ cup sesame oil
Method:
Boil the noodles. Blanch the beans in boiling water, salted with soy sauce for 5 minutes. Either use the leftover fish marinade (and add 2 tbs ginger and the 5 spice powder) or blend the chillies, garlic, soy sauce, sugar, oil and ginger. Heat a pan and throw in the blend. Stir the whites of the onions, the mushrooms and the cabbage around first. Then drain the beans and throw those in as well. Finally, toss in the drained noodles with the spring onion greens and turn off after 2 minutes. Toast the sesame seeds. Garnish with them. Serve immediately.