The country is undergoing a kitchen revolution in the urban sectors. While always a bit behind the rest of the world when it comes to culinary innovations, once we take something to heart, we don’t let go.
Thus over the last couple of years we have seen speciality restaurants sprouting all over the place that try to cater to every palate. No longer does it suffice to just be an Italian or Mediterranean restaurant; fusion is the key.
Pomfret in banana leaf with tomato salsa
While at the onset this would seem like a typical Indian dish, the difference is in the use of fresh vegetables as a salsa along with the fish.
Ingredients
2 medium sized white pomfret, cleaned
4 tbsp mustard paste
Salt
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp red chilli powder
2 tbsp mustard oil
1 banana leaf, washed and dried
For the salsa
Two medium sized tomatoes, diced
1 spring onion, diced
1 green chilli, diced fine
1 small onion, diced fine
2 tbsp coriander leaves, chopped fine
Juice of 1 lemon
Pinch of salt
Method
Make two long incisions crosswise on both sides of each fish. Make a marinade of the mustard paste, mustard oil, turmeric and red chilli powder and rub the fish with it and keep aside for 15 minutes.
Cut the banana leaf along the seam so you have two long and wide strips. Place each fish in the middle of a banana strip and cover to make a packet so the fish is not visible. Securely tie the packets with string.
Bake the fish in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes till tender. Remove and set aside.
For the salsa
Combine all the ingredients except the lemon juice and salt. Sprinkle the lemon juice and salt over the ingredients and mix well.
Serve the fish on the banana leaves along with the salsa.
Chocolate and Santra salad
One would have thought that everything that was possible to do with chocolates has already been done. Perhaps so, but chefs are always coming up with permutation and combinations with chocolate that continually have chocolate lovers looking out for the next big thing.
For this dish you will need small, tight oranges.
Ingredients
200gm dark, cooking chocolate (slab, not powder)
3 small oranges
20 small mint leaves
Method
Grate the chocolate with long sweeping motions so that you get fairly long curls and keep aside. Without peeling them, cut the oranges into thin round slices sideways with a very sharp knife so that you are cutting parallel to the ‘equator’ of the orange. Now carefully remove the peel from each slice (If we peel the oranges first, it will be very difficult to slice them).
On a large platter arrange the orange slices and sprinkle the grated chocolate on top. Sprinkle the mint leaves and serve immediately.