8 sardines, cleaned
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
½ teaspoon red chilli powder
½ teaspoon salt

For spice paste

10 cloves
2.5cm piece of cinnamon stick
½ teaspoon black peppercorns
½ teaspoon coriander seeds
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
½ onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 tablespoon tomato puree
1 ½ teaspoons red chilli powder
2 ready-to-eat dried apricots, soaked and pureed
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar

Wash and pat dry the sardines. For the spice paste, roast the cloves, cinnamon stick, peppercorns, and coriander and cumin seeds together in a dry frying pan on a medium heat for 1-2 minutes, until they release their aromas, and then quickly remove them from the heat.

Grind or pound them to a fine powder in a spice mill or using a mortar and pestle and set aside. Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan; add the onion and sauté on a medium heat. When the onions are golden, add the garlic and cook for another minute.  Add the tomato puree, chilli powder, apricot puree, salt and sugar and cook to a glossy, jammy consistency.  Add the ground roasted spices, then remove from the heat; set aside to cool.

Put the sardines on a plate and drizzle with the oil.  Mix together the chilli powder and salt and sprinkle over the fish.  Place the sardines on a ribbed pan or baking tray, skin side up. Using the back of a teaspoon spread the spice paste evenly over each.

Transfer to an oven preheated to 200C/Gas Mark6 and roast for 7 minutes, until cooked through and the flesh flakes easily.

Serve hot with a salad of your choice.

Everyone loves a Moily.

Whilst most Indian dishes pride themselves on using scores of ingredients and combination of spices, the beautiful ‘moily’ from Kerala uses merely 6 ingredients, salt and whatever you may choose to cook in it. Even after 20 years of cooking, there has not been one instance when people haven’t been wowed by its simplicity. You can cook this as a soup or a main, using shrimp, seafood, fish, chicken or in this instance using mussels

2 tbsp. of coconut or vegetable oil
20 fresh curry leaves
1 large onion sliced
6 green chilies slit open length ways
1 inch of fresh ginger cut into julienne
½ tsp. ground turmeric
3/4 litre/3 cups fish or seafood stock
1 cup thick coconut milk

1 tbsp. salt
500g fresh mussels, scrubbed and de-bearded

Method

Heat the oil in a large pan; add the curry leaves, onion, ginger and green chilies and cook, stirring until the onion is soft. Add the turmeric, followed by the fish stock, coconut milk and salt, and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for a couple of minutes, check that the seasoning is right then add the mussels, cover with a lid and simmer for 3-4 minutes. Remove the lid and check if all the mussels have opened, for those that haven’t opened, cover the pan with a lid and simmer another 1 minute. Remove from the heat, discard the unopened mussels. Serve with plenty of bread.

You can serve either fresh naan bread or some pre-made rice pancakes ( Uttapams) with these….

You can do this dish with turkey or even duck if you like

Serves 4

For the Pheasant:

4 pheasant breasts boned and skinned 1 ½ tsp – salt
1 tsp – ginger paste
1 tsp – garlic paste

Marinade
½ inch piece –ginger finely chopped
4-6 Green chillies, finely chopped
1 small bunch – coriander stalks
1 tsp – turmeric powder
1 tsp – garam masala powder
1 tsp cumin seeds
4 leaves – lime leaf
Juice of one lemon
3 tbsp – oil

Method

Grind all the ingredients for the marinade until a puree is obtained. Rub the ginger and garlic paste and salt into the breasts then coat the pheasant with the green paste and marinate for 20 minutes. Cook in a very hot oven for 8-10 minutes. Rest for another 5-6 minutes or so and serve with kedgeree.

For the kedgeree:

100g/4oz split yellow moong lentils
500 ml water
Pinch ground turmeric
3 tablespoons ghee or clarified butter
½ teaspoon cumin seeds
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1cm/½inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
1 ½ teaspoon salt
75g/3oz/½ cup basmati rice, boiled ( pre-boiled)
1 tomato, deseeded and cut into 1cm dices
2 tablespoons chopped fresh coriander
Juice of 1 lemon

Method

To make the kedgeree, wash the yellow moong lentils, put them in a pan with the water and turmeric and bring to a boil. Simmer for 20-30 minutes until the lentils are tender and all the water has evaporated, then remove from the heat and set aside.
Heat 2 tbsp ghee or butter in a pan and add the cumin seeds and garlic and sweat until golden. Add the onions and sauté until it begins to colour. Add the ginger, green chilli and cook for a minute. Stir in the moong lentils and salt, and then fold in the rice. Add the tomato and coriander and stir over a low heat for 3-4 minutes. Finish with the remaining tbsp of ghee. Remove from the heat and keep warm. Divide the kedgeree in four parts and serve on the base of the oven cooked pheasant breasts.