Laal Maas

Laal Maas is a Rajasthani curry that gets its wonderfully rich red colour from broiled onions, ginger and garlic, and a ground red chill paste. There are variants that use tomatoes to thicken the gravy and heady spices like cinnamon, cardamom and star anise, but that isn't true to the recipe. Rajasthani Laal Maas is made with a handful of cloves, and relies on the slow broiling of the onions, ginger and garlic in oil to a burnished red paste for that wonderful caramel flavour. This preparation also uses a thick red chilli paste, made with mathania chilies, which are a rich red colour but lack the bite of a chilli. To substitute, kashmiri red chillies can be used, or a combination of dried red chilies and kashimi red chillies, depending on your spice tolerance. The meat used is mutton, as it stands up to the slow broiling needed and has a flavour that lamb sorely lacks.

Ingredients

• 500 g mutton, cut into bite sized pieces
• 4 tbsp ginger garlic paste
• 1 large onion, sliced lengthwise
• 10 cloves
• 1 1/2 cup whisked curd
• 8 mathania red chillies, ground into a thick paste
• 1 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp mustard oil
• 1 small piece of charcoal
• 1 tbsp salt

Method

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in thick bottomed pan, until its hot but not smoking. Add the cloves and let them crackle. Then add the onions and cook until it turns translucent.
2. Add the ginger-garlic paste and stir vigourously to prevent it from sticking. Lower the heat and slow broil it till the onions and ginger-garlic paste caramelise and turn a burnished red colour.
3. Add the mathania chilli paste and continue cooking on low heat until it melds into the paste. 
4. Add the mutton pieces and toss around to make sure the paste evenly coats the pieces. Continue slow broiling and brown the mutton pieces.
5. Add the curd and salt, and mix around. Add the water and bring to a boil.
6. Transfer to a pressure cooker and cook on high heat till the pressure builds. Once the pressure builds, lower the heat and cook for 20 minutes, until the meat is tender and falls off the bone.
7. Heat and activate the charcoal, then transfer it into a shallow bowl.
8. Place the charcoal bowl in the middle of the curry and pour the remaining mustard oil over the charcoal.
9. Once it starts smoking, cover the gravy with a tight fitting lid. Let the gravy absolve the smoke for a at least 20 minutes. Then remove the lid and bowl and serve hot with plain rotis or rice.

Pan Seared Fish with Lemon Caper Sauce

The local store today have this wonderfully vibrant parrot fish, with its glistening blue skin and thick meaty steaks. I've only ever seen this bounding in and out of coral reefs on Discovery, so was curious about how it would taste. Like other reef fishes, like the Dotted Cod, it is a firm white fish but with a much deeper flavour. It also helps that this fish is neither commercially exploited nor farmed, so its flavour matures naturally. Since I was trying it for the first time, I decided to season it sparingly, and just pan-searing it, then deglazing the pan to create a lemon caper sauce. As the fish was a mature 2 footer, the thick skin-on that I got out of it had few bones, that a simple tug dislodged. Along with the fish, I served plain rice to mop up the sauce. 

Also, for that yummy crispy skin, I used a non-stick steel pan and a rice bran oil, to get the temperature up to high. Any other oil with a high smoke point can be used, like canola or refined safflower. 

Ingredients

Fish

• 2 skin-on parrot fish filets, or any other white fish.
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp pepper
• 2 tbsp rice bran oil
• 2 tbsp butter

Lemon Caper sauce

• Juice of half a lime
• 8-10 pickled capers, whole
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 cloves garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 cilantro stalks, chopped
• Rice to serve

Method

1. Salt the fish filets liberally on both sides, and rub the salt into the flesh. If you're using thick steaks there's no need to score the skin, but for thin filets, lightly score the skin. Sprinkle the pepper on the flesh side.
2. Leave aside for 10 minutes at room temperature. 
3. Heat the oil in a steel pan on high heat. If the oil starts smoking, take it off the heat and let it cool slightly. Then put it back on high heat and immediately add the fish filets skin side down. Jiggle the pan when the fish hits the oil to dislodge it slightly, as it keeps it from sticking. Cook uncovered on high heat for a minute, and don't move the fish around. 
4. Add the butter and lower the heat to mid-high for a thin filet and medium for a thick filet (thicker than an inch).
5. Melt the butter and pour over the fish. Keep basting it till the butter soaks into the fish.
6. Cook covered for a minute, until the fish is cooked 2/3 of the way. Using a sharp firm spatula, drive it under the fish and gently flip it over. A bit of the skin may stick, but most of it should come away easily.
7. Baste again with the cooking liquour and cook on medium-high or medium (on the basis of filet thickness) until the fish is completely cooked.
8. Place on a plate with the skin-side up to show off the golden brown skin.
9. Raise the heat and cdd the garlic and capers to the butter-oil mixture in the pan. Crispen the garlic and capers slightly and deglaze with the wine. Stir vigourously to dislodge the bits stuck to the pan and cook until the wine reduces to half.
10. Add the remaining butter to the pan and melt it to create an thin emulsion. Take off the heat and add the lemon juice, pepper and cilantro. Avoid cooking the lemon juice as it makes it bitter.
11. Pour over the fish and serve immediately with rice. Fish with its delicate texture does really need any resting time.

Mediterranean Tuna Steaks

The sizzle of meat hitting a hot grill has this wonderful therapeutic effect that wakes you up to the weekend. Grilling's especially great with a fish like tuna, with light seasonings and herbs to complement the rich flavour or dense texture of the fish. I've made a mediterranean inspired tuna chermoula with sumac and cilantro. The sumac can be replaced with fresh lime juice, but juice the fish after the cooking's done, as lemon juice gets quite bitter when heated. I also used a grill pan for the fish, so this can quite easily made indoors, but a charcoal grill would be ideal for the fish. Also, it should be served with something that can soak up the juices of the grill, like rice or pita.

Ingredients

• 200 g tuna filet, cut into bite sized pieces
• 1 tbsp sumac
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp dried rosemary
• 1tsp dried oregano
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2 stalks of cilantro, chopped
• 1 capsicum, cut into square
• 1 tomato, quartered
• 1 cup cooked rice and lemon wedges to serve

Method

1. Mix the olive oil, vinegar, rosemary, oregano, garlic, cilantro, pepper, salt and sumac together to create a thick chermoula. Baste liberally over the tuna pieces and leave aside for an hour to marinate.
2. Clean and oil two skewers and oil a grill pan. Thread the tuna pieces, capsicum and tomato pieces in sequence on the skewer. Baste the skewered meat with the remaining chermoula.
3. Heat the grill pan on high heat and place the skewers on the pan.
4. Cook once on both sides and then lower the heat to medium. Cook it evenly on all four sides.
5. Remove the pan from the heat, add the remaining chermoula and rice. Toss the rice around and create a bed of the rice on a plate. Loosen the meat and serve up on the skewer with lemon wedges.