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CKP Surmai-सुरमई- Curry – Happy Fathers Day Baba

June 16, 2014 by manjirichitnis 16 Comments

Leaving your home country and more importantly leaving behind your near and dear ones is never easy. I sorely miss a lot of things about my life back home and one of the things I miss most is lazy Sunday afternoons at my parents place. As any typical teenager if you do move out from home during college years you would be better off dealing with moving out your parents after you get married but I never lived away from my parents and it was only after I was married that hubster and me moved into our own place, which happened to be very close to my mum’s !So most Sunday afternoons we would make our way to mum’s and Baba would be helping aai cook our favourite Sunday meal of chicken curry and rice, or sometimes when he was in a mood for seafood he would go Supekar’s fish market and queue up for fresh surmai (Marathi Surmai /सुरमई, Indo-Pacific king mackerel or popularly spotted seer fish-Scomberomorus guttatus),pomfret and my fav fresh prawns ummm!

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This recipe for Surmai/Kingfish /Mackerel curry is his favourite and I love how aai (means mother in Marathi my mother tongue)makes it so very delicious using a traditional hand me down recipe typical to the CKP community (Chandraseniya Kayastha Prabhu (CKP), is an ethno-religious community of South Asia). We call it Surmaiche Kalvan (सुर्माईचे कालवान) – Kalvan means curry in Marathi. If we were in Pune today I would most certainly have surprised Baba by cooking up a feast for him and aai. Baba this post is for you and for aai thank you for being the most parents any one could ever ask for , the best childhood ever and for believing is us ,for being the strong presence every girl wants her father to be. I love you more than words can say Baba and I miss you heaps and tons!

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Ingredients:

  • 4 medium sized surmai pieces
  • 3 large tbsp coriander – green chilli paste
  • 2 tsp  of ginger – garlic paper
  •  2  tsp Red Chilli powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp Turmeric
  • 4 cloves of garlic cloves with skin on
  • 3 tbsp grated coconut
  • A pinch of Asafoetida/Hing
  • 2 tbsp refined oil
  • Juice of 1/4th of a lime
  • Salt to taste
  • Fresh coriander a tiny palmful washed and finely chopped for garnishing.

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Method:

  • Wash the Surmai/Kingfish /Mackerel steaks and marinate the with red chilli powder, turmeric, salt, ginger- garlic paste, coriander – green chilli paste and set aside for at least 40 minutes.

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  • Heat oil in a saucepan, add a pinch of asafoetida and then add the crushed garlic cloves with their skins on and as they start to brown.
  • Add the marinated fish and toss around in the hot oil for 30 seconds
  • Add the finely grated fresh coconut, stir in enough water to ensure that the curry is the right consistency, not too thick  and cook on a low flame with lid for about under 5 minutes.
  • Fresh fish cooks very quickly, take care not to overdo it.
  • Now add salt as required bearing in mind that when the fish was marinated salt was used.
  • Squeeze the lime juice into the curry.
  • Garnish with finely chopped fresh coriander/cilantro.
  • Serve with steaming hot rice and allow yourself to enjoy this simple yet classic fish curry.

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This is another fabulous recipe that originates from the western coast of India, the Konkan coastline, dotted by beautiful coconut trees, the coastline is abundantly blessed with fresh seafood and natural scenic beauty read beautiful beaches with soft sands and plenty of sunshine. A lot of people would also add tamarind paste to the curry but we do not. Tamarind trees are also found in abundance

If you are looking for fresh Kingfish in London the best place to find it is at supermarkets like H-Mart. The Kingfish that you will get here is from the North  Atlantic waters. You can also buy Wahoo steaks from Wing Yip but the taste is not as pronounced and the flesh is not as tender, besides wahoo steaks are bigger and need more seasoning and should be consumed on the same day to enjoy flavours which are at their best in a freshly made fish curry. I’d say they taste better in a curry than fried and if you do fry them do add a large squeeze of lime after you have fired them. Since the Kingfish belongs to the Mackerel family, the mackerel will take all these marinade flavours beautifully and works well both fried and in a curry Konkani style.

My traditional CKP surmai kalvan/curry recipe works well with pomfret too.

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Filed Under: C.K.P recipes, Food, Indian, Recipe Index, seafood Tagged With: aai, authentic Indian fish curry recipe, baba, CKP, fish curry recipes India, flavours of Konkan, fresh fish recipes, fresh seafood, H-Mart, Happy Fathers Day, Indian recipes, Indo-Pacific king mackerel, Konkan coastline, Mackerel, maharashtra, maharashtrians, Marathi, mother tongue, pomfret, prawns, Scomberomorus guttatus, sliceoffme recipes, spotted seer fish, Surmai, Traditional ckp recipes, travels for taste cooks, travelsfortaste recipes, Wahoo steaks, western coast of India, Wing Yip, सुरमई Curry

Father’s Day Breakfast – Asparagus Soldiers and soft boiled eggs

June 16, 2013 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

As far back as I can recollect Sunday was my daddy’s fav day to cook, he is so good with food and flavours and is meticulous to the point to military precision, he always left the kitchen very clean and explained the health benefits of whatever he rustled up, which actually wasn’t necessary considering the food was so tempting always that my sister and I barely heard what he spoke while we stuffed our faces 😉

Even now in his 70’s he is still as enthusiastic in the kitchen and now loves cooking for my sisters kids,his family favourite dishes are biryani, chicken curry and a simple dessert made with china grass.

He used this massive skillet to make biryani’s and its gathering dust now somewhere at home. Baba – as, we call him makes the best soft boiled eggs ever and the most scrumptious omelettes and runny scrambled eggs with cheese.(I want a skillet real bad now!)

Baba , I wish you were in London with us, I would love to have made this simple breakfast for you, I love you daddy.Happy Father’s day, but then you do know that you are the nucleus of my life, don’t you?

You will need:

  • A tiny bunch of fresh asparagus
  • 2 thin strips of bacon/prosciutto
  • 2 eggs
  • sea salt to season

Preparation:

  • Boil the asparagus after you chop of the woody bit, check if they are done in about 7 minutes, drain hot water, wash in cold water for like a few secons and leave aside,covered.
  • While the asparagus is boiling ,boil the eggs in another pan, do not cover and cook them for about 4-5 minutes, drain the hot water and add cold water so that you can hold the egg easily and quickly ”behead” the eggs.
  • The beauty of a soft boiled egg is the runny interior which is prefect for dunking the asparagus soldiers into.
  • Pan fry the bacon till it’s crunchy, you can also use fine strips of prosciutto if you like
  • Wrap the crunchy bacon strips around the asparagus
  • I keep some sea salt aside to add some flavour , I love eggs so I prefer them without any salt sprinkled.

Baba makes the perfect ”quarter” boiled eggs which are runny and soft and he removes a bit of the shell and pours out the egg into a tiny bowl, it goes so well with Pohe (puffed rice used to make a tasty cooked breakfast with finely chopped onion,curry leaves , lime and tiny bite sized potatoes, garnished with finely chopped coriander) … I remember sitting around this tiny table in our first house in Bombay with my sister and Baba would give us these yummy eggs for breakfast on weekends.I love going back in time and reliving those happy days of simple family togetherness.

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Filed Under: Food, Quick and Easy, Recipe Index Tagged With: 16th, 2013, baba, better breakfast ideas, Bombay, childhood memories, children, dunk, easy recipes, father, Fathers Day, growing up, growing up happy, Happy Fathers Day, I love you daddy, India, June, kids, memories about dad, Mumbai, ready in 20 minutes, skillet, soft boiled egg and asparagus soldiers, Sunday meals, sunday mornings

Of movies and GREAT MOVIES

January 25, 2012 by manjirichitnis 6 Comments

Some movies have such an impact that they make you smile somewhere deep inside , they give us hope , that kind of hope that can stir up a twinkle in the eye of even the most deprived of souls …The Shawshank Redemption is one such movie.

I cannot fathom why I haven’t seen it for all these years …

It’s the kind of movie I would see with my Father , he loves watching war movies ,old westerns and the like .When he and my mother came to visit us last year we had a lovely few weeks together. He made a list of his all time favourite films all old English awesome one really …I would love to share that list will try and find the paper where he wrote it …

We would have an early dinner and then I would download the movie on my laptop using utorrent and my parents and me would crowd around my laptop and watch it only stop if I wanted a break in between I always do, movies make me hungry errr hungrier to be honest …am always hungry 😉 My mum doses off after the first 15 minutes and wakes up after a few more and asks why so and so did this and what is happening and then dose off blissfully again , though she’s one determined person I tell you , she wouldn’t quit halfway would sit through to the end with me and daddy.

Anyway, this ritual went on for about 15 days after which my Laptop crashed due to some bug and when it was done up again it was time for them to go , the weather had changed ,it was much colder than their old bones could handle so they would turn in earlier and stay home most day.

I do miss them, but I miss my dad the most when I see such movies. I almost imagined I was curled up next to him as I was seeing this movie. Will call him tomorrow and tell him about it, of course am sure he has seen it and will have some interesting movie facts to tell me, he always does.

The following lines are ingrained in my mind forever and ever – “Hope is a Good Thing,Maybe the BEST thing and Good Things NEVER Die” – Andy from The Shawshank Redemption.

It’s a movie that will stay with me for a long long time to come ,maybe some day I too shall sit down with my kids and share such moments ….hopefully 🙂

P.S: Baba’s List of Must watch movies , family favourites at ours and anytime watchs for a LIFETIME…

*Where Eagles Dare

*North By North West

*The Bridge on the River Kwai

*The Eagle has Landed

*The man who knew too much – who can forget Doris Day singing “Que Sera, Sera Sera (Whatever Will Be, Will Be)“

*Dial M for Murder

*Psycho

* Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid

*Mackenna’s Gold

*It Happened One Night

*The 39 Steps

* Godfather 1 &2 …. Oh Marlon Brando what he did no one ever has and no one ever can these movies and books are EPIC !

* The Day of the Jackal

*Casablanca

*Rear Window…Irony was I saw this when I was in bed nursing a broken leg 😉

*Frenzy

* One Flew over the cuckoo’s nest

Filed Under: Lifestyle, Miscellaneous Tagged With: awesome, baba, best, bliss, blogger, Butch Cassidy and teh sundance kid, Casablanca, deep, Dial M for murder, die, dinner, download, doze, english, famous, father, films, Frenzy, generation, Godfather, good, hollywood, hope, It Happened one night, laptop, love, Mackenna's Gold, movies, mum, next, north by north west, old, One flew over the cuckoo's nest, person, Psycho, Rear Window, shawshank.where eagles dare, The 39 steps, the bridge on the river kwai, The day of the Jackal, the eagle has landed, the man who knew too much, top, topmost, utorrent, viewed

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