The fish, hmmm…..a difficult ingredient in my hand. Where words like aroma is replaced by stink,devour is swapped with obscure and so on……Fish and me are not very cordial relations. To read the prologue please read this interesting post What the Fish…….!!
Food memories are not always about one’s hankering but sometimes about one’s homesickness.
An image of home which is now completely wiped out in terms of existence only its aftertaste leaves a thought of salivation but I can’t taste it anymore. The events will never occur in the future but its has left the past etched.
A typical sunday in my house started with my dad visiting the fish market accompanied by our very own house kitten, my sister 🙂 . That tiny little floral frock clad girl with rubber slippers to match, trotted behind my father with an innocent catwalk. The sight of a typical fish market is divine to some while disgusting for a few hapless souls like me. The seasoned fish mongers sat inside the old fish house with their huge catch of the day while the small timers sat outside with their fishy trinkets. The path was always muddy and squishy with the melting ice which was used to preserve the fishes during travel. Our kittens slippers went flip-flop, flipping dirt to the back of her feet and standing every few seconds to admire the small sprats, giant king fish, clawed crab and live prawns.
Then she followed back with the days grocery and fresh fish. My mother would carefully spread out the fish, then scale and gut the fish with great agility. A technique which takes years of experience to expertise. I silently thank lord for the modern-day fish mongers who do it for you. All this while our little kitten is quietly sitting and observing our mum do this sanctimonious ritual.
At our place the fish is always marinated and then shallow fried prior to any preparation. My mother said by frying we preserve the fishes moisture and freshness. She carefully fried and drained out excess oil and set it aside for the curry preparations. This was the time our kitten would have sneaked into the kitchen counter and relished the delectable fish fry.
After sometime my confused mum would come asking who ate the fish. To my little sister “Did you eat the fish”. And my sister would say Meeeee, Howwwww!!!! 🙂 🙂 meow meow meow meow and she began to cry. The cat knew her kitten well and gave her a tight hug and fed her more.
Today my kitchen only speaks of my helplessness of handling fish. There are no expert hands and no kittens to trouble you around. My kitchen is full of shadows of my past. Today, I just call up my sister to have conversations about the blurred kitten memories.
I have stirred up a spicy sea bream recipe using the Caribbean scotch bonnets.Hope you like my fishy story and would love to stir up this recipe. My fish is shallow fried before it is curried just the way my mom used to do it. 🙂 Sea bream is incredibly versatile fish baked, fried or steamed, tastes delicious. Scotch bonnets a very small but very hot chilli hailing from Caribbean, similar to the Habanero.
- 1 sea bream (medium)
- 1 onion, thinly sliced
- 1 tomato,chopped
- 1/2 inch ginger
- 4 cloves of garlic
- 2 scotch bonnet chillies,deseeded
- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 1/2 tsp cumin powder
- 1/2 tsp coriander powder
- 1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
- A few sprigs of coriander leaves
- salt to taste
- 1 tbsp Refined Oil
- Marinate the sea bream in salt,turmeric,Kashmiri red chilli powder for 10 minutes.Grind the scotch bonnets, garlic,ginger,coriander powder,cumin powder,turmeric into a smooth paste.
- In a skillet add the oil shallow fry the fish for 2 minutes on each side and set aside.In the same oil add the sliced onions, fry until the onions turn translucent.Then add the chopped tomatoes and salt, fry until they release oil.
- Add the above smooth spicy paste into the tomatoes and fry for 3 minutes.
- Finally add the fried fish into the gravy and coat the fish with gravy.
- Let it simmer for 5 minutes. Garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.Serve it with hot rice or rice crepes.
