Rima's 18th birthday party on 23 April 2010

Was asked if I would bake some cupcakes for Rima's 18th birthday party - similar to what I made for elder daughter's birthday way back in September 2009!! Last time the cakes were made for said daughter's party, there were plenty of little helping hands in the form of two daughters and two nieces and I did not realise how long it takes to decorate so many cakes. Five year old and eight year old fingers are terrific for the tiny decorations but this time I had to do it all by myself :O Nevertheless, 120 cupcakes in five flavours were baked in batches of twenty four.

the five flavours of the cupcakes were :

vanilla

chocolate with dark chocolate chips

coconut and cherry

pistachio and rosewater

apple with pecan nuts

I used a basic recipe for 24 cupcakes :

250 grams salted butter

250 grams self raising flour

250 grams caster sugar infused with vanilla pods

4 large eggs

4 tbsp milk

vanilla essence

Simply replaced 4 tbsp of flour with 4 tbsp of cocoa powder for the chocolate cupcakes, 100 grams of flour for 100 grams of dessicated coconut with a large handful or two of chopped glace cherries for the coconut and cherry, 100 grams of flour for 100 grams of freshly ground pistachios and the milk with rosewater for the pistachio and rosewater cupakes, and for the apple ones, just grated two large apples (Pink Lady apples because those were in the fruit bowl) and added about 100 grams of pecan nuts and subtracted the milk as the apples lent the moistness. Delicious!!!

During the evening, many little kids, and big ones too, were eyeing the cupcakes and quite a few vanished. So by the time the party finished and party bags were made and filled, the number of cupcakes too were reduced in number.

Do not possess a cupcake stand. So I guess my next 'investment' should be in a cupcake stand. Will be baking again next weekend for my nephew Sami's birthday. Different flavours as Sami loves chocolate cake and I am going to try out some cakes with my rather expensive and spur of the moment purchase of genuine green tea in Poitiers last summer (10 grams for 40 euros!!) in a fabulous tea shop. Sami is a staunch supporter of Arsenal football club at the age of six - father's influence. So red and white decorations will be the order of the day.

Bihu dinner with Gogoi family on 16 April 2010

Rongali Bihu, the Assamese festival in spring - and in a tiny village in North Yorkshire, the festive season was to be celebrated with family and friends. Elder daughter BG was home for the Easter holidays and the menu was designed around what she wanted to eat - she misses home cooking even though Trinity College, Oxford serves fabulous meals and Monday steak nights with fried camembert are not to be missed.

First time that 'karelas' - bitter gourd - have been on menu for guests. It is very much a hidden 'treasure'. The karelas were sliced very thinly, coated in a 'besan' (chickpea) batter and deep fried. Younger daughter loves karelas in this style. Was not sure how Bev and Malcolm would react to the taste. They were not quite over the moon but they did not reject the taste completely either. What is surprising is the amount of chillies this Yorkshire couple can tolerate after the last seventeen years of our cooking – the coriander and green chilli chutney was made with over twenty green chillies and they both loved it. Just making it made my eyes water.

A huge bag of potatoes ended up as potato straws. Not sure what the attraction of these freshly made 'crisps' are - normal bags of crisps lie around and nobody eats them. Make a plateful of these 'straws' and they finish within a few minutes. Had to keep hiding them from everyone so that there was enough left for sprinkling on the chicken and some to be passed around the table.

Elder daughter made the trifle. Could find none of the usual liqueurs - only some limoncello and kirsch were in the kitchen. Who drank all my liqueurs? Hmmm. So, mango pieces were macerated in kirsch before being joined by some sponge fingers drenched with passion fruit pulp and more kirsch, real custard, topped by mascarpone mixed with double cream and a final blanket of more passion fruit pulp!! It was alcoholic but delicious.

Elder daughter and Bev both love vermicelli. Bev loves it with nuts. And after twenty two years of marriage, a few months ago, husband said that he likes the milk ‘puddings’ without any nuts or raisins. Tough.

Sevian with nuts and raisins

Ingredients

50 grams salted butter

handful of cashews, pistachios and coarsely chopped almonds (quarter cup of each variety)

handful of raisins (quarter cup)

100 grams of vermicelli – sevian, broken into pieces – the longer they are, the more awkward they are to stir!

1 litre of hot milk – heated in the microwave

about half a cup of sugar

50 grams salted butter

Method

Melt about 20 grams of butter in a pan over low heat. Add the nuts and fry gently till the nuts are roasted and then take them out to drain on some paper kitchen towels. Do not fry till they get really brown – it should be a light sandy colour as the nuts continue to ‘toast’ even after they have been taken out of the pan. Throw away any remaining butter and clean the pan with a kitchen towel.

Melt the rest of the butter in the pan on a gentle heat. Add the vermicelli pieces and stir them around till they are coated in the melted butter. Continue toasting the vermicelli until they turn a few shades darker – but not the colour of chestnuts though! Do not turn up the heat.

Add the raisins and continue frying for a minute or two.

Now add the hot milk to the pan. Turn the heat to medium and let the mixture come to a boil. Add the raisins and half the nuts and continue cooking and stirring until the mixture has thickened until it is the consistency of double cream. Add sugar to taste and then add the rosewater.

Take off the heat and sprinkle with the remaining nuts.

As the mixture cools, it gets thicker. Serve warm or cold.

Do try to get the sevian - vermicelli - packet from an Indian/ Pakistani grocer. The Italian version of vermicelli is not really suitable for this dessert.

dinner with Sundaram family 9th april 2010

After many moons, we were really looking forward to home cooked south Indian food at the Sundaram residence. But the previous evening I gathered that the electric stone grinder that was normally used for grinding the rice and the daal for dosas had breathed its last and did not respond to any form of resuscitation. Disaster! But the sturdy Indian designed blender did a splendid job and we were not disappointed.

I am now allowed to make the mini dosas on the electric pancake maker. Yep, my skills in making dosas has progressed considerably - to be entrusted by a South Indian lady, Yippeee ! - one culinary mountain that I have climbed. And as the official dosa maker I got to eat them hot off the griddle. Yum yum.

Dinner that evening was :

vegetable samosas from Anand's in Leeds - real samosas made with traditional pastry

chicken kebabs

mini dosas

idlis

prawn curry

lamb curry

sambhar

coconut chutney

tomato chutney

spinach raita

followed by

Gajjar halwa (carrot halwa)

Strawberry almond roulade

Scandinavian / Swedish rosettes

Busy cooking the dosas to be eaten warm, so I missed out on taking photographs of the actual food cooked by Revathy.

That day, daughter and husband tried to get me raspberries but the shelves were devoid of raspberries!! Strawberries were all they could muster. And another disaster - two roulades were being cooked together in the oven. One was left a tad bit longer to cook as it was on a slightly lower shelf. OOOPS! a slightly overdone roulade which ended up being made into a tiered dessert instead. But as everybody ate it and clamoured for more, I guess it was not such a catastrophe after all.

Recipe for strawberry and almond roulade

Ingredients

6 large egg whites

300 grams sugar

2 tsp cornflour

1 tsp white wine vinegar

handful of flaked almonds - about 50 grams

Two trays (approx 40 cm X 30 cm X 2 cm) lined with baking parchment with an overhang

Method

• Heat the oven to 170 degrees C.

• Whisk the egg whites until the peaks are no longer soft and floppy. I use a geriatric Kenwood food mixer but a hand held whisk will probably do the job too. Add the sugar gradually whisking well between each addition until the mixture is stiff and glossy.

• Fold in the vanilla, cornflour and vinegar and mix for a few seconds.

• Spread the meringue mix on the trays and smooth out with a palette knife. Sprinkle with almonds and press some of the almonds down on to the meringue - gently. Otherwise they fall off!

• Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes. Do not let the almonds get too brown or toasted. The roulade should be crisp on the outside and soft on the inside.

• Take out the trays and let the meringue cool.

• Cut out two sheets of baking parchment just a few cm bigger than the size of the trays. Invert the meringue onto these sheets, peel off the backing baking parchment slowly.

• While the meringues are baking, chop up the strawberries. If using raspberries, just wash them.

• Whip the cream until soft peaks form - if the peaks are too hard the cream has been whipped too long and it will be difficult to spread the cream onto the meringue.

• Spread the meringue with the cream first and then scatter the strawberries or the raspberries over it. Roll up the meringue into a long sausage shape and press it down gently so that it will not unravel. Trim the sides if you really have to. Chill until ready to serve. I cut mine into two pieces diagonally as the serving dishes are normally never long enough to fit the dessert.

• Serve with a strawberry or raspberry coulis - just puree about 500 grams of the fruit, sieve to get rid of pips, add some icing sugar to taste and voila! Pure heaven. Do not be tempted to add any water or to warm up the puree - it will taste disgusting.

The disaster meringue - the almonds were beautifully toasted. Broke the meringue into three pieces and layered it with strawberries and cream. Definitely crunchy and chewy. Even the serving plate got licked clean - by the girls!!!!

Surrounded by several families in Shillong from all over India, we were exposed to the cuisine from different parts of the country. Mother had a rosette mould and rosettes featured regularly as snacks for after school while we were children in Shillong. I guess mother learnt to make this from our South Indian neighbour. I remember a version that used to be made with rice flour and without eggs as well but have not been brave enough to try it out. Mother got me the moulds I have a few years ago from a trip to India but it had been lying in a corner of a cupboard - more due to lack of time and fear of failure than anything else. Decided to evoke childhood memories and out came the mould. The South Indian version of Swedish / Scandinavian rosettes is known as Achappam and is made with rice flour and coconut milk. Next time I will try it that way - if I have a spare couple of hours and nothing else to do.

Scandinavian / Swedish rosettes

Ingredients :

1 cup plain flour

1 cup milk

2 eggs

1 tablespoon sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon freshly ground cinnamon

oil for deep frying

icing sugar - about 4 tablespoons

Makes about fifty - will depend on size of mould and takes time to fry if you have the patience!

Method :

• Mix the eggs and milk together with the salt and sugar until well combined.

• Sift the ground cinnamon and the flour together in a deep bowl. Make a well in the centre, add the milk and egg mixture and use a hand held blender to mix everything thoroughly until it is smooth and no lumps remain. Refrigerate if you must.

• Meanwhile, heat some oil in a pan for deep frying - at least 3 cm deep oil. Do not let the oil get too hot - the cookies will just be burnt and the taste will be awful.

• Heat the rosette iron in the oil for a few minutes. The iron really has to be hot - otherwise, disaster will ensue.

• Dip the rosette iron into the batter without letting the top of the mould get covered by the batter. Then dip into the hot oil immediately and fry until golden. You may need to push the rosette out with a fork. Turn over and fry until both sides are golden brown - but not burnt. Drain on paper kitchen towels.

• Reheat mould and repeat the process stirring the batter every time. Life is easier if there are two moulds so that while one is being fried, one mould gets heated - not easy to manouevre though!

• Once all the rosettes are fried, sieve icing sugar over them and serve.

Husband decided that it was taking me too long to sieve the sugar on top - he simply grabbed hold of a handful of sugar and flung it over the rosettes and of course all over the worktop too. Yikes!!!

The Scandinavian / Swedish rosettes were incredibly delicate - broke into pieces even as one picked it up to take a bite. But they were all devoured - every single crumb.

new year's day january 2010 dinner

view from apartment in carvoiero, portugal

Travelled back from Portugal on New Year's Eve, 31st December 2009 after a short break in Carvoeiro. Discovered a take-away in the centre of Carvoeiro some years ago. The shop has not changed at all. The owner cooks every evening and does a brisk trade in his piri piri chicken - freshly grilled after a long marinade, and has a different speciality day to day. Missed out on the duck this time but orders were being taken for the roast suckling pig for New Year's Eve. Brother AB wanted roast suckling pig for the Christmas dinner but it is not easy to source it in the UK - so half a roast suckling pig was bundled into the luggage and the whole clan feasted on it on New Year's day 2010. The crackling was crispy and crackly and the meat so tender that it was 'spoonable'.

suckling pig for sale in Portimao, Portugal

By the time we arrived on New Year's Eve, it was too late to go shopping. So had to make do with what was available in the house for New Year's day dinner. Potatoes were boiled to make a potato salad. Unfortunately, they were not new potatoes or the anya potatoes that I like. The potatoes got a little overcooked but someone added mayonnaise to it anyway - it was terrible to look at. Brain ticking away - Ping!!!! Mash up the potatoes with the mayonnaise, add some more butter and thus was born a hybridised version of 'duchess' potatoes but shaped into 'quenelles' for speed - no hunting around for an 'icing bag' or a food bag with a corner cut off. They were light, they were delicious, everyone loved them but none could figure out the secret ingredient until daughter BG realised that the menu did state 'new potato or Anya potato salad with mayonnaise and spring onions' but of course that dish was invisible!! Brother AB made a spicy chilli relish - garlicky and chilli to accompany the meal as he is not too keen on the chilli Bramley apple chutney that was made out of the apples that were picked during our October half term break.

surveying the spread

getting ready to tuck in - twenty around the table!

Dessert for that evening was sooji (semolina) halwa served with cream and ice-cream. Sister-in-law JB makes this quite often. Her daughter Rhea is quite partial to this dessert - Rhea has severe food allergies and is unable to eat any form of eggs or nuts. This halwa is the ideal dessert for her. The halwa is made in a slightly different way from the one I normally make - not as time consuming as the syrup does not have to be prepared beforehand but it has got a lot of butter! But once in a while .... :)

youngest member of the family waiting to tuck in

Recipe for sooji (semolina) halwa

enough for about six to eight people depending on accompaniments and appetites!!!

Ingredients

1 cup coarse semolina

150 grams butter or 150 ml sunflower oil (I prefer the taste of butter)

125 g sugar

handful of raisins

2 cm piece cinnamon stick or cardamon seeds from about four pods, crushed

Method

• Melt the butter over a low heat in a saucepan.
• Add the semolina and cinnamon or crushed cardamon seeds and roast over a moderate heat for about ten minutes.
• Add the sugar to the semolina and continue stirring for another five to ten minutes till the semolina starts to change colour and the sugar begins to caramelize - little bits of sugar melt and get stuck at the bottom. It is this caramelization that is peculiar to this recipe and gives it a little crunchy 'bite'.
• Add the raisins and fry for another minute or two.
• Carefully add about a cup of hot water - beware : the mixture will spit and can leave nasty burn marks on the face!!! and keep stirring so that no lumps of semolina form.
• Lower the heat, cover and let it cook over a gentle heat for about ten minutes.
• Transfer to a serving dish and tuck in.

This halwa is not as moist - but one can add more water and adjust the moistness to their liking.

Enjoy the holidays!!

dinner 19th september 2009

Neighbours Bev and Malcolm, John and Jill missed elder daughter BG's birthday party as they were away on holiday. So we had an evening together before elder daughter BG moved on to pastures new. All seasoned chilli eaters apart from Margaret and Bill both in their seventies.

In days bygone (until about two years ago), I remember staying up all hours of the night making the little crispy puffs known as gol gappas or puchka or puri - numerous attempts to get them right - those puffed up little balloons - with various combinations of flour to semolina ratio or urad daal flour, ground in a coffee grinder. Heaven nowadays when it comes to those tiddly puffs of pastry = they are now available widely in many ethnic shops and the sleepless hard toil nights have disappeared - vamoosh!!! and they are long life too.

Some of the drudgery but also excitement of cooking from scratch has been eliminated. But I still prefer to soak and boil the chickpeas - it does not take long provided some advance planning has been adhered to. Assume each person will eat at least six of those little puffs and one cannot go wrong on quantity. Guess the rest of the melange is all about estimating and hoping that there is enough for all! leftover bits are useful the next day for a tiny snack.

5th August 2009

5th August 1998. My father-in-law, Keshab Chandra Gogoi passed away. Each year on this day a 'hokam' - prayer ceremony - is organised by the family in either Dibrugarh or Guwahati in Assam. The day starts with a 'naam' in which prayers are offered for the soul of the deceased and then a lunch is hosted for family and friends - a big affair. A rather sober affair to begin with. It was a more social occasion in Guwahati with extended family gathering together to remember a well known and loved relative.

After a morning of prayers followed by blessing ceremony for the family conducted by priests, guests were treated to an Assamese meal – plain rice, pulao rice, cauliflower and potato ‘sabji’, dal, ‘ilish’ (hilsa) in a mustard sauce, rahu fish in a tomato gravy followed by rasgulla with yoghurt. Special chefs are hired for the day to cater for the guests.

Being a working day, this family branch abroad paid homage privately. Here in England, we have a very simple ceremony. There are no priests who come to the house to say the prayers and lead the ceremony. No chefs and not many guests either. I turn on some music - sacred Hindu chants - and we say a prayer as a family in the morning and in the evening share a meal with friends or family.

Oops! forgot to mention that 'prokhad' - prashad in Hindi / Bengali ... was also a part of the menu. Prokhad in Assam is a medley of soaked raw chickpeas, mung beans (whole or split with or without the skin), a few grains of rice and fresh fruits. Have questioned the Assamese habit of eating raw beans and pulses – mainly chickpeas and mung beans. It is recommended that beans and pulses are boiled for a few minutes before being consumed and yet the Assamese people tend to partake of these raw ingredients without any side effects! No one has yet answered my question as to why the Assamese do not suffer adversely from the effects of eating these uncooked beans – so if anyone knows the answer, please let me know.

A think and plan ahead recipe!! There is no fast and firm rule for the quantities for prokhad. Most of it is down to personal choice. Mother makes quite a lot when she has guests; she has a real knack for making a great tasting prokhad people say, and they all like to take a 'doggy bag' home. As we only eat a few grains of this raw mixture, I too tend to soak a lot more as the mix lends itself to various other recipes - a type of daal with lots of ginger and coconut and also khar made with the addition of an alkali processed from the burnt skin of a certain variety of bananas, bhim kol, or in the absence of this alkali agent, a good old standby, bicarbonate of soda.

Recipe for Prokhad to be eaten raw and enough for other recipes too

Ingredients

1 cup of dried chickpeas

1 cup of mung dal - whole or split

1 tsp rice (uncooked)

1 fresh coconut - half grated and half cut into slivers

a piece of fresh ginger

fresh fruits

Method

• Soak the chick peas and the mung dal separately overnight in plenty of water in huge bowls as they tend to swell considerably. In winter, it may need a longer soak or if the beans and pulses are old.
• Next day, soak the rice in water for about an hour or two.
• Drain the chick peas and the mung dal, wash again and throw away any that are still hard. The old dal which remain rock hard will rattle against a metal container - the rest will look plump and will squish when pressed between thumb and finger!! Mix them together.
• Add the grated coconut and put the mixture in a serving bowl.
• Scatter the soaked and drained rice followed by finely diced ginger pieces over the mixture.
• Decorate with the fruit.

Once the prayers and puja are over, mix in some salt and then serve. Salt is never added to prokhad for the duration of the prayers - it is offered in a separate dish. Still have not had a convincing answer from anyone about the separated offerings.

In my parents house, it is my father who prepares the coconut and he does a fantastic job. It is lovely to see the ritual that he goes through. The whole coconut is washed and then he scrapes off the hairs with a paring knife leaving a totally bald brown shiny shell. After that he takes a fine skewer, pokes a hole in the coconut, drains off the 'milk' and saves it in a glass for one of us to drink. The coconut is then 'lined' with a few drops of water around its equator and the back of a chinese cleaver is used to hit the coconut around the equator and plop! the coconut is in two halves. Father painstakingly cuts out neat slivers or grates the coconut on a hand held grater as demanded by mother. Yep, he has patience and all because no one likes to see bits of brown hair in the otherwise pristine whiteness of the freshly grated coconut flesh.

My father-in-law loved fish. Apparently, his taste buds were so fine tuned that he was able to identify which river the fish was from! This year, we tried to duplicate some of the menu that was served back in Guwahati. Here in England, substitution of 'Assamese' ingredients is the norm for us as we are unable to purchase the same vegetables and fish. Unfortunately, most sea fish do not have the same characteristics as river fish - cod and haddock cannot withstand the cooking techniques associated with assamese cuisine. So we have adapted techniques and we substitute sprats for puthi maas, herrings/ sardines for hilsa, haddock or cod for rohu or borali, butterflied sardines for pabho, sea bass or sea bream for rahu ..... salmon used only if it is wild and not farmed - a rarity these days. And husband refuses to eat trout. We do get frozen river fish from Bangladesh and Thailand but the food handling capabilities of some of these ethnic grocers leave a lot to be desired - the fish can get defrosted and frozen many times and a horrible odour emanates when one cooks it.

To recreate the menu here in England, where it is difficult to find indigenous fish, the hiIsa was replaced with fresh sardines and the rahu fish with sea bream. The sardines were cooked in a mustard sauce and the sea bream ended up in a fresh spinach and potato ‘tenga’ – a soupy ‘curry’ with a tang.

For the fish in mustard gravy, horiyoh diya maach, ready made mustard makes life easy. Colman’s mustard powder is an acceptable substitute. Dijon mustard and other mustard mixes do not really produce the authentic taste. This dish does need a bit of chilli – either fresh green chillies or some dried red chilli powder otherwise the finished dish ends up tasting rather bitter. In Assam, pungent mustard oil is widely used for cooking. The mustard oil one buys from the ethnic stores in England all carry a warning – only for external use! Not sure why but we have been using the same brand of mustard oil for the last thirty years but in miserly amounts as it is such a delicacy. During my last trip to India, I got a mustard oil bottle by the brand name of Engine Oil! Sprats are a good substitute if sardines are not available and if you can get hold of ilish / hilsa all the better.

Horiyoh diya maach - Fish in mustard gravy

Ingredients (for four):

4 fresh sardines, washed and gutted

about 3 tbsp oil for frying ( we use sunflower oil or mild olive oil - both neutral in taste)

1 medium onion, finely chopped

1 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp yellow mustard seeds or 2 tsp Colman's mustard powder

1 tsp nigella seeds

1 green or red chilli, slit or 1 tsp red chilli powder or 1 tsp red chilli flakes

Method

• Dry the fish, and slash the flesh once or twice, depending on the size of the fish. Rub 1/2 tsp turmeric and 1 tsp salt over the fish and leave for about half an hour.
• If using mustard seeds, grind them finely in a coffee grinder. Mix the mustard powder in 200 ml of water and leave it standing.
• Heat the oil in a frying pan or saute pan. When the oil is hot, add the fish but ensure that the pan does not get crowded and fry in batches. Fry the fish on both sides for a few minutes until the fish takes on some colour. Lift out and drain on paper towels.
• Check the amount of oil in the pan. You need about 2 tbsp only - sardines can be oily and will release some oil. In the same oil, add the nigella seeds and let them pop for a few seconds.
• Add the chopped onion and the chilli and fry on a medium heat until the onion is soft and light brown stirring frequently - otherwise some of the onions tend to get burnt if left alone!
• Add the mustard water to the pan. It may sputter!!! so turn down the heat at the beginning. Bring to the boil and simmer for a few minutes.
• Add the fried fish, bring to the boil. Cover and simmer for about five more minutes or until the gravy is the consistency of double cream. If the fish is not covered by the gravy, from time to time, spoon some of the gravy over it or turn the fish over after about three minutes.
• Remove to a serving dish and serve.

No rahu fish? No ayr / ari? No problem. Sea bream or sea bass will do or any other fish that will not fall apart when fried. I suppose trout and salmon will lend itself to this very well - but family preferences excludes the use of these fish. Sea bream looked fresh in the shops so that ended up on our dinner table. Mother grows spinach in her garden in London. She also grows sorrel and a few other Assamese greens too. But this summer, she was too far away from me to get the few handfuls that I needed. So baby spinach it was from the supermarket. New potatoes or old - personal choice. Old potatoes will break down slightly and thicken the gravy, new potatoes will hold their shape. It's really weird how in Assam each vegetable is cut into different shapes or sizes according to the dish they are going to be cooked in and the servants have to get it right. Otherwise they are in a whole lot of bother!

The green chilli is added towards the end so that the gravy is flavoured delicately with just a hint of chilli heat.

Fish with spinach and potatoes - paleng haak aru alu diya maach'or jhool

Ingredients (for four very hungry people or six or eight .... depending on number of dishes to be served) :

2 sea bream - scaled, washed and gutted, cut into steaks

2 tsp turmeric

2 bags of spinach (200 grams), shredded or chopped

1 large potato, peeled and cut in to eighths, or two medium potatoes, cut into quarters lengthwise

piece of ginger

salt to taste

2 tbsp oil for frying

salt to taste

1 fresh lime or 1 lemon - juice only

1 green chilli

a handful of green coriander, washed and chopped

Method :

• Rub the sea bream steaks with the turmeric and 1 tsp salt and let it marinate for about half an hour.
• Heat the oil in a saute pan and fry the fish gently on both sides for a few minutes. Drain and remove.
• In the same oil, fry the potatoes until they are half cooked.
• Add the ginger to pan and stir it around for about thirty seconds.
• Add the spinach and let it wilt - this will take a minute or two only.
• Add about 250 ml of water and bring to the boil. Turn down the heat and simmer for about five minutes on a gentle heat.
• Add the fish steaks and some salt, cover and cook gently for another five minutes so that the steaks soak up some of the gravy and the potatoes are cooked.
• Slit the green chilli and add it for the last minute of cooking
• Add the lime or lemon juice to taste.
• Remove and put in serving bowl, sprinkle with the coriander and serve.

Now, in our rather extended family, great debates take place as to what spices need to go into this dish. My mother and husband never seem to agree and it is often hilarious to watch the two of them cooking together. One says it needs a little bit of garlic, the other says no and so it goes on - but whatever ends up on the table is tasty and not worth quibbling about.