"Psaria" - a Greek-style Fried Fish with Vinegar Sauce

I recently discovered a series of cookbooks written by an Englishwoman named Sally Butcher.   She married an Iranian, taught herself to speak Farsi, and together they established what appears to be a very successful business importing and selling foodstuffs from Iran and surrounding countries in a shop in Peckham – a very multicultural suburb in south east London.

The shop is called Persepolis ... which is Persian for “Jamshid’s Throne” .... Jamshid also being the name of her husband.   And along the way Sally Butcher has written three amazingly knowledgable and informative cookbooks on vegetarian and non-vegetarian food from that region.  

                  

The books are "Persia in Peckham", "Veggiestan" and "Snackistan"; I have slowly begun cooking my way through these three books ... a quest that will easily take me through to the end of the year at least.  And whilst I intend to come back to the first two publications on this blog, the third book is called “Snackistan” ... an imaginary country which she refers to as “a borderless confederation of the Middle East’s favourite foodstuffs”.  And it is from this book that I found a delightful and unusual recipe for fried fish.

Fish pieces after frying in seasoned flour.

The fish is first coated in seasoned flour and then simply fried; as Sally Butcher notes “this serves the dual purpose of locking the flavour and aroma in” ... thus reducing those lingering fish smells in the kitchen.  The fillets are then allowed to cool and a rich and puckery vinegar sauce is prepared using white wine vinegar, fresh parsley and the leftover flour used to coat the fillets.



Preparing the vinegar sauce.

The end result is quite a dramatic presentation for such a fairly simple recipe and it would make a great party stand-by as the fish and the sauce can be prepared separately in advance and then brought together just before serving plus it can also be served at room temperature.

PSARIA  or   GREEK-STYLE FRIED FISH WITH VINEGAR SAUCE

Ingredients:

800g fish fillets    salt   150g plain flour   1 t paprika   1 tsp turmeric   sunflower or olive oil   3 garlic cloves   1 t fresh or dried rosemary   100ml or 1/2 C white wine vinegar   bunch of fresh parsley, chopped   black pepper

Method:

Wash & dry fish and sprinkle with salt.   Mix 3 T flour with some salt, the paprika & turmeric.   Coat each piece of fish with the flour mixture, shake off excess and reserve rest of the flour.

Heat 1.5cm of oil in a pan and fry fish on each side for about 2-3 minutes, until they are golden brown.   Remove, drain and place on platter.

Strain 3 T of the cooking oil into a saucepan, heat and then add garlic and rosemary.   Add 2T flour from saved mixture, heat and stir until it starts to form a roux.   Add vinegar slowly along with a little water if it appears too thick; the mixture will begin to thicken when the vinegar is added so resist the temptation to add more flour ... as I did the first time!   Add parsley to the roux and season with salt & pepper.

Pour sauce over the fish on the platter and serve hot as is ... or let cool to room temperature for an hour before serving ... this is the traditional way it is served.    

I served this with brown rice and an Indian bhindi (okra) dish ...

Tony saab/Hyderabad   March 2014

Murgh Anardana or Stewed Chicken with Browned Onions and Fresh Pomegranate.

Stewed Chicken with Browned Onions and Fresh Pomegranate

I haven’t posted on this blog for quite some time.   This was due to a number of factors: busy doing some outside work at the film school, the hard drive on our desktop was full, the scanner broke and then the memory card in my camera was corrupted. Phew!  Plus we went to Australia over the Christmas period ... lots of great food and eating and drinking with family & friends in Melbourne and Sydney.   But no time to blog!

Nevertheless, I haven’t stopped cooking throughout this time.   In fact in early January I had a fairly intensive week in the kitchen in Melbourne brought about by the temperature being in the mid ‘40s for several days. I was staying at my sister’s house in the Dandenong Ranges -20 k’s out of the CBD - and only had access to an old car my brother had kindly lent me .... which was in danger of overheating anytime I took it on a trip.   So I had to stay put most of the week and cooked up a storm for myself ... my sister and her family were away on holidays.  

‘Dinner for one’ can sometimes also be relaxing ... plus I had the budgerigar to talk to as he had to stay indoors all of that week too!

Anyway, last night I was back in the kitchen with one of my favourite Indian cookbooks ... Raghavan Iyer’s “660 Curries”.   Whilst the title makes it sound like one of those generic cover- all- bases badly written ‘cheapies’ you often find on the discount tables in newsagents, this book is actually a masterpiece!    As the great Madhur Jaffrey says on the back cover of this more than 800 page tome ... “this book is nothing short of a treasure chest ... bursting with the true flavours of India’s many regions”.

Raghavan Iyer grew up in Bombay but now lives in the US where he is a writer, culinary consultant and cooking instructor.   I am in awe at the depth of knowledge and research that is contained between the covers of “660 Curries”; many of the recipes he has personally collected from family cooks in households across India and from the expat’ community in the US; often their stories are incorporated into the introduction to a particular recipe.   And the book ranges across all the different sub-cuisines of India and carefully explains their varied ingredients and cooking techniques. His experience as a teacher shines through in the clearly written recipes.

                                    

Last night I cooked Murgh Anardana or Stewed Chicken with Browned Onions and Fresh Pomegranate.   It was a fantastic dish ... not too many ingredients, simple technique and a surprisingly unusual and refreshing sauce made from coriander and fresh pomegranate kernels, which popped in your mouth as you ate the dish.

Chicken marinating in the ginger/garlic paste

The recipe calls for the chicken to be marinated first in ginger and garlic paste for some time to allow the flavours to permeate the chicken.   And then you make up a sauce beginning with the onions; this frying stage provided the basis of the sauce to follow and contributed to its unusual and exotic tangy taste.

We served this with brown rice and a simple green salad.   Kids really loved it!

Ingredients:

1 T ginger paste   1 T garlic paste  1 chicken, skin removed & cut into 8 pieces    2 T veg oil    6 cloves    2 cinnamon sticks    2 black or green cardamom pods (I used 2 of each)    2 bay leaves    I red onion, cut in half and then sliced (I am going to use 2 next time!)    1 cup of half & half (that’s a US ingredient of equal parts milk & cream .... but I used coconut milk instead)    2 tsps garam masala (I also added dried mint)    1 tsp salt    2 T fresh coriander, finely chopped    seed kernels from 1 (or 2) pomegranates

Method: 

Mix  ginger & garlic pastes, smear over chicken pieces and leave to marinate ... for at least 30 mins or overnight.

Heat oil in pan and then add cloves, cinnamon and bay leaves.   Cook for 1 min till the spices perfume the oil.   Then add onions and cook 10 to 15 mins - stirring frequently - until they brown.   (Note: at this stage my onions disintegrated and stuck thickly to the pan ... which is why next time I will be using more than one and watching the temperature in the pot.)

Add chicken pieces meat side down and spoon the cooked onion over the top.   Brown chicken on first side for 5 to 7 minutes then turn and cook other side same time.   Then remove chicken to a plate.

Add some of your milk/cream mixture and deglaze the pan, scrapping onions and meaty bits off the bottom and sides.   Then add rest of the liquid and stir in garam masala, mint and salt.  Cook gently for a few minutes and then return chicken to the pan meat side down.   Spoon the sauce over the chicken in the pan and cook covered on medium-low temperature 15 to 20 minutes until chicken is cooked through.   Turn the chicken a few times during this process.   Remove and arrange on serving platter.

              Sauce with fresh pomegranates and coriander                         

Stir coriander and pomegranate seeds into sauce, heat to medium stirring occasionally until sauce is gravy-thick .... 3 to 5 minutes.

Remove large spices from sauce and pour sauce over chicken on platter.  Serve with brown rice!

Tony saab/Hyderabad, Feb 2014