Tale of a little fish who made Kerala Fish Bake

Let me tell you story of a little fish that went into mighty ocean without knowing how to swim and turned to the best swimmer she could be. There were better swimmers than her but she did not mind as long as she did her best.....................................................

Epilogue
Pre Blogging Era/ Pre Frozen Indian Foods Era

A long long time ago in a far a way land(10 years and India to be exact ) there was a little fish who gathered all her dreams and hopes and came to the land of unknown (USA). Little did she know how to cook, clean or manage a house but there she in JFK, a newly married woman. She was welcomed by two weird looking people AM & AR, her hubby's best friend and his cousin respectively. One was short, had a baseball cap and a weird untamed beard and the other was tall and had a long straight ponytail in back. The famished looking people in their late 20's were all excited to see her. The thought finally they could eat some good home cooked Kerala meals.
They did not suspect even for a minute that this little fish had not even boiled a cup of water before. They took her to AR apartment in NY where he had prepared Rice & Kheema with chicken pea. She was too tired and hungry that food tasted very good. Ok, AR u made good food.
Now it was her turn to call the famished young men and give them some good homely food. After week of deciding the menu, she was ready. Idiappam, Egg curry, Cabbage thoran and fried rice . "Enough" she said to herself. "I haven't cooked a single thing in my life and here I am planning to make everything in the recipe book my mom gave me". " But what the heck. I can do it" her alter ego said .

Chapter 1 - Idiappam - Steamed Rice Noodles

Boil water, add salt and rice flour. Then using a noodle press make noodles. Steam and eat. Great . What can be easier. But for some reason something happened and noodles became gooey and sticky in the process of steaming . So Idiappam .

Chapter 2 Egg curry

She put aside the disaster and started the new recipe. She followed the recipe to the dot. But the curry did not pass the taste test. Later in a conversation with her mom, she found that the coriander powder and masalas had to be sautéed well to get the raw taste out. Disaster again . But this curry was still served.

Chapter 3 Rice

She did not know how to make rice in a pressure cooker and rice turned out to be overdone but edible.

Chapter 4 Cabbage Thoran

Her mom had written beside the recipe for Cabbage thoran do not add lot of water as cabbage has water in it. She became too cautious did not add any water. What do you know the cabbage was burnt . Disaster strikes again.

Chapter 5 - Uncontrollable tears

In half a day, her ego had been crushed. She realized cooking was indeed an art. The great Mocha was defeated. Now what would she feed her guests. She felt that she failed as woman(woman knows to make good food). Her first party was a flop. What will DH cousin think about her .And what if FIL & MIL hear about the disaster. BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Chapter 6 DH to the rescue

When her DH returned from work he shocked to find here in tears. After hearing about the whole saga, he decided to make his sambhar( A debate is still going on about this . He calls it Sambhar whereas the rest of us feels it is Dhal curry).Her guests arrived . They were served the over cooked rice, burnt cabbage , sambhar & Egg. They said nothing.
After that, she was invited to their bachelor pads and given 101 cooking lesson. She vowed herself that day that she would never quit cooking or be a failure. She will be the best cook she can be . Each day she used to prepare new dishes and with passing of time, she really became a good one. Her confidence was boosted when my MIL told her mom "I never thought Mocha was such a good cook. Her food is delicious". That made my day. All my hard work had paid off. It is tough to get compliments from MILs. Today when AM visits her with his family he still says, "I will never forget your first meal and you have come so far. You food taste good. "
So if the little fish can make it all of you can. Try and never quit whether it is a lesson in cooking or in life.

The End

During the early years of experimenting in cooking I used Mrs.. BF Varghese recipe book Recipes for all occasions a lot. I had lost interest in cooking after I moved to Naples, Florida 3 years ago. Simply because I have no friends to cook for and my DH was never interested in tasting new food. Blogging has given me the second wind to cook. Now a days I flip through the pages of cookbooks and go through the recipes I have tried and liked . Kerala Fish bake is one among them . I have given the recipe 5 stars and Easy and Tasty stamp. I have made it on several occasions just because this recipe did not need much effort and it tasted good .

Ingredients
Fish - 1 Kg (2.2 Lb) (your choice. I used Tilapaia)
Turmeric powder *-1 tsp
Chilly Powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1tsp

Minced Onions - 1.5 Cups
Coconut Milk- 1 cup
Minced Tomato - 1 Cup
Minced Green Chilly - 6 dsp
Oil for frying

Method
Marinate the fish with salt , turmeric and chilly powder for 30 minutes. Shallow fry the fish.
Sauté the onions and chilies in oil.( I use the left over oil of fried fish). Before it changes color, add tomatoes. Sauté for about 10 minutes until the gravy is thick. Add the fried fish . Add in the coconut milk to evenly coat the fish masala and bake the fish at 375F for 30 minutes or till the gravy is thick.

Turmeric Powder

– Available in Indian stores
Kerala – Southern Coastal state of India

This is my entry to Teach a man to fish Event.

I have been noticing a trend of writing a lot of non veg recipes. Sorry vegeterians, I am bad in cooking vegeterian food. But will post some soon.