Cauliflower Pickle

This is a patented recipe from one of my besties Ashwini.

This is something that you can make quickly and spikes up a very ordinary meal.


Cauliflower ½ kg
Mustard seeds 1 tbsp (use yellow mustard if you like a mild mustard flavor and the black one if you prefer a robust flavor)
Tendli / tindora 5-6 tender ones (optional)
Red chillies 6-7 (use either kashmiri /bedgi varieties that give you both color and moderate heat)
Asafoetida powder ¾ - 1 tsp
Salt To taste
Lime 1

Clean cauliflower. Chop florets fairly finely (about ½ cm dices). Top and tail the tendli, slice into quarters lengthwise and then finely dice into the cauliflower. Grind together the chillies, mustard, asafoetida with a little water to make a thick, fine paste. Add paste to the cauliflower, salt to taste and the juice of one lime. You may want to add some more lime juice if your chillies are really spicy. Mix well and let it sit for a couple of hours. Ready to serve.

This stays good for 7-10 days if you refrigerate it. You can easily replace cauliflower with seasonal veggies like carrots etc. This tastes great with raw mango as well, in which case you don’t need to add any lime juice.

Grilled Fish

Ingredients
Cream dory fillets - 250 gms
4 clove of garlic and 2 red bird chillies ground to a paste with 1 tsp with olive oil
Juice of 1 lime
Salt to taste

Method
Marinade the fish with the chilly-garlic paste, lime juice for 30 minutes.Heat a grill plate or a nonstick pan. Season the fish with salt before cooking. Cook the fish for 2 - 3 minutes on each side.

You can use any firm white fish for this.

Other options for marinades:
1. 1 green chilly, 1/2 cup of coriander leaves, 4 cloves of garlic ground to a paste.
2. 1 teaspoon garlic paste, 1 tablespoon oilice oil, 1/2 teaspoon of chilly flakes and 1/4 teaspoon of oregano.
2. Lemon juice, fresh dill leaves and butter.

Mangalorean Chicken Ghee Roast

This one comes from a super cook and dear friend Ashwini
Ingredients
Chicken - 1kg
Ghee - 1 tbsp
Salt - as per taste
Gram masala - 1 tsp
Marinade
Whole red chillies - 15 - 20
Coriander seeds - 1 tsp
Fenugreek seed - 1/2 tsp
Cumin seed - 1 tsp
Tamrind - 2 tbsp

Method
Grind all the ingredients for the marinade into a fine past. Marinate the chicken with it for atleast 12 hours.

Warm the ghee in a flat bottomed pan, slide chicken pieces in it with the marinade. Ensure the chicken is seared on both sides, add the salt, cover and cook till done. Add the garam masala and cook the last minute on high flame uncovered and dry out the masala.