The Pink Café

This is yet another traditional Kerala recipe, in which fish is roasted in plantain leaves. There is a two step process in cooking fish, first by shallow frying and then roasted inside a plantain leaf covered with masalas. So my experience with pollichathu was with Karimeen alone until this time, my favorite fish, which is called Pearl spot in English. All these while I haven't tried any other fish for this recipe. So let me tell you the story of how Ayala came into picture :D This happened on one fine day, my mom in law was telling me that the women who brings fish has brought lots of Mackerel and many other fishes and convinced her to buy a lot of them. So she was in a confusion on what will we do with all these, as weekend was almost going to finish and everyone of us moving to different places. And the same curry or fry would be boring and won't be appreciated by the men's league at home :D Then I went for helping her with the fish dilemma, she was having and...

I am having a over proudly feeling of being a Malayali, especially when I make Kerala dishes. It can be because of the rich authentic cuisine heritage we have, that each dish is like a golden feather on our crown. That was too much :P I know.  Even when trying all international dishes, the satisfaction making a Kerala food cannot be reached from any other recipe. It's not about the taste I am talking about, but the food making process. It could be because of I am a hard core mallu :P  So coming to this dish, I like to call it "meen mulakittath" and of course it's inspired from central Kerala fish preparation. Trivandrum style fish curry usually have grated coconut, which I am used to, growing up, but this one I made sure to have the coconut inclination with the base of central Kerala fish recipe. So I have some coconut milk going on in this. This was made as accompaniment to kappa roast on Christmas day, on our Christmas lunch spread. And kappa, oh that...

As said in my previous posts my little boy is a fan of fish recipes. And when it comes to steaks, he doesn't have a second option. This time I prepared the steak with asparagus and a sweet tangy sauce prepared at home and I had a guest at my home, my almost and always welcomed guest, yes my bestie Annie. The entire day cooking was done chit chatting with her, she being the moral support for all the experimenting. When we are together, there is not even a single moment without talking and cracking jokes. The fish of my choice for steaks is one with thick flesh and which can be cut without thorns easily. I used seer fish fillets this time. The sauce preparation was instant and there was no plan on what all should go in it. I opened my refrigerator and found apple cider vinegar, and the common sauces, mustard paste, and onion powder and I decided, ahh ok, I am gonna toss my fish fillets in this and try out the steak.  This fish steak went for a 2 step baking. First of all in ...

Christmas season is incomplete without cutlets for a Malayali :) And for me fish cutlets, especially because of having a fish lover at home, my 9 year old boy. Gauthu likes all snacks made of fish, like fish cutlets, fish fingers, fish steaks and baked fish with chips, but not a big fan of traditional curry and fried ones.  I made a big batch of fish fries the other day and he did not appreciate it much. So whenever I am home, I used to make one of the fish dishes he prefers. This time because its Christmas season, I had a couple of such varieties in my kitchen. The fish I got this time was a freshwater one with soft flesh. All you have to take care is to buy fleshy fishes, so it would be easy to remove the thorns. Fish cutlet is such an easy snack, which can be made from a few ingredients, which are readily available at any home. You cannot go wrong with this recipe, and yes, if you are looking for an evening with admiration from your guests, this would be the right way to go ?...