Fish in Green Sauce

By the time we came back home from my son's eye check up (yes, he needs glasses!), it was past 3'o'clock and of course, the eternal question crept into my mind, "What the heck should I cook tonight?" Opened the refrigerator and browsed and found a ton of fresh cilantro lying in there. I store my cilantro in this cool stainless steel container that I got from India this time--- it has a bunch of holes all around and tends to keep fresh cilantro, well, fresh. Grabbed some frozen coconut from the freezer. I had some Dover Sole lying inside too and I immediately knew what to  make for dinner!

Chopped up the cilantro, took 4 thai green chillies and a tablespoon of coconut (thawed it out in the m-wave). Quickly roasted all this in a pan. Meanwhile I took a little bit of cumin seeds, fennel seeds, mustard seeds, 2 cloves, 1 cardamom, a tiny piece of cinnamon and about a teaspoon of sesame seeds (yes, pretty much whatever I saw in my pantry!) and threw it all in a bowl and ran this in the m-wave for a minute to roast it all. Aah! the kitchen was smelling ridiculously good! I then put this mixture of spices into my nifty little coffee grinder and powdered it all.

 Cilantro+chillies+coconut

I first thought of leaving the cilantro+cillies+coconut as it is......but then you know how it is while cooking, you just get these sudden ideas.........so then I decided to just grind it all up in the food processor so as to make a nice chutney to be ultimately converted  into a sauce. I added a clove of garlic too into the chutney.

I meanwhile prepared my fish. Just roughly cut it into bite sized cubes..........doesn't really matter because it will eventually disintegrate anyway. The great thing about fish or any sea-food for that matter is that it cooks up so fast. Great for week night cooking. However, you gotta be careful so as to not overcook it. So even though it is super fast, you gotta be super careful too.

That's it! I took a pot and added a teaspoon of oil. Tempered some mustard seeds. Threw in the fish and lightly sauteed it (a few seconds really). Stirred in the green chutney, added 1/2 a cup of water, salt, and finally that awesome spice powder that I made. Brought it all to a boil and took it off the heat. After about 30 seconds, squeezed in some lemon juice. Ta-da!

Had my daughter taste it and she literally screamed in delight! Just to make sure she wasn't just doing that to please me, I tasted it too and ohhhhh, that was super-tasty! Served it with simple steamed rice. Fantastic!

 Pre-chutney form

Fish in Green Sauce ready!

Ready to eat!


I just randomly whipped up tonight's dinner with nothing pre-planned..........that is what cooking is all about. It is just experimenting and creating delightful food.

Note to Self: Tonight's sauce was a tad bit too thin. I think the next time I try out this recipe (unlikely, considering the fact that I keep coming up with brand new recipes.......AHEM!), I should increase the amount of sesame seeds..........that'll thicken up the sauce some more...........