First, let’s talk a bit about King fish as it is quite unheard of in North America. King fish is a sea fish that is found in the Indian ocean and is very popular in Southern India. I personally think that it is the most tastiest fish. It is an expensive fish and is often served in many fine dining restaurants in India. So where do you buy this fish? You can find king fish in some of the Indian stores (call ahead to check – sometimes they can get it for you even if they don’t carry) and in Asian supermarkets. I prefer buying king fish from the Asian supermarkets as they have it fresh.

I grew up eating biryani, chicken/mutton biryani being often made by my mom. Once in a while, when she gets hold of fresh king fish, she would surprise us with king fish biryani. I prefer it as it’s light, healthy and I can go for a few rounds without getting the dizzy feeling.

I love fish fry and so while starting to make any fish dish my first thought would be to “fry it”. I always wish if I could find a way to fry the fish without using oil and still get the same taste. Grilling does help to some extent, but it just cannot replace frying. Good thing about this biryani is that I fried the fish first and then made the fish masala with it. So, I get to taste the fried fish along with the biryani.

If you haven’t yet tasted fish biryani, it’s big time you make this biryani and you’ll be surprised on how your taste buds go crazy.

King fish Biryani

For marinating the fish:

Ingredients:

• King fish, steak- 2 pounds
• Chilly powder- 2 tsp
• Turmeric powder- 2 pinches
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Ground Garam masala- 1/2 tsp
• Lemon juice- 1 tsp
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Salt- to taste

For frying fish:

• Oil- enough for frying

For making King fish masala:

• Oil used for frying fish- 3 tbsp
• Onion, large cut thin long- 4 no’s
• Salt- little
• Curry leaves- 1 sprig
• Tomato, chopped- 1 large
• Chilly powder- 1/2 tsp
• Fennel powder- 1 1/2 tsp
• Yogurt (not sour)- 4 tbsp

To grind:

• Garlic, chopped- 5 cloves
• Ginger, chopped- 2 inch slice
• Small onions- 7 no’s
• Green chillies- 4 no’s
• Cardamom- 3 no’s
• Cloves- 2 no’s
• Cinnamon- 1 inch slice

For making rice:

• Basmati rice- 2 cups
• Ground Garam masala- 1 tsp
• Ghee- 2 tbsp
• Water- 3 1/2 cups
• Salt- as needed

Other ingredients for garnishing:

• Fried onions- 1 Onion, cut thin and long and fried in oil till golden brown.
• Cilantro, chopped

Preparation:

• Wash the king fish steaks under running water, if you want you could cut the steak into medium sized pieces.
• Marinate the king fish with the above mentioned ingredients for marination, keep aside for 15 minutes.
• Shallow fry the fish in enough oil till it starts to turn golden in color. Avoid over frying the fish, Keep aside on a paper towel.
• Place a large pan over medium heat, add 3 tbsp of oil used for frying fish.
• Add onions along with curry leaves and little salt, cook covered till it turns tender.
• Grind garlic, ginger, small onions, green chillies, cardamom, cloves and cinnamon together into a coarse paste.
• When the onions turn tender, add the above ground paste, saute for a few minutes.
• Onion should turn really tender and well cooked.
• Add chopped tomato and cook till it gets mashed.
• Add chilly powder and fennel powder to it, combine well.
• Add the fried fish to it and gently combine everything.
• Now, add yogurt, combine well and cook covered for 5 minutes.
• Remove the lid and let all the water in the masala dries up.
• Remove from the heat and keep aside covered.

Making Rice:

• Wash the rice taken in a large sieve under running water.
• Combine rice, garam masala, ghee, salt and water.
• Cook in a rice cooker till the rice is well done.

How to layer the rice and fish masala:

• In a large pan, spread half of the fish masala as the first layer.
• Top it with half of the rice as the second layer.
• Sprinkle chopped cilantro and fried onions.
• Again repeat layering with fish masala, rice, finally top it with cilantro and fried onions.
• Close the pan tightly with aluminum foil and then with its lid.
• Place the pan on low flame and cook for 10 minutes.
• After 10 minutes, remove the pan from the heat and keep aside covered.
• While serving, combine the rice and fish masala together, serve on a plate along with raita and pickle.

Tips:

• Adjust the spice level according to your needs, if you like it spicy increase the amount of chilly powder or green chillies accordingly.
• This biryani, in fact all biryanis taste better when it sits for sometime, it would taste even more better the next day.

King Fish – my favorite fish and Corn Chowder – my favorite soup. When they merged together, I had two of my favorites to dig in from one plate.

Deadline for February Royal Foodie Joust is just around the corner. I first thought of skipping this contest as I had won the January contest and the ingredients for this month were chosen by me: Fish, Coconut milk, Nutmeg. But, last night I happened to make dinner with these ingredients and the dish came out pretty delicious. Hence, I felt I should submit the recipe for the joust as there is no restriction that the previous winner shouldn’t participate. So, here I am trying my luck yet another time.

The reason for choosing fish and coconut milk was solely because I had grown up having these two. While I was thinking about the ingredients to choose, these two seemed stuck to my head like a snail and couldn’t help but pick them. I chose nutmeg as this would go along with the fish well.

King fish has been my favorite fish from my childhood days, and this is the most famous fish in Kerala. This is also an expensive fish and considered as the royal fish that is found during all special occasions. If there is any extravaganza feast, you could find this fish as the main dish under seafood. I’ve felt this as the tastiest among all fish. Surprisingly, in the US  it is nearly impossible to find this fish in any restaurant menu. I still haven’t figured out the reason. Also, it is not widely available here. We could find these only in some Asian fish markets and mostly in Indian stores. If I come across this fish in any market, I never let them go from my hands. And this fish is always seen stacked in my freezer.

For last night’s dinner, King fish was my target and thought of incorporating the other 2 ingredients with it. I first, marinated the fish with salt, pepper and nutmeg and shallow fried it. For the sauce, I made corn chowder, I used coconut milk instead of cream. I loved the flavor of coconut milk in the corn chowder. I think I am going to stick in coconut milk for any recipe that calls for cream:)

When the fish was frying in the pan and the corn chowder simmering in the saucepan, I looked at both of them and thought whether they would make a great pair. I had a feeling that they would .

Verdict: when I tasted this pair, my taste buds applauded in approval.

Kingfish with Corn Chowder:

Ingredients:

For shallow frying fish:

• Kingfish- 4 steak
• Ground pepper- 3/4 tsp
• Nutmeg- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste
• Oil- for shallow frying

Preparation:

• Marinate the fish with the above ingredients except oil and keep aside for 15 to 30 minutes.

• Heat a nonstick pan over medium flame, add oil, when it gets hot place the fish on it.

• Shallow fry the fish flipping on both sides until it turns golden brown.

• Remove from the pan and keep aside.

Corn Chowder:

• Olive oil- 2 tsp
• Onion, minced-1
• Celery, chopped-2 ribs
• Corn, rinsed- 1 can
• Thyme- 1 sprig
• Flour- 1tbsp
• Vegetable stock- 1cup
• Coconut milk-3/4 cup
• Ground Pepper- 1/2 tsp
• Salt- to taste

Preparation:

• Place a saucepan over medium heat, add olive oil, onion, salt, ground pepper and saute.
• Add celery and thyme, cook until the veggies turn tender.

• Add flour and combine well into the veggies
• To this add vegetable stock and stir constantly to prevent the flour turning into lumps.

• Add Corn to this and cook for few minutes.

• Finally, lower the heat and add the coconut milk, heat the milk but don’t boil it.

• Remove from the heat and keep aside.

Merging Fish and Corn Chowder:

• While plating, first place a kingfish steak, on top of the fish pour a spoonful of corn chowder.
• Enjoy this meal with dinner rolls.
• Leftover corn chowder can be transformed into next day hot soup after thinning it down with more of the coconut milk.