Baked Lemon Sole with Spring Onions and Cherry Tomatoes

This absolutely beautiful baked lemon sole with spring onions and cherry tomatoes is a must-try recipe which I highly recommend. I adapted it from Jamie Oliver and it turned out succulent, light and packed with flavour. While the recipe doesn't call for it, I marinated the fish fillets (the original recipe was for whole fish) in a mixture of lemon juice, fresh coriander, green chillies, ginger and garlic pounded together - somewhat similar to this recipe I made earlier. I served the fish over some stir fried chill garlic noodles - awesome! This gorgeous beetroot apple salad on the side and the meal was complete.

We liked it so much, that I repeated the menu for my birthday dinner - replacing the noodles with a baked rice which also went very well with it. The best part about this recipe is that it doesn't take any time at all - apart from the marination, the actual cooking takes about 15 minutes. If you like your fish to have those nice grill marks, you could grill it on a hot griddle for about 5 minutes and then bake it in the oven for the remaining 10 minutes.

Feel free to experiment with other kinds of fish like sear if you prefer; also, you can substitute the cherry tomatoes with chopped tomatoes.

Baked Lemon Sole with Spring Onions and Cherry Tomatoes
(adapted from Jamie Oliver)

Ingredients:

Sole fillets, cleaned - 1 kg (about 6 pieces)
Marinade: Pound together
1 cup coriander leaves, cleaned and washed
1 tbsp lemon juice
3 green chillies, chopped roughly
1" piece of ginger chopped
5-6 garlic cloves
Olive oil - 1 tsp
salt to taste

Marinate the fillets in the above pounded mixture for about an hour.

Cherry tomatoes - 1 cup, halved
garlic
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
6-8 spring onions, finely sliced (reserve about 1/2 greens chopped)
1 tbsp dried oregano
Red wine vinegar - 1 tbsp
2 lemons - grated zest and juice
1/4 cup black olives, chopped
1/2 cup coriander leaves, chopped
4 olive oil
salt to taste
freshly crushed black pepper - 1 tbsp

1.In a bowl add the cherry tomatoes, sliced garlic, oregano, spring onions, vinegar, salt, pepper, 2tbsp olive oil and the zest and juice of 1 lemon to it.
2. Mix well and spread over the bottom of a large baking dish or tray.
3. Place the marinated fish fillets on top of the spring onion mixture. Preheat the oven to 200ºC.
4. Now add the olives, chopped coriander, juice and zest of the second lemon to the bowl that the tomatoes were in. Add the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil and then divide this mixture between the fish, placing an equal amount on top of each filler.
5. Cook in the preheated oven for 12 to 15 minutes. You can grill the fish briefly on a griddle before baking it.

Thai Noodle Soup

I thought I was more or less done with soups once the dog days of summer began. But surprise, surprise! summer this year was much kinder than it usually is. We had lots of showers and cloudy days, cool evenings with a light breeze, balmy mornings with a hint of rain. Perfect weather for soup!

Lisa and Holler's blog event No Croutons Required is a perfect place to look for some great soups; check out the round ups here, here and here for some fabulous ideas.

I did, and came across this delicious soup posted by Pixie of You Say Tomato....which is actually a One pot meal in itself.

A few variations to the original recipe and I had a delicious meal in a bowl! The flavours of coconut milk, the vegetables, peanut made it so appetising and the best part of the whole meal was the lemon leaf my friend gave me; its called Gandhraj (Gondraaj by the Bongs!) and is comparable to the Kaffir lime leaves in flavour - just one leaf lent an incredible aroma to this dish.

Thai Noodle Soup goes to this month's edition of A Fruit A Month (AFAM) which is being hosted by Suganya of Tasty Palettes. June's chosen fruit is the Coconut and the originator of this event is Maheswari of Beyond the Usual.

Thai Noodle Soup

100gm Rice noodles halved
4 babycorn sliced lengthwise
1 carrot sliced thin
5 spring onions sliced thinly, greens chopped fine
1/4 cup mixed sprouts

1 tsp oil
2 dried red chillies
Half a coconut grated
2 cloves garlic crushed
1 tbsp peanut butter
1 tsp haldi (turmeric powder)
1 tsp chilli powder
4 cups vegetable stock
juice from one lime
1 or 2 Gandhraj lemon leaves (I keep these frozen and they keep very well)
handful of chopped coriander leaves

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy bottomed pan.
2. Add the dried red chillies and the garlic and saute for half a minute.
3. Put in the sliced spring onions and saute for 2 minutes.
4. In the meantime, add one cup of warm water to the grated coconut and blend in the mixie. Remove from blender and strain well to extract the coconut milk. This is the first extract and is thick.
Add one and a half cups of warm water and return the strained coconut gratings to the blender and run it one more time. Run it through the blender again to get the second extract which will be much thinner.
5. Add the second extract of coconut milk, peanut butter, chilli powder, vegetable stock, babycorn, sprouts, carrots and salt and bring to a boil.
6. Reduce flame and simmer for about 10 minutes till the vegetables are cooked.
7. Add the first extract of coconut milk and the noodles and simmer on a low flame for another 3-4 minutes, then add the lemon juice and Gondhraj lemon leaves and cover tightly and leave for about 5 more minutes till the noodles are cooked through.
8. Garnish with chopped coriander leaves and spring onion greens. Serve warm.

Babycorn, Cherry Tomatoes & Sprouts Salad with Feta Cheese

This is a beautiful salad - winter fresh veggies and lightly steamed sprouts drizzled with a light salad dressing bursting with the tanginess of lime; its piquant flavour balanced with crumbly salty feta cheese and crunchy lettuce.

Delightfully light and yet so satisfying that you can make it your meal - my friend almost did and I had to steer him gently to the rest of the dishes on the table!

One forkful says it all - no stories needed.

This salad made so flavourful with a simple lime juice dressing goes to Jihva for Ingredients - Lime/Lemon being hosted at The Spice Cafe this month; the event itself is the brainchild of Indira of Mahanandi and while I have been following it for a long time now, this is the first time I am contributing.

Babycorn, Cherry Tomatoes & Sprouts Salad with Feta Cheese

Babycorn - 6-8
Cherry tomatoes - 100gms
Mixed bean sprouts - 100 gms
Coriander leaves - handful
Iceberg Lettuce - 3-4 leaves
Spring onions - 3-4 (not the greens)
Feta cheese - 4-5 tablespoons - crumbled or diced into small pieces

Dressing:
Juice of one small lime
Red wine vinegar - 1 tablespoon
Olive oil - 2 tablespoon
Salt
Freshly crushed black pepper


1. Wash the babycorn and cut lengthwise into halves. Rinse the sprouts.
2. Boil salted water in a large vessel and add the babycorn and sprouts to it. Turn off the gas after a minute and keep covered for another 3 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, wash and halve the cherry tomatoes. Slice the spring onions thinly.Wash the coriander leaves and lettuce thoroughly, drain water and keep aside. Crumble or dice the feta cheese.
4. Combine dressing ingredients, mixing them together briskly.
5. Drain the babycorn and sprouts;keep aside till cool.
6. Take a salad bowl and put in the babycorn, tomatoes, sprouts and onions, tear the lettuce into bite sized pieces and add it along with the whole coriander leaves - then toss in the feta cheese.
7. Pour in the salad dressing a little at a time and gently toss till well combined.

Chicken and Red Pepper Crustless Pie

When I saw this recipe for savoury muffins on Jugalbandi I knew I just had to try it out! The roasted peppers sounded like they would taste amazingly delicious along with the goat’s cheese. We had invited some new friends home for dinner – the first we were having after moving here – so I decided to make this as an appetizer.

The only thing was that, on the menu I had in mind, there was already a vegetarian appetizer and I needed one with chicken in it. So I decided to adapt the recipe and incorporate chicken into it. I also didn’t end up getting either feta or goat’s cheese in this village….err city…..so I had to settle for cream cheese. I don’t want to hear anything more said about Chennai being a small town – even the next door Nilgiri’s there used to stock imported cheese! I take back all my petty rants Nilgiri!

Then I decided that since there were other things I had to bake in the oven or grill, I didn’t want to spend time fiddling with individual muffins so I baked this as a sort of pie/quiche, without a crust – don’t know whether there is an actual name for this (Pudding? Tortilla?), so will call it a Crustless pie for now!.

I cut down on the cheese because of the additional chicken added to this recipe and increased the other proportions to serve about 10 people.

I roasted one red pepper in my oven, but found it annoying to keep opening the oven to turn them, so ended up roasting the others on the gas flame with a pair of tongs till black on all sides, wrapping them in foil tightly for 10 minutes and then peeling them. That worked fine for me.

So, this is my version of Jai & Bee’s wonderful creation, many thanks to them for inspiring me to bake this. The roasted red peppers were indeed a fabulous idea and gave it a lovely flavor, the pie itself was moist and fluffy; I served it with a hung curd dip.

Chicken and Roasted Red Pepper Pie
Ingredients:

Wheat flour (atta) - 3 1/2 cups
Egg whites - 6
Milk - 1 ¼ to 1 ½ cups
Boneless chicken cut into strips – 250gm
Baking powder – 2 ¼ tsp
Baking soda – 1 ¼ tsp
Mixed dried herbs – 2 tsp
Salt – ¾ tsp
Garlic cloves minced – 3
Roasted red peppers peeled and chopped – 2 cups (about 3 large peppers)
Cream cheese – 150gms
Olive oil – 4 ½ tbsp
Ajwain – ½ tsp
Chilli powder – 1 tsp
Crushed black pepper – 1-2 tbsp
Spring onions, fully chopped – 1 ½ cups separated into green and white part

1. Preheat oven to 180 C. Grease a large shallow pie plate or an oven proof glass platter with a depth of about 3-5 inches.
2. Heat 3 tbsp of oil in a non stick pan, add the ajwain and when it changes colour, add the garlic and the spring onions (only whites) and sauté for 5 minutes.
3. Add boneless chicken pieces and cook on high till it turns white (approx 5 minutes) and then cook on low for 2 minutes more, adding a splash of water if needed.
3. Remove the mixture from the pan and cool.
4. Beat eggs well; add the remaining 1½ tbsp oil, 1 cup milk and green part of the spring onions.
5. Add wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, dried herbs, salt, crushed black pepper and chilli powder. Mix gently till smooth and add a little more milk if needed.
6. Add the chopped roasted red peppers and cream cheese.
7. Pour into the greased pie plate or a glass platter and bake at 180 C for 40-45 minutes. Test to see if a skewer comes out clean, cool.
8. Cut into wedges and serve warm or cold.

Salsa

I discovered the magic of Salsa in Chennai of all the places - in the one and only Tex Mex restaurant it has, courtesy the restaurateur Mahadevan. This former professor turned entrepreneur is credited with introducing global cuisine to Chennai in the 90’s when not many people ate out in the first place, let alone try new cuisines.

And almost every one of his restaurants turned out to be a huge success. Including Don Pepe’s Tex Mex which is located on R K Salai (Cathedral Road) surrounded by his other success stories – Hot Breads ( a bakery chain ) and Zara’s - a Spanish Tapas bar which has the distinction of serving up some delicious Tapas style snacks as well as being the only stand alone pub in Chennai worth it’s Tequila.

Well, it’s not strictly a stand alone pub I guess, since it is technically part of a hotel; which it has to be, due to some archaic rules framed to protect us innocent people from being corrupted - which we would if there were pubs dotting the horizon. But if they are tucked inside hotels which are either too shady or too expensive, than we will escape the lure of alcohol and our morality will remain intact. It’s for our own good.
Of course, I’m not sure about the people who consume 19.3 % of 119 million cases of spirits and 9% of 93 million cases of beer each year in Tamil Nadu (info from here) – couldn’t be us you know, since there aren’t any pubs around! Must be those immoral out-of-towners.

On to the salsa at Don Pepe’s – S and I used to shamelessly polish off almost the whole complimentary bowl even before the appetizers arrived! And then ask for refills for the main course. It used to be juicy, freshly made and absolutely delicious. Oh, how I miss that place after moving to Delhi…….
The bottled ones are mostly a vinegary, pureed concoction with more ketchup than tomato in them and hardly fresh. When we bought a packet of taco chips recently, I decided to make my own salsa. I’m so glad we didn’t get the bottled stuff that day in the convenience store, making this fresh was so worth it!

Note:
To the recipe below I also added one roasted red capsicum diced, which I had left over from another recipe and it took the salsa to a whole new level.

I also zapped the diced green pepper in the microwave with a tbsp of water for about a minute just to soften it since I don’t like it too raw.

Some recipes call for the salsa to be pulsed a couple of times in the processor till chunky, but I like it unprocessed.


Salsa


Ingredients:

Tomatoes – 4-5 firm, deseeded and diced (2 cups)
Sweet Corn kernels – ½ cup
Garlic – 2 tbsp minced
Jalapeño peppers – 2 deseeded and chopped

(I substituted with green chillies). You can also have a combination of Jalapeno/chipotle/habanero peppers depending on the heat level you want.

Spring Onions – white part alone, 1 cup chopped fine
Green Pepper – 1 small diced
Cumin powder – 1 tsp
Lemon juice – 2 tbsp
Olive oil – 1 tbsp
Coriander leaves – 1 cup chopped
Dried Oregano / Mixed dried herbs - 1 tbsp
Tabasco sauce – 1 tsp (optional)
Salt and pepper – to taste

Method:
1. Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Mix together and check seasoning and adjust spice.
2. Let rest for about 10-15 minutes till the flavours mingle and serve with taco chips or nachos. Or on the side with Burritos/Quesadillas/Chimichangas.