Travels for Taste

Tales of travel and food with a touch of spice

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Homemade Spice Rub

June 16, 2016 by manjirichitnis Leave a Comment

Spice rub for everything from Vegetables to meat and seafood

Elevate the taste profile of your grilled or roast vegetables ( or seafood or meat) with this delicious homemade spice rub.

Now I have tried this spice mix on broccoli, kale, and roast potatoes and it always works wonders. But we have loved it most with fish. Grilled, BBQ’ed, fried, steamed, or baked – we love eating fish in our house and I have created my own recipe for an Indian spice rub. I used this on haddock fillets on the BBQ this Sunday and the result was very satisfying. Even with frozen fish fillets straight out of the freezer onto the hot grill, the spice mix hit all the right notes.

Spices - fragrant, warm and fresh

It was incredibly easy to create this spice rub at home using my Optimum G.21 Platinum blender, the panel has six pre-programmed functions which are a real no brainer and one of those functions is ‘Grind’. I try and use my Froothie blender as much as possible and not just for my morning smoothies, it has just made my life that much simpler!

Homemade Spice Rub

Manjiri Chitnis
Homemade spice rub – Versatilespice mix works perfectly well for vegetables like cauliflower, mushrooms,potatoes. Great with chicken chicken , lamb and seafood especially for fishsteaks and prawns
Print Recipe
Prep Time 2 mins
Total Time 2 mins
Course Side Dish
Cuisine Indian
Servings 2 people

Equipment

  • High-speed blender

Ingredients
  

  • 1/4 tsp Peppercorns
  • 2 Cloves
  • 1 Dry Kashmiri Red Chilli
  • 1 Badi Elaichi or black cardamom
  • 3 Green cardamom – without the outer green pod
  • 2 cloves Garlic peeled
  • Cinnamon stick – roughly the length of the tip of your thumb
  • 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
  • 2 tsp Cumin/ jeera
  • 1 tsp Amchoor powder / dried mango powder
  • 1 tbsp Kasoori methi
  • 1 Heaped tbsp fried onion
  • 1 tbsp Coriander seeds lightly roasted on a pan
  • 1 Whole round Red Chilli
  • 1/2 tsp Himalayan pink salt
  • a tiny pinch of Asafoetida

Instructions
 

  • Add all ingredients into a grinder and blend till you get a grainy consistency
  • Do not grind to a very smooth paste because the texture this consistency will lend to the fish, will hit the right spot on your palate. A finer texture I think would work better for meat
  • Though this spice rub is suitable for freezing, since it contains garlic and fried onion, I would not advise keeping in the freezer for over 10-15 days
  • If you make a small batch and little remains, try adding into your curry for a lift in flavour
  • If you do not deal well with spicy red chilli flavours, then rule out the whole round red chilli completely and instead add a small pinch of paprika just for a hint of flavour
Keyword Spice mix

Homemade spice rub for grilling vegetables, meat, and seafood

These quantities yield enough spice mix for 2 medium-sized fillets with a little leftover. If you want to use it for 4 or 6 fillets simply double the quantities.

Fresh spices

Why not try my recipes for Tandoori spiced grilled Lobster tails and Haddock fillets with this spice rub?

Homemade spice rub

*This post has affiliate links.

Filed Under: Featured Food and Drink, Food, Indian, Recipe Index, seafood Tagged With: cardamom pods, cinnamon, cloves, coriander seeds, cumin, dried red kashmir chillies, fried onion, garlic, Homemade Spice Rub, kasoori methi, recipe development, red chilli, special spice rub for sea food, travels for taste recipe development

A slice of Costa Rica – Casado

September 10, 2015 by manjirichitnis 2 Comments

With summer firmly on it’s way out and Autumn settling in, the chilly nights demand some great comfort food. I wanted to try something different so I choose a popular Costa Rican dish – Casado. Why? Well, it’s the ideal comfort food, easy to put together and tastes amazing! Best part is it’s very easy on the pocket and if you plate it well, it looks like a posh meal – no one would guess what went into making it!

Costa Rican Casado

Costa Rican Casado

Casado literally means a ‘married man’ and it is said that the name probably originates from how the local men expected food to be served when they were eating outside so that it reminded them of familiar tastes of a home cooked meal. An authentic Casado which is served at ‘sodas’ or local cafes is accompanied by what is known as a Lizano sauce. The brand name Lizano is now generic and retails in N. America.  Since this sauce is yet to hit UK shores ( believe me I did a fair bit of looking around in shops that sell Mexican ingredients, Asian, Carribean and most of my local supermarkets) I finally decided to make my own ,which was a great decision – why ? Well scope to experiment and innovate for one, coupled with freedom to incorporate easy to procure, local ingredients – resulting in a deliciously moorish creation! A traditional root vegetables dish from Costa Rico called Picadillo is a popular side dish with rice and tortillas. You can safely say that the gravy sauce is a marriage of sorts between the Lizano sauce and the Picadillo. I have done a fair amount of customisation and the most interesting part of cooking Casado was creating the gravy sauce, combining it with root vegetables and serving it as a wholesome gravy side dish. Let’s get started with the sauce aka gravy as this will take the most time to cook of all the other sides.

Costa Rican Casado

Costa Rican Casado

Recipe is good for 2 with generous helpings.

Root Vegetable Gravy Side

Prep & Cooking Time: 35 mins

Ingredients:

  • 1 medium juicy tomato – finely chopped
  • 2 small red onions finely chopped
  • 3 medium carrots chopped into tiny cubes
  • 3 small sweet fresh peppers finely chopped
  • A handful of cauliflower florets
  • A handful of very finely chopped sweet potato
  • 1 heaped tbsp of finely grated celeriac
  • A pinch of garlic puree
  • Half a dry red Kashmiri chilli
  • ½ tsp of thick tamarind puree
  • 2-3 bay leaves
  • 1 tsp dried red chilli flakes
  • 2 tsp freshly grated black pepper
  •  1/2 tsp sugar
  • ½ tsp turmeric
  • ½ tsp roasted cumin powder
  • 2 tbsp Oil
  • Salt as per taste
  • A handful of finely chopped coriander

Method:

  1. In a large saucepan, heat oil and add the chopped onions, add the garlic puree and cumin powder and stir well.
  2. When the onion starts to reduce add the bay leaves, the chopped tomato and chopped sweet peppers, stir the the tomato & peppers around vigorously bit to get them to release their juices and reduce the flame to a minimum.
  3. Throw in the finely chopped carrot cubes, sweet potato, grated celeriac, tomato puree and add enough water to cover this mixture.
  4. Cook with lid on till the sweet potato and carrots begin to soften, then it’s time to toss in the cauliflower florets, season with the dry red chilli,tamarind,cracked black pepper, salt and sugar and give it a good stir.
  5. Let this cook on a low flame with lid for about 25 minutes.
  6. Keep opening the lid, stirring and adjusting the water if it becomes to run dry, we need a gravy like consistency.
  7. When it done, add some finely chopped coriander in the tamarind should give it a bit of tangy twist, while the dried Kashmiri chilli gives it colour and mild heat, the sweet pepper and tomato puree work their magic together and the gravy is delicious and wholesome what with so many veggies hidden inside!

Root Vegetable Gravy Sauce

Red Kidney bean side

Prep and Cooking Time: 15 min

Ingredients:

  • 1 can of red kidney beans
  • 1 medium sized red onion
  • 2 large tbsp tomato puree
  • 1 tsp garlic puree
  • 1 tsp red chilli flakes
  • Salt to taste

Method:

  1. In a large saucepan, heat oil and sauté the chopped onions, add the garlic puree and stir well.
  2. After the onion has sautéed, add the tomato puree and stir then add the beans and mix well.

Red onions for Kidney Beans

Red onions for Kidney Beans

  1. Add some water to the mixture and reduce the flame to a minimum, cook with a lid on but check often so that it does not burn or run dry.
  2. 4.Since the canned and ready to eat red kidney beans are preserved in salty water, check the taste before adding in any more salt, chuck in some dry red chilli flakes for flavour and set aside.

Red Kidney Bean side is done

Red Kidney Bean side is done

Boiled white rice

  • Cook 1 cup rice using exactly double the water and a pinch of salt

Fried Plantain

  • Peel and chop the plantain into large chunks and fry in hot oil in a kadhai or wok until they are a light brown. It’s easy for them to char so get them out as soon as the colour turns a golden shade of brown, allow to cool on a plate on a bit of kitchen roll to soak excess oil.

Plaintains peeled

  • Don’t fret if like me you can’t peel the plantain I simply use a knife and remove the thick green skin, even if that means that the plantain pieces are hexagonal or cubes now, well I never was too good at geometry 😉

Frying Plantains in Kadhai

Fish

  • Casado can be served with meat, fish or chicken. Chop one large fillet of fresh salmon and pan fry both sides till done in about 1 tbsp oil.

Salmon Pan Shallow Fry

Cheese Tortilla

  • Heat a large flour tortilla –shop bought on a pan and adds a generous helping of grated parmesan cheese on tortilla. Just as the tortilla heats up and the cheese shows sign of melting fold the tortilla in half and flip over and toast each side till you have a crispy yum cheesy tortilla, slice into neat triangles ready to be served.

Tortilla on pan with grated cheddar

Cabbage Salad

  • Chop a fresh cabbage fine to get one large handful of cabbage, add half a red onion and a small handful of finely chopped cucumber, squeeze half a lime, sprinkle some cracked black pepper, a small amount of fresh finely chopped coriander and toss all these together. Easy-peasy right?

Folded Tortilla

Serve the steaming hot rice with the salmon on the side, topped with some of the root vegetable gravy. Mop up the beans with the cheesy tortilla and munch on the sweet fried plantain with generous bites of the tangy cabbage salad in between mouthfuls of everything else.

Costa Rican Casado

Costa Rican Casado

Filed Under: Featured Food and Drink, Food, Product Reviews, Rest of the World, seafood, Travel Tagged With: cabbage salad, casado, cheese tortilla, costa rican recipe, dishes from around the world, fish, foodblogger, Fried Plantain, recipe development, recipes, recipes from around the world, red kidney beans, travels for taste, travels for taste is a food and travel blog based in London, travels for taste recipe development, travelsfortaste, travelsfortaste blog, travelsfortaste food blog

Tikka Masala curry paste

July 3, 2015 by manjirichitnis 1 Comment

Chicken Tikka Masala is the poster child for British Indian cuisine and definitely tops the list of the nation’s favourite curry. CTM as it is popularly known as is also the top choice for a Friday Night takeaway when ordering in Indian food.

Like any good curry, it’s best to use a homemade marinade, so if you can spare some time, it’s best to make your own tikka curry paste. I made mine and here is a simple recipe that you can use. The quantity is enough to marinade 1 kilo of skinless, boneless chicken breast pieces. I used 5000 gm of chicken for my CTM so the rest is in my freezer and can continue to live there for at least 2 months – I don’t think it will though because am sure the craving for a curry can strike sooner rather than later. Actually the tikka paste can be used as a starter marinade for grilled chicken kebabs as that is what is the basis of a good CTM. Or can be used for marinating even meat or fish to grill or as part of a curry dish.

Tikka Masala curry paste

Manjiri Chitnis
Print Recipe
Course Ingredient
Cuisine Indian

Ingredients
  

  • 2 tsp oil
  • 1 bay leaf
  • Half a red chilli de-seeded
  • 2 medium-sized Kashmiri chillies
  • 2 heaped tsp ginger garlic paste
  • 2 heaped tbsp garam masala
  • 1 tbsp coriander and green chilli puree
  • 1 tsp turmeric
  • 1 tsp roasted cumin powder
  • 1 tsp roasted coriander seeds powder
  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
  • Salt as per taste

Instructions
 

  • In a small saucepan heat the oil
  • Reduce the flame to a minimum then add the bay leaf and the dried red Kashmiri chillies, which add flavour and colour and not heat.
  • Then add in the ginger-garlic paste. Stir for 30 seconds before adding in the garam masala, that will allow the ginger garlic paste to mix well with the hot oil but prevent it from drying up the oil.
  • Once the garam masala is mixed well with the paste and the oil add the screaming dry spices and mix well. Allow to cook on a very low flame for under a minute and then add the coriander and green chilli puree. (Again, I make my own puree – simply spitz 2 large bunches of fresh coriander leaves with two small Indian green chillies, add some water in a small food processor to make a thick puree. This can be frozen and used for many curries and sabzi’s or bhajee’s as we call them in Marathi. I store mine for upto 3 weeks)
  • The smoked paprika will work with the chicken while making the curry and impart a fabulous smoky flavour that is hard to miss.
  • Allow the paste to cook for about 2 minutes, stirring occasionally to ensure it does not burn or become too dry.
  • The water content in the coriander and green chilli mixture will totally dry out and you will be left with a dark reddish-brown paste

Looking for an easy yet delicious Chicken Tikka Masala recipe to make at home? Try my super-easy Air-Fryer Fakeaway version here and let me know what you think of it in the comments below!

Tikka Masala Paste
Tikka Masala Paste

Like any marinade, there are many things that been added or omitted according to one’s preferences. For example, the red chilli can be eliminated to reduce the heat. A small pinch of sugar can be added to balance out the green chilli too. Also, a small amount of water can be sprinkled to give the paste a more fluid consistency if required.
I use the dried Kashmiri chillies and the bay leaf later in the curry base and did not purree the tikka paste further. Why?  Because the garam masala already contains both these spices. After marinating the chicken with the paste, the same Kashmiri chilli and the bay leaf can be added to the hot oil, to impart fragrance and colour.

Tikka Masala Paste
Tikka Masala Paste

Did you follow my recipe? Please let me know in comments, I love reading your comments and feedback.

Snap a picture of your creations and use the hashtag #travelsfortasteblogrecipe and share it to Twitter, Instagram and Facebook and I will re-post it.

Filed Under: Curry - Meat, Seafood, Food, Indian, Recipe Index Tagged With: British Indian cuisine, easy Indian recipes, gadget reviews by travels for taste, home made Tikka Masala curry paste recipe, In the kitchen with travelsfortaste, Manjiri's easy Indian recipes, recipe developer, recipe development, Tikka Masala curry paste, Tikka Masala curry paste recipe, travels for taste, travels for taste is a food and travel blog based in London, travels for taste recipe development

Roasted mini Romanesque cauliflower with dukkah yoghurt dip

May 25, 2015 by manjirichitnis 16 Comments

I do hope some of you may recollect me mentioning that Cauliflower is one of my beloved vegetables, and after I found mini cauliflower and mini Romanesque cauliflowers it was love at first sight, in my mind, they run rings around even the baby courgettes and baby leeks! I mean they look like beautiful little green diamonds, such a beautiful shape, almost too pretty to be eaten!

Mini Cauliflower and Romasque  Cauliflowers

Mini Cauliflower and Romanesque Cauliflowers

I just had to bring these beauties home and rustle up something tasty and easy with them. I have written earlier about the many health benefits of cauliflowers and how they are an aid to weight loss. But here are some fun facts for you:

Every 100gm of cauliflower i.e 1 cup has:

  • 25 calories
  • Total Carbs only 5 grams
  • Total Fat 0.1 grams
  • Vitamin C – 77%
  • Vitamin K – 20%

I have been obsessing with the idea of whole roasted Cauliflower and today I was craving something different for tea. I did not want to load on excess and unwanted calories and wasn’t interested in deep-fried stuff at all.

So I tweaked the original recipe and used fragrant baharat, a fabulous Middle Eastern with dried rose petals and hints of smoked paprika for a kick and roasted cumin. This simple snack makes for a perfect tea time treat especially if like me you are craving cauliflower bhajji/fritters ( bhajji in Marathi is a deep-fried vegetable fritter coated in spiced besan ie. chickpea flour)

I decided to dry roast two cauliflowers and coat two on the four mini cauliflowers just to see how the taste varies when coated with a greek yoghurt marinade.

Ingredients

  • 2 baby cauliflowers
  • 2 baby Romanesco broccoli or the Romanesque cauliflower
  • 3 large heaped tablespoons Greek yoghurt
  • 3.5 tsp baharat
  • 2 tsp dukkah

Method

  • In a small bowl add 2 tbsp Greek yoghurt and add and mix well 2 tsp baharat
  • Pick one each of the baby cauliflower and the baby Romanesco broccoli or the Romanesque cauliflower and coat it completely with the seasoned yoghurt marinade.
  • Place them onto a baking tray.
  • Then take the remaining baharat in another dry small bowl and coat the other 2 cauliflowers thoroughly.

Mini Cauliflower and Romasque  Cauliflowers marinated

Mini Cauliflower and Romanesque Cauliflowers marinated

  • Bake in a preheated oven for  20 minutes at 180° C
  • Make a quick dip with the remaining yoghurt topped with dukkah

Mini Roasted Cauliflower with a Dukkah dip

Mini Roasted Cauliflower with a Dukkah dip

  • Serve with hot Turkish tea for a Mediterranean Treat.

Mini Roasted Cauliflower with a Dukkah dip

Mini Roasted Cauliflower with a Dukkah dip

Filed Under: Food, Recipe Index, Vegetarian Tagged With: baharat, dried rose petals, dukkah, gadget reviews by travels for taste, Greek yoghurt, Mini Cauliflower and Romasque Cauliflowers marinated, recipe, recipe developer, recipe development, roasted cumin, Roasted mini Romanesque cauliflower with dukkah yoghurt dip, Romanesco broccoli, Romanesque cauliflower, smoked paprika, travels for taste, travels for taste is a food and travel blog based in London, travels for taste recipe development

Whole Sea Bass steamed with a Rainbow side salad

May 1, 2015 by manjirichitnis 16 Comments

A delicious and healthy steamed fish recipe perfect for stay in #FishFriday night dinner or a lovely brunch on a lazy afternoon. The accompanying salad is colourful and full of fresh veggies that’s why I choose to call it a Rainbow Salad.

Serves: 2

Ingredients:

  • 1 large sea bass scaled and gutted
  • 1 large lemon
  • 2 sprigs of Rosemary
  • Thyme
  • Chives
  • Garlic sea salt
  • Red Chilli powder

Whole Sea Bass

For the steamed veggies on the side

  • 2 small carrots per person
  • Handful of green peas person

For the Rainbow Side Salad

Ingredients:

  • 1 fresh pepper (capsicum)
  • 1 small red onion
  • 1/2 a courgette
  • 1 tomato
  • 1 tbsp Red wine Vinegar
  • 2 tbsp chopped parsley
  • Freshly cracked black pepper
  • Sea salt
  • Olive Oil

Beautiful whole Sea Bass seasoned

Method:

To steam the fish

  • Pre-heat the oven to 200 °C 
  • Wash the fish and place on the foil.
  • Stuff the lemon wedges inside the fish along with the Chives, rosemary and thyme.
  • Sprinkle generously with sea salt, red chilli powder and a drizzle of olive oil
  • Wrap the fish in the foil parcel and cook in the oven until it has cooked through, should take about 20-25 minutes.
  • Steam the veggies in a steamer.

To make the Rainbow Salad:

  • Chop all the vegetables into tiny bite sized cubes.
  • Place chopped veggies in a large bowl and drizzle olive oil and add the red wine vinegar.
  • Season well with sea salt and add a generous sprinkle of freshly cracked black pepper.
  • Mix well

To Serve

  • Plate a portion of the fish and serve the steamed carrots and peas on the side.
  • Serve a generous helping of the crunchy veggies salad.

Whole steamed sea bass with a Rainbow salad

Here is another recipe to try if you are cooking sea bass:

  • Fennel and Pancetta Baked Sea Bass from Anne’s Kitchen

Filed Under: Food, Recipe Index, seafood Tagged With: carrots green peas, Chives, courgettes, Freshly cracked black pepper, garlic sea salt, lemon, olive oil, parsley, pepper, recipe developer, recipe development, red chilli powder, red onion, red wine vinegar, rosemary, Thyme, tomato, travels for taste, travels for taste is a food and travel blog based in London, travels for taste recipe development

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