Food Escapades & Curry Fridays ! Nadan meen kootan // kingfish curry
Sorry for the delay, had some personal complications recently and couldn't find the time to post this here this morning hahahahh.
I was gonna make butter chicken today, but since it's good Friday we just haaad go eat a fish dish hahah. The fish we bought ended up being very expensive, but gosh it was worth it. Probably the nicest tasting fish I've ever personally had ! Very buttery and flaky, superb taste...
The curry was pretty good too, but it was similar to a lot of the other mustard seed based curries I've eaten. My dad, however, made this thing after we finished the dish with the leftover sauce. He put a bit more tamarind water in it and let it reduce for a while, which ended up making a richer and more complex sauce that I think beats the one I ate with the fish. If you're going to make this recipe, id suggest giving that a go, maybe you'll end up liking it more !
Overall a fun dish to make, simple, and great tasting. Would've been better if a) I didn't take a nap beforehand which made me completely and utterly tired and b) the fish wasn't so expensive ahahahah.
Picture of the dish: https://imgur.com/a/0j7utl6
Recipe: https://imgur.com/a/ffHqbpP
Question of the day: are there any food traditions that you follow?
Have a great day <3
Tomi, your friendly neighbourhood marshmallow~
Before we moved down south, my SO and I would make semi-annual trips to an absolutely amazing Morrocan restaurant in Northampton MA, the Amanouz Cafe (seriously, if anyone lives in the area try some takeout if they're still open!). One of the things we had was a revelation for our palate, the Tagine (in particular, the Tagine Casablanca is my favorite). It's something like a stew, but thicker and juicier. Their version is an amazing blend of cinnamon, blanched almonds and raisins that is a wonder to behold.
Since my SO has been asking for a Tagine for months now, and we had a frozen chicken in the freezer we decided to give it a shot. Following a more traditional recipe (see here), just finished cutting up the chicken, and set it in the marinade in the fridge. Will update with how it goes :)
God that looks delicious... I’ve been wanting to make some shakshouka for a while which I think is from a close area to Morocco... I don’t know a lot abt Moroccan food though :P would def like to see how that turned out.
How did it go? :)
Amaaaaazing. We stewed it for ~2 hours (had it a little low), and the flavors really melded together. Didn't have preserved lemon (but looking at making some now, because it's simple) but other than that everything was really easy to put together. Thinking of leaning away from lemon / olives and towards cinnamon / raisins / nutmeg next time :)
I would show a picture, but my phone has picked up the delightful feature of not charging very well (if at all) over the weekend -.-
Nice, glad it worked out! And yeah, preserved lemons are actually super easy to make yourself. And while I do love them (and olives!), I have to admit that cinnamon/raisins/nutmeg combo sounds even better for fish stew though. I used to eat a lot of Eritrean/Ethiopian food when I lived downtown TO, and those warming spices/ingredients you mentioned, along with ginger, garlic, cumin, allspice, fenugreek and cloves, featured heavily in most of their stews... which were all incredibly delicious.
Huh, this made me realize I've never actually had a fish curry before even though I love fish and curries. :P
What kind of fish was it? Your imgur pic says "Kingfish" but there are a whole bunch of fish that could potentially refer to.
My personal philosophy when it comes to food traditions is effectively "When in Rome, do as the Romans do", i.e. I try my best to abide by the traditions, customs, etiquette and cultural expectations of whatever place I am at. E.g. When I am at Yum Cha/Dim Sum, I use chopsticks, pour tea for others before myself, tap the table with two finger for thanks, etc.
But at home I generally hold very few traditions sacred. It's "make yourself at home", "first come first serve", dig in when you're ready (no need to wait for everyone else to be seated), etc. I may fetch your first beer/cocktail for you as the host but it's "help yourself" after that. ;)
we ended up getting sablefish (which I don't really think is a kingfish hahahahah) because it was what the guy in the fish market gave us ! very yummy.
I should try to abide those kinds of philosophies during trips ! I would really love to travel the world for culinary apprenticeship someday, those seem like fun things to do when outside the comfort zone anyways :P