Diet Delight ( series - 1)

DIET DELIGHT ( Series – 1)

My father was a heart patient ( passed away recently ). He was a very simple, honest person, without any costly habits or other obsessions. Perhaps the only thing he relished was food – but as a heart patient, he had to keep away from too oily or rich spicy food during the last four years after he got the heart attack. So , during the last couple of years, when he used to stay with us, I was trying out various recipes – without oil altogether, or very little oil and masala .

Actually, I never think that only richly cooked dishes are usually delicious !! But somehow, we Indians usually market only our spicy dishes to the world ? Do n’t we –in every nook and corner of India – cook nice simple stuff as our daily food ? I swear - there are so many ways to cook simple dishes – without much oil or spices – yet very tasty & healthy . Giving below a few of them . Do try out …

GINGERY FISH

Nothing fishie about it …. , no onion or other spices, no excess oil , no elaborate process of cooking . Just try it out . I will give credit for this to my Aunt “ Baby Maain “ ( wife of my maternal uncle , who is a really terrific cook !!) . I have made some changes to the original recipe in my own way .

For 4 pieces of fish, take about one & half inch piece of ginger, ½ of a small green chilly ( or else, it will be too hot ) and one medium sized tomato - grind all together with a bit of water in a mixie.

Sprinkle salt & turmeric powder over fish pieces, mix well and fry in oil. Keep aside. Heat the remaining oil, add fenugreek seeds ( only ! ) for seasoning ( about ¼ teaspoonful) – add haldi ( turmeric powder) , salt to taste, bit of red chilly powder.

- add the fried fish pieces - just toss a little and add the paste with water generously and after bringing it to a boil , leave it covered on low fire for quite sometime – about 15 mins , so that the jhola( gravy) does not taste watery although it remains very thin.

Tastes lovely with that great flavour of ginger . Goes well with plain rice .

The original recipe had only ginger for paste without tomato/chilly and there was not much gravy– just enough to leave the fishes with a little bit of gravy for rolly-polly . I had done this way the first time , and it was nice . But as we like a bit of watery gravy with tinge of sourness , I modified it a bit and l.o.o., behold – it became a big favourite of my father and daughters !! You may like it the rolly-polly type with just a bit of gravy .

I will continue posting more simple recipes in days to come - both veg & non-veg – as we cook ; original and/or improvised . Bye for now .