Salmon Malai Curry

Today I cooked dinner for the one member in my family, who appreciates my efforts in cooking. In case you could not figure out who that is -- thats hubby -- the toddler does not yet realize ( and based on my experience, I can say that she will not until she starts doing the same for her own kids) how much effort mommy puts in cooking dinner. She lives on her whims, oblivious of the precious time mom had put into preparing dinner. Her dad, on the other hand, is a kinder person and does appreciate having home-cooked dinner fresh off the stove.

Malai curry (creamy coconut curry) is made in India with prawns. Since,  my husband is allergic to prawns, I decided to try the trick on salmon. Along with it, I decided to make some white rice and sauteed broccoli greens.

Ingredients:

King salmon fillet - 2 pieces
Onion - Half of a medium sized
Ginger - 1"
Green chillies - 6
Turmeric - 1tsp
Paprika - 0.5tsp
Salt & Sugar to taste
Ketchup (optional)
Cocount milk - half a 5.5 oz can
Mustard oil - optional
Olive oil - as required
Graded dried coconut  for garnish

I pan-seared the salmon in very little oil for exactly 1 minute. This was just done to give a texture to the fish, taking care to see that the fish oils did not escape into the pan. The onion, ginger and green chillies were pureed and sauteed in olive oil for 15-20 minutes. After the puree was cooked thoroughly, I added turmeric, salt and paprika and cooked it for another 5 minutes. After this, I added coconut milk to the gravy, along with salt, sugar and mustard oil (optional). I also added some ketchup to give a reddish color. I decided to cook the fish by steaming. So each fillet was placed in a parchment paper which was placed on an aluminum foil in turn. I poured some of the gravy on the fish and covered each pouch tightly.

I put the white rice in the rice cooker and used the upper rack steamer to steam the fish. Rice & fish were ready in about the same time. This was a great experiment and turned out really well. The effort was worth the fulfilling dinner :)

Sweet Yoghurt Dessert

Steamed yoghurt or 'Bhapa doi' is a must for feasts in Kolkata. The grand menu for any celebration, whether it is a festival or wedding, always ends with this dessert. Apart from the fact that this is only traditionally found in Kolkata, this dish is also considered auspicious for celebrations. This week I decided to attempt making this dish at home with local ingredients. The only difference was that I baked it instead of steaming.

Ingredients:
Yoghurt - 3 cups
Sweetened condensed milk - half of a can
Maple syrup - to adjust sweetness & add flavor
Butter or ghee to grease a baking pan
Almonds for garnish

The first step was to preheat the oven at 400F. The yoghurt, condensed milk and maple syrup was mixed using a hand whisker. I tasted a bit of  this mixture prior to baking and it was such a delicacy...yumm.. I thought of adding maple syrup because it has a faint flavor similar to that of sugarcane/palm jaggery, known as 'gur'' found in India. This is commonly used in making sweets in Kolkata sweet shops.

The yoghurt mixture was placed in the greased pan and baked in the pre-heated pan for 35 minutes. Then I garnished it with almonds, left it to cool at room temperature for another half an hour. The dessert was placed in the refrigerator until dinner time. What was the outcome? I don't know yet because I do not each much dessert myself but friends and family said they like it! :-)