Tandoori Halibut and Alu Dum (Smothered Potatoes)

The Bombay Cafe Neela Paniz Ten Speed Press (1998) ISBN 0898159350
Indian Cookery Dharamijt Singh Penguin (1971) pre-ISBN

It's two-for-the-price-of-on for this dinner.

Shopping today meant it was fish night, and to head the meal I picked up The Bombay Cafe, a book that's fairly new to me, although it's been around for a while. It came well-recommended, but somehow has never really caught my fancy.

For one of the sides, I choose a dish from Indian Cookery, which is another quite new-to-me, if secondhand, book, one that I've not used before. It's rather old-fashioned, but probably represents Indian food as prepared in the UK before it became trendy elsewhere.

There was no halibut to be found at the shop, so I used a chunk of cod, cut into two pieces, for the fish. The recipe is simple as can be. The fish is first marinated in a blended mixture of yogurt, fresh ginger, garam masala, ground coriander, cayenne, turmeric, and vegetable oil. (It didn't seem to me that the oil added anything to the flavor or process, so I think I'll leave that out next time.) After 20 minutes or so marinating, the fish is grilled or broiled. That's all there is to it.

The potatoes were prepared in what was to me a new way of doing Indian-style potatoes. They are first boiled until about three-quarters done, then pricked with a fork and rubbed with a paste made of yogurt, turmeric, garam masala, and salt. Bay leaves are cooked in butter (I used ghee), dried chilies added, then a pinch of sugar. Finally the potatoes are stirred in along with minced parsley (I used cilantro, expecting that the parlsley was a 70s substitute for the real thing). The pan is covered, then put in a moderate oven for 25 minutes to finish cooking the potatoes. The yogurt mixture makes a kind of dry crust on the potatoes.

I served these with Spiced Green Beans, a recipe I've made before from Indian Light Cookery (which is a well-used cookbook, so doesn't count here).

We found the whole meal delicious. All bits will likely be made again, and maybe as they're written: as I was clearing up after the meal, I found that I'd gotten out my jar of amchoor, rather than garam masala, so the flavors of the fish and potatoes were not quite as the authors intended—still good, though!

This post is linked to this week's Cookbook Sundays.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/11-Jun-12: We watched the France-England football match at Barbara and David's, and filled up on munchies. When we got home, I made a salad and that's what we had for dinner.

Tuesday/12-Jun-12: Dinner from the freezer again—the sauce for Gemelli with Mushrooms and Tomato, but with mushroom-flavored pasta that are shaped like chanterelles. Then a big salad.

Wednesday/13-Jun-12: Oops, no shopping today as planned, so it's more eating from the freezer. Tonight was Lamb with Black Peppercorns (web), with smashed potatoes and sautéed Shredded Zucchini (MW@Home, p87). Then we finished off the Strawberry Yogurt Freeze.

Thursday/14-Jun-12: French toast for breakfast with the stale ends of two bits of bread. Then some Authentic French Bread (Magic, p22, but out of head) in the bread machine.

Still haven't made it shopping, so off piste for tonight's dinner, which we ate outside, this first time we've been able to do this since the end of March. There was a yummy, half dose of Spaghetti alla Puttanesca (365Pasta, p7), followed by a salad, then some mixed berries over Strawberry Sorbet, which was also pretty darn good.

Friday/15-Jun-12: Whew, finally made it shopping today. Dinner was Tandoori Halibut (Bombay, p179), a halfish recipe, using cod, since there was no halibut to be found. This was accompanied by Alu Dum (Smothered Potatoes) (Singh, p175) and Spiced Green Beans (IndLight, p174). All in all, a very tasty meal, although afterwards I noticed that I'd gotten out my jar of amchoor, rather than garam masala, so bother the fish and the potatoes were not quite as intended. Double chocolate mini-Magnums for afters.

Saturday/16-Jun-12: Finished off the Five-Alarm Lentil Soup for lunch. That help up pretty well.

Dinner was a half recipe of Red Onion and Goat Cheese Pancake (web). The "pancake" itself was quite nice, but the balsamic-honey syrup to go with it was yicky, and not really needed. Then a bit of salad. Then some tasty tomme de Savoie, which was a special offer this week.

Sunday/17-Jun-12: Dinner al fresco for the third night in a row, an ordinary spring/summer/fall occurrence that has been very rare this year. The main was was Quiche aux Fonds d'Artichaut (Quiche with Artichoke Bottoms) (VPQ). Simple and good. The quiche custard contains cornstarch, which is a new-to-me and interesting variation. In fact the custard seemed to set quite well. Most custardy things I make seem to need to cook much longer that the recipe to get set. Something about my magnetism in the kitchen, I guess. Followed by a big salad. Then the last of the Strawberry Sorbet. Yum

Progress on goals
This week: #1 COOKBOOKS: yes, #2 BREAD: yes, #3 SOUP: yes, #4 MIDDAY: no, #5 VEG/FISH: 5
This month: #6 PASTA: yes

This week in the kitchen

Monday/27-Sep-10: Very late dinner tonight. Leftover Mediterranean Turkey/Pintade Casserole. The right oven is acting flaky again; it took about 45 minutes before it decided to start warming up. Served with Green Bean Amandine (MC). Made a tasty combination. Classic Mini-Magnums for dessert. Why do they make any others?

Tuesday/28-Sep-10: Shopped this morning. Bought a bunch of zucchini, grated it, sacked it up in 2-cup amounts, and froze it. Bought some flétan, that's halibut, on promotion. I'm wondering if these promotions are because they got a lot so they put it on sale, or it's yesterday's leftover? There was a beautiful chunk of tuna on sale, at about a third of the price last seen in the Netherlands.

Dinner was Halibut with Caper Salsa Verde (Cooking Light, mar10). I wonder how many times I've actually used the fish prescribed in a recipe? It was OK, but nothing special; won't keep the recipe. Accompanied by some trio rice and steamed carrot sticks. Store-bought semolina pudding was dessert.

Wednesday/29-Sep-10: Made up some of Hazan's Homemade Sausage (30MinPasta, p161) this morning and froze two lots of 9.5oz. I'm amazed how at the cheapness of the sauté du porc that I used to make it. It must be the trimmings off bigger pieces of good meat. Only two bits needed much trimming of fat and connective tissue.

Dinner was Angela's Oven-Friend Chicken with Aromatic Spice Rub (soon to be MC). I cooked four thighs for the two of us, and froze the bigger half of the rub. These were cooked in the oven in a shallow pan, like the Chicken Canzanese from Cook's Illustrated that I made at the beginning of August. This really is the way to get a nice crispy skin on. Accompanied by Grilled Sweet Potato Planks, collected from EAT-L, which weren't so successful; edible but not a keeper. For dessert, we at the last pair of semolina puddings.

Yogurt on overnight.

Thursday/30-Sep-10: Used some frozen lamb to make a half dose of Rice with Ground Lamb, Green Beans, and Garbanzo Beans (Bombay, p226). It was good enough, but didn't have as much flavor as I expected from all that went into it. Can't think that cooked lamb rather than raw ground would have made all that much difference. It's was a nice one-dish meal, though.

Friday/1-Oct-10: Dinner was a web-collected recipe, Roasted Mayonnaise Chicken with Chipotle (soon to be MC), a half recipe made with a pair of thickish boneless pork chops. It was good, although there wasn't as much sauce left in the pan as I expected. Served with polenta. Followed by a big salad. Then some cheese. Then some digestive cookies. Yum.

Saturday/2-Oct-10: Meant to eat a bit light tonight, in preparation for tomorrow's big lunch, but can't say it was a success. I used the pound of impulse-buy cêpes (porcini), 3 of them, to make a pasta sauce. We ate half and froze the rest. (I'll make some fresh pasta to go with the next batch, but didn't have time tonight.) A big salad. And then some Fig Upside Down Cake (web, now MC), using some of our neighbor's figs. I forgot to set the ice cream out to soften, but it was good with cream.

Sunday/3-Oct-10: No cooking today. For our midday/all-afternoon meal, the people who worked on events for the commune during the last year were treated to a thank-you lunch. The food was provided by the butcher in Montemboeuf. Cold-cuts, pâtés, potato salad, and couscous salad for starters. Sauerkraut with a roast of pork, all kinds of pork rolled up together, good meat, bacon, frankfurters, etc. Then salad and cheeses. Then desserts. And lots of wine and beer and sparkly stuff. No need for dinner tonight.

Yogurt on overnight.

This week in the kitchen

Monday/20-Sep-10: Away.

Tuesday/21-Sep-10: Returned home today. Shopped a bit after picking up Pogo. Big salad for dinner after a lunch on the road. Nice to be home and have our four-legged friends around.

Yogurt on overnight.

Wednesday/22-Sep-10: Filing away to-be-tried recipes this morning, I managed to put away the recipes I'd chosen for the next couple of nights. Oops. Not feeling much like cooking somehow, a bit hard to get back into the home-routine after being away for a while.

Pulled out another shrimpy recipe since I couldn't find the intended one and "broke in" a pair of our new Gien pasta dishes this eve with a very late dinner. The recipe I looked at was Seafood Linguini with Mushrooms and Garlic Cream Sauce, but I was so free with it, that it's a bit insulting to say that's what I served. It was good enough, but I was too lazy to make a salad. A bit of St. Felicien for afters.

Defrosting the pintade that I stuffed in the freezer before we left for tomorrow's dinner.

Thursday/23-Sep-10: Picked the pintade and used it to make Mediterranean Turkey Casserole. Misplaced my copy of it, but found two copies on the web, but still don't know what magazine I got it from. Oh well. Instead of defrosting mozzarella, I used some of the pyramid goat cheese. The whole thing was quite good. It made eight servings. We had two, two are in the fridge, and four are in the freezer, making me wish I had a vacuum packing thingie. One day ...

Have some pintade stock brewing on the stove.

Friday/24-Sep-10: Dinner was the frozen bits of Cornmeal and Italian Sausage which were still quite good. A salad of rucola afterwards, followed by the last of the St. Felicien, and then some Old-Fashioned Crumb Cake (soon to be MC).

With some searching, I found the recipes I misplaced yesterday, accidentally filed with something else.

Saturday/25-Sep-10: Made up the tomatillo sauce from a can of tomatillos this morning and froze it for making enchiladas or some such.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother to make a meal plan, since I seem to be cooking completely off-piste these days.

Tonight we had Indian Baked Spiced Fish (MC), this time with ray, defrosted and marinated during the day. This wasn't as good as it has been. Maybe ray wasn't the right fish. As a side, there was Potatoes and Green Peas with Cumin (Bombay, p164), which was very good, and easy to make. The recipe was supposed to serve 6-8; I was a bit short of potatoes, but we ate it all. Followed by more of the crumb cake. Nice tastes in the mouth.

Yogurt on overnight.

Sunday/26-Sep-10: Grilled Polenta with Spicy Steak (Cooking Light jun10, soon MC) with a pair of Toupargel's bavettes (9oz). Made a quicky salad with avocado, red onion, radish, lime juice, and whatever came to hand. Served with steamed broc, topped with butter and olive oil with garlic slices and red pepper flakes. All good. Still working on the crumb cake.

Nobody wanted to go to the boulanger today, so bread on overnight. Cornmeal English Muffin Bread (BigGerman, p151).