Baked Basa Pan Fried in Thai Style

Today I make it a quick post. After making this dish I have posted it on my Facebook page and have totally forgotten to blog on it. That is only then, when one of my readers put it on my notice that the recipe has not been shared yet. It feels really great when you have such readers who follow you with such minute details. I am one lucky soul to have such readers. So here is the recipe Baked Basa Pan Fried in Thai Style:

Ingredients:

Basa Fillet - 1 large

To marinate:

Thai Sweet Chilly Sauce - 2 tbspn

Light Soy Sauce - 2 tbspn

Ginger Garlic paste- 1 tbspn

lemon juice- 1tspn

Dry Lemon Grass- few sprigs

Salt and Sugar - as per taste 

For the Fry:

Mushroom (sliced) - 1 cup

Baby Corn (julienned) -  1/2 cup

Capsicum (sliced) - 1/2 cup

Garlic (chopped) - 1 tbspn

Ginger ((julienned)) - 1 tspn

Whole Dry Red Chilli - 2- 3 (Seeded and pieced)

Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce - 2 tbspn

Dark Soy Sauce - 1 tbspn

Salt and Sugar as per taste.

Olive Oil - 1 tbspn

Method:

1. Cube the Fillet as your required size. Make sure it should not be too small.
2. Marinade the cubes with all the ingredients under Marinate.
3. Take baking tray. Cover it with aluminum foil. Line the fillet cubes.
4. Bake each side each for 7 + 7 mnts.  And then grill for 5 mnts.
5. Take a nonstick pan. Heat oil. Add the chopped garlic and the Dry red chilli.
6. Let the Garlic turn brown add all the other veggies and sauté till then are semi cooked. And the sauces, salt and sugar.
7. Stir well in high flame. Add the fish cubes and very carefully fold them with the  veggies. Be very careful that the fish cubes should not get broken. Cook for a couple of minutes in high flame. Then serve with fried rice or noodles. 

Note:

1. If you don't want to bake then you can coat the marinated fish cubes in corn flour or flour and deep fry.

2. Basa is a very soft and fragile textured fish. so handle it care.

Eggplant/Brinjal/ Aubergine Satay

At my early learning stage, I was shown to a picture of a big egg shaped fat, purple coloured vegetable  with a stem poking out from its head and was introduced that as 'BEGUN' in Bengali, 'BAIGAN' in Hindi and 'BRINJAL' in English. Who thought that after growing up in a lady and owning a kitchen to rule, I had to scratch my head after getting encountered with more names of that fat, purple veggie. Yes, you read it correctly. I did scratch my head when I first stepped in to the vegetable market in USA and saw that the my very well known Mr. Fatty Purple Brinjal was sitting on an isle with a name tagged on its head as "EGGPLANT". Newlywed then, I was not able to relate how could an EGG  be called as a PLANT and why Brinjal was tagged as an EGGPLANT. Too much confusion for the budding cook I decided to rush back home to investigate about it. Cheers to Wikipedia I found this:

"Eggplant (Solanum melongena) is a species of nightshade commonly known in British English as aubergine and also known as brinjal, brinjal eggplant, melongene, garden egg, or guinea squash. It bears a fruit of the same name (commonly either "eggplant" in American English or "aubergine" in British English) that is widely used in cooking, most notably as an important ingredient in dishes such as moussaka and ratatouille. As a member of the genus Solanum, it is related to both the tomato and the potato. It was originally domesticated in India from the wild nightshade, the thorn or bitter apple, S. incanum." (Source: HERE)

I was introduced another name of Brinjal - "Aubergine". Now I don't have any confusion. Do you have?? I guess No..:)

I think Brinjal/Eggplant/ Aubergine is one of the most versatile vegetables that can be cooked in so many different ways.  Some has some allergy problem with this veggie but apart from that, taste wise it is unbeatable. I love to experiment with food. And from a long time I thought of making vegetable Satay with Brinjal/Eggplant/ Aubergine . Satay is actually now became famous as a Thai cuisine. But originally it came from Java, Indonesia, though there are confusions hovering around about its originality:

“Although both Thailand and Malaysia claim it as their own, its Southeast Asian origin was in Java, Indonesia. There satay was developed from the Indian kebab brought by the Muslim traders. Even India cannot claim its origin, for there it was a legacy of Middle Eastern influence.”

—Jennifer Brennan (1988), Kitchen Daily

If we delve deep in the history of Satay, the true meaning of Satay is: "Three pieces of Meat" which derived from the word "Min Nan words sa tae bak (三疊肉)". So in true sense Satay should be made with meat only. Non veg , mainly Chicken Satay is widely famous among the Satay family, though pork, mutton, beef and following with many other wild fleshes are its big competitors too.

I took a plunge to go for a vegan Satay and experiment it in a new way. I was not too confident about the result. But when it was served and tasted by the family it was a hit. My hubby became little skeptical after hearing the menu and was not able to hide his grimaced face. Thankfully after tasting with confusion he within a minute called for the next one. Devoured happily by everyone, I ended my day with a peaceful sleep. So here is the recipe of Eggplant/Brinjal/ Aubergine Satay : 

Ingredients:

Eggplant : 2 medium (Long)

Peanut Butter: 2 tbspns (room temperature)

Soy Sauce: 3 tbspns

Thai Sweet Chilli Sauce: 2 tbspns (more or less)

Garlic paste: 1 tspn

Warm Water: 1-2tbspns

Salt and Sugar : as per taste

Method:

1. Thinly slice the Eggplant lengthwise. Rub them with salt and  leave for few minutes. (See Notes)
2. Take bowl. Add all the ingredients except the water. Mix it well in to a smooth paste. If you think its too thick then add water in drops. The sauce will be semi thick.
3. Take a baking pan.  Cover it with aluminum foil. Grease it with oil.
4. Take each Eggplant slice, brush the sauce nice on the both sides and line up on the baking tray.
5. Bake for 7-8 mnts first at 200 degree C. Then turn them carefully so that they should not get broken and bake for another 5mnts.
6. Take each slice and put in the skewers and serve with salad and sauce/dip. 

Notes:

1. When you will thin the Eggplant make sure it should not cut too thin. If it is too thin then it might get a chance to get broken while putting them in the skewers.

2. I always wrap the baking pan with aluminium foil. It helps to get a burnt free and clean pan.

3. You can make it with Potato and other vegetable too.

4. Too make a dip you make some extra sauce same we did for marinating the eggplants.

Fusion Chicken With Antara Ray

This week the Star of the event "Know your Kolkata Blogger Friend" is  Antaray Ray who blogs from Antypasti. A busy working lady who works in a multinational Company, a passionate foodie that led her to administrate the famous foodie  group Chef at Large and we are lucky to have her as a part of our Kolkata Food Bloggers' group, She is our sweet, energetic friend Antara. I can still remember the day when Antara was frist introduced to me by many food  pictures of her wedding with her name tagged in. I was then newly joined the Chef at Large group. I never knew then this girl would be such a good friend of mine, ours. Our Kolkata Food Bloggers group was then just taken birth and I was in search of more food bloggers from Kolkata. Lucky me suddenly got introduced with Antara by a common friend and the first interaction I had with her recollecting the lines: " You are the one who newly got wed right? The food pictures of whose posted in the CAL group." And yes she was the one.  She is the one who introduced us with the CaL Bloggers table and helped to form one in Kolkata. Fair, Balanced headed, always there to help, passionate foodie, loved to stand for the truth, at any approach she is always ready to help with the cutest smile. I never thought in such a short span of time she would become such a good friend of mine.

Antara's Blog Antypasty is a collection of easy and very short time taking recipes. One will get some quick restaurant reviews too which will give a fair idea of the Restaurants.  I love the crisp and precise manner she writes and  delivers  in her each post. LazyTart is the one of the recipes which I loved most but that dish Archita has already recreated. So today I have picked up her Korean Chicken Curry recipe. This dish actually calls for the Miso paste and the Korean Red chilly Paste. But none of these are available here. So I have given it a Thai twist by adding the Tom Yum Soup paste and made few variations to it. So here is my dish:

Ingredients:

Chicken: 600- 700gms (with bone)

Onion: 2 medium (diced)

Tomato: 1 large (cubed)

Garlic Cloves: Hadnful

Wine Vinegar: 2 tbspns

Tom Yum Soup Paste: 2 tbsps (Heaped)

Red Chilly Powder: 1 tspn (More or less, depending on the hot ingestion)

Salt : As per taste

Sigar: 1 tspn + as per taste

White Oil: 4 tbsp

Method:

1. Marinade the chicken with wine vinegar, Tom Yam Soup Paste, Red Chilly Powder and Salt for 15mnst.
2. Add oil in a Kadai/Deep dense pan. Heat the oil. Add  1tspn sugar. Let it get caramelized. Add the garlic cloves let it turn brown. Then add the diced onion.
3. Fry the onion till they become semi soft add the cubed Tomato. Sauté for couple of minutes. Then add the chicken and fold nicely with the onion and tomato. Cover it with a lid. And cook in a low flame till the chicken is well cooked.
4. Then take off the lid. Increase the flame and cook the chicken in high heat till it gets a dry texture.
5. Serve with hot Rrice, Roti , Paratha or Noodles.