These days we are always looking for exotic ways to present desi dishes. And with the food market opening up with delis and importers offering exotic ingredients, sky’s the limit with fusion food now.
Spicy Grilled Pink Salmon
This is a perfect party dish. It looks stunning and does not require much work or cooking time. One can experiment with different types of fish: kingfish, bekti and whole pomfret will work well. The only thing to keep an eye on is the cooking time otherwise the fish might become too dry.
Ingredients
1 kg salmon steaks, about 6 steaks
2-3 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp ginger-garlic paste
1 tsp garam masala powder
50 ml mustard oil
100 gm red chilli paste
200 gm hung curd
1 tsp chaat masala
½ tsp ajwain
Salt, to taste
6 coriander sprigs
6 lemon wedges
Method
Rub the fish with salt and lime juice and let it rest for 10 minutes.
Mix the yogurt, red chilli paste, mustard oil, salt, ajwain and garam masala. Marinate the fish in this for another 10 minutes.
Cook in a moderately hot oven or grill for about 4-5 minutes each side, basting with butter periodically.
Sprinkle with chaat masala and garnish with a coriander sprig and lemon wedge each and serve.
Grilled Eggplants
with Caramelised Onions
There’s hardly a community in India that does not have a special recipe that uses eggplants or brinjals. Since we are so used to the vegetable, it is all the more easy to adapt it to “international” recipes.
Ingredients
8 eggplants (the thin and long variety)
Salt and pepper, to taste
60 ml olive oil
200g onions, sliced
700g tomatoes, chopped
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1½ tsp parsley, chopped
½ tsp black pepper, freshly ground
Pinch of cinnamon powder
For the Coulis:
250g tomatoes, blanched, peeled and diced
60 ml olive oil
1 garlic clove, crushed
Salt and pepper to taste
1 tsp sugar
250 ml vegetable stock
yogurt sauce:
2 tbsp plain yogurt
1 garlic clove
Salt
Fresh coriander leaves, chopped
Lemon wedges and mint leaves to garnish
Method
Cut eggplants lengthwise into half, season with little olive oil, salt and pepper and bake in an oven till soft.
Hollow out a bit from the middle of each eggplant slice. In a pan, heat the olive oil and sauté the onion, add chopped tomatoes, garlic, parsley, black pepper and cinnamon powder and simmer for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the coulis by blending the diced tomatoes, 60 ml olive oil, garlic, salt, pepper, stock and sugar. Make the yogurt sauce by combining the yogurt, garlic and salt.
Once the onions are caramelised, add salt and pepper and remove from heat and set aside to cool. Mix in the eggplant that was scooped out. Stuff each eggplant half with the onion mixture.
To serve, place a swirl of coulis in the centre of a plate and arrange the eggplants on it. Garnish with a little
yogurt sauce, coriander, mint leaves, lemon wedges and serve.