South Asian | The grub worm

Wild salmon in a Bengali mustard sauce

Posted on 28 January 2011 by The Grubworm

Bengali mustard salmon

Fish isn’t usually the first thing that you’d think of when you think of curry. Not most people anyhow. Chicken, lamb and prawns (not to mention cheese/paneer, spinach, okra and potatoes) tend to spring spicily to mind instead. At least for this South Asian food lover.

Which, when you think about the size of the subcontinent – and its 6000 miles plus of coastline, not to mention the mighty rivers – is ridiculous. And anyone who has travelled in the area will know that people there cook fish as well as they do everything else. Continue reading →

Saag Paneer and Okra curries

Posted on 14 March 2010 by The Grubworm

Saag Paneer

I’ve made Paneer before, when I lived in Islington where I could get hold of cheese cloth. But now, you would have thought the whole of North Lonon had run out of muslin. How annoying. Ever since I found out how easy it is to make Paneer it seems to be a waste to buy it. As Londis did have paneer, even if it failed miserably in the muslin stakes, shop bought would have to do. Continue reading →

Potato & chickpea curry, tomato cachumber and raita

Posted on 24 February 2010 by The Grubworm

No-place does vegetarian food like the South Asian subcontinent. I’ve had very good vegetarian Italian, Japanese, Thai and for want of a better name, fusion food. But nowhere, and I mean no-where, that I’ve come across takes vegetarian based cooking so seriously and has such a breadth of veggie food. It’s my go-to cuisine when i’m in need of a serious green (or orange, yellow, red etc) flesh-free hit. Continue reading →

A South Asian influenced feast

Posted on 25 January 2010 by The Grubworm

Sometimes you start off with the kernal of an idea that just grows until it’s way beyond your control, taking on a life of it’s own, just like Jack’s magic beans. This started off when I glanced at What’s for Lunch Honey’s Channa Palak recipe a few days ago . I mentally filed it away as something I wanted to try out. That mind running along a South Asian spice track, and then, heading back to the same blog I found a Spicy bream recipe and thought I could adapt that to some wild salmon. I figured the strong almost gamey flavour of the fish would stand up to spices well.

And everything just sprouted uncontrollably from there. I needed rice to go with it, but rather than soothe and mollify, I wanted it to complement and almost compete with the salmon. So I matched the paprika-laced oily fish flavours with sweet and scented saffron and raisins. They made a glorious juxtaposition and both were backed up by the simpler, more rustic chickpea and spinach. Continue reading →