Cod Fish with Roasted Veggies

We love all kinds of Sea Food. Curries, Fried, Grilled, any which way we love them. This dish makes a great option if you are on a diet, or looking for low carb options or following keto recipes. This is a quick recipe for lunch and a super nutritious one too.

I used Frozen cod but if you have fresh Cod available, that would be great. My boys love fish and grilled veggies or just cold salads on the side of a pan fried fish. These kind of dishes are easy, scrumptious, fits the budget, healthy and delicious. This is a perfect recipe when you are running short on time.

I use basic spices like Red chili flakes, Garlic powder, Onion powder, White pepper powder and Tandoori masala. I also added some dry parsley for flavor. You can always mix and match and use the spices you like. I personally don’t like much of cinnamon or Red chili powder on cod fish. I also feel that Black pepper makes it a little bitter so I prefer white pepper powder. Add a little Lemon juice and the marination is just perfect.

I grill or saute the bell peppers and Asparagus in the same pan as the fish once i am done cooking the fish. I feel it adds a lot of flavor from the fish and the spices to the vegetables. This is a great dish if you want to involve your budding teenagers and teach them easy and quick dishes.

Salmon New Orleans

Being Muslims we adhere to eating only seafood when other meat options are not halal. Salmon New Orleans was one of those dishes that we tried at one of our favorite restaurant and were immediately in love with. The only problem is only that the restaurant is pretty far away and as much as we would love to be there every weekend, we cannot.

So one beautiful Sunday, when Mr. Parveez happened to be working on a weekend project, my boys craved Salmon New Orleans and there was no other option than me trying to make it at home. Following the flavors I could remember, this is the closest I can get to the dish, but considering that variations are acceptable in every dish, this dish came out fabulous. The boys couldn’t make out any difference except for what we made tasted more fresh. I guess fresh seafood and mixing of spices at the time does always help. And, this doesn’t mean I am advocating you to stop exploring restaurants, but while sharing this recipe at the time of pandemic Covid-19, I feel this is the best option to try out your restaurant favorite foods at home, as there ain’t any other option anyways.

If I was told before I started making this meal, that it will be done, finish to start in around 30 minutes and that too using just one pan, I would not really believe it, but honestly its true. I seasoned the Salmon with salt and pepper. Make sure you don’t add too much salt, because Salmon usually absorbs salt very quickly, so you might wanna hold your hand a little.

There are always different ways you serve your fish. I like mine with some veggies, preferably carrots, spinach, avocados, broccoli or asparagus. Here I used Spinach and avocados. I first cooked the spinach with garlic, saute’ed it lightly so the flavors blend in nicely without overcooking the spinach and making it lose its color. The light garlic tasting spinach adds that perfect flavor with the sweet salmon and shrimp medley. Another side of avocado slices with a little drizzle of lemon goes in so perfectly. If you like, you can always serve with a buttermilk biscuit like me or with anything you like. A little rice or mashed potato. The side should be a little mellow in taste to compliment the flavor of the fish.

Later we need to melt the butter and whisk a little honey. That’s where the slight sweetness of honey cooked with butter creates caramelization that our salmon will be cooked and come out with awesomely delicious results. I like my Salmon fillets to be thin. I feel that makes them juicer and crunchier. If you prefer them thick, then you can always take a fillet that weighs between 6-8 oz or else you can get thinner fillets that are around 3-4 oz each.

I made my cajun seasoning at home. You can always use store bought, but in case you want to make it at home, its pretty simple with ingredients easily available in your pantry. A little garlic powder, Onion powder, black pepper powder, white pepper powder, salt, red chili powder, red chili flakes and dry parsley. I believe the actual cajun spice might have a little more spice added to it, but with my caliber this is all I could guess and trust me doing this at home, the results would amaze you.

After this saute your shrimp in the same pan you used for the salmon, along with some more butter and that cajun seasoning. Top your salmon with a few shrimp and drizzle the cajun butter sauce from the pan right over the top. Garnish with a little chopped cilantro or parsley if you like and you’re done.

That’s it. So simple to make but believe me, you will be amazed with the results. This is Restaurant-quality at home with no-fuss. Isn’t that what we all desire?

Hope you try this recipe and enjoy it as much as we did.

Burrito Bowl

When you live in a country far away from home, you tend to dry more of different cuisines in order to blend in. Ohh yes! You read that right. We as Indians try our level best to try and blend in sending our wonderful taste buds on a toss. See, believe it or not, Indian cuisine is one of the most wonderful cuisines you can come across. So many varieties of food offered by one country where the food palette from one state to another differs as much as countries in Europe.

Now, I don’t mean to look down upon other cuisines but I do feel very proud of my ethnicity. Having tried so many different spices, oils, vegetables is an experience of its own. So, coming back to living in America, we tend to please people around us and not or taste buds. Indian food with spices is actually a very healthy option for guilt free food. Leaving that we indulge in butter and cheese based cuisines coz that satisfies the masses and we want to be one of those. But for those of us, who yearn for meals with similar taste, Italian and Mexican food come the closest.

Being a Muslim and eating only halal, our best bet for food is either vegetarian or seafood. Also, not trying food made by people who do not stick to the rules of a cuisine and make it in a fusion way is not my cup of tea. So, people like me, who want try that authentic Mexican chicken rice bowl from their favorite Mexican restaurant, eat fish and try to cook same flavors with chicken at home. I tried my level best to stick to Mexican flavors to get the authentic taste. Hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Avocado Ice cream

We love avocados…healthy, fresh and tastes great. Most of the times, we used them as a part of a salad, or make guacamole and serve it with tortilla chips.

So, taking a step ahead I tried the avocado ice cream. Mr. Parveez thought I am taking it a little too far, but it ain’t gonna hurt trying, Right??? So, I decided to try. Like all fruit based ice creams, this too has very strong Avocado flavor. I was surprised when I had some friends over as guests and I served them the Avocado ice cream and one of them said, “The taste of Avocado is pretty prominent”. And, I said to myself, “mmmm, did I say mango ice cream while serving, No, it is Avocado so it will taste avocado too.”…LOLzzz

Nevertheless, I love all my friends, with their great tastes and weird tastes. Some spice lovers, some sweet lovers, some generous with compliments, other prove it by over eating. But in all, they all are lovely and wonderful.

It is pretty simple and easy to make and is perfect for beginners. Its creamy, fresh and the taste of avocado makes it even more delicious.

Chicken Fajita

One day, Mr. Parveez was gone in a meeting, and I was frantically trying to get lunch on the table in time. Looking at the uncooked chicken breast on my kitchen island, confused what to do with it, I asked my boys what they would like. The answer was “Can you make tacos”. I decided, tacos as fate would have it, with two kids hanging on my legs whining about how they were nearing starvation [not to forget the kids are 11 and 7].  And then, I realized I didn’t have any tortillas…. which makes for a pretty crummy taco lunch…. So now I had 2 choices.  I could try to pack both of my starving children into the car for one package of tortillas, or I could try to come up with something using what I already had.

Dreading the prospect of trying to wrangle the rug rats into the car, I chose to figure something else out, which is when I came across this amazing recipe for homemade flour tortillas and I owe my undying gratitude to that website [which I forgot to save…ggggrrrr] because not only were these homemade flour tortillas deliciously amazing, it also saved me from dragging my lovely, but kind of crazy, children to the grocery store in pursuit of the store-bought kind of tortillas.

The recipe is delightfully simple.  The hardest part for me was trying to roast them which has to be done on super low flame and should be rotated non stop. I found it was easiest to flatten the dough with my hands as much as possible before using the rolling pin. And even if you’re not like me and aren’t used to making chapattis and most of your tortillas come out kind of oblong or misshapen, that’s okay. The shape takes away nothing from the deliciousness.

You don’t have to be  disheartened if you don’t have a stand mixer. Though, the directions call for one with the dough hook attached.  And  If you have a hand mixer you probably have dough hooks too! This recipe works for hand mixers too! And if you don’t have any, making dough with your hand isn’t that difficult either.

Making chicken is fairly easy and doesn’t require any marination or too much prep either. Treat yourself to something delicious and easy….