Weekend cook! (pic heavy)

Hey all, long time no post! First, happy memorial day and /salute to all the veterans. Thanks.

It's been super crazy relocating to Scotland (from Texas), but finally moved into the new place and grillin' again!

So this weekend I took to some Indian food... and made tandoori mackerel & salmon, tandoori chicken, bacon wrapped habanero stuffed shrimp, spinach mint chutney, salad, and naan.



For the tandoori marinade...

Ginger (about 4" total)
Garlic (one whole head)
Egg (1)
Onion (1 small, or 1/2 of a large one as pictured here)
Greek yogurt (1 cup)
Gram/Chickpea Flour (1 cup)
Cumin seeds, Caraway seeds, Turmeric - I used 1.5 tablespoons each but the qty doesn't matter so much as the ratio. Use the same amount for each.
S&P to taste.

Had to debone the fish, the fishmonger was a newbie. Took him about 20 minutes to filet 4 mackerel... The salmon was already fileted.



Then I pre-marinated the fish with a garlic-ginger water solution. 2" of ginger and 1/2 head of garlic blitzed in a food processor with 2 cups of water. Pour over fish, then set fish in the fridge for an hour while I prepped other stuff.



Grinded the cumin & caraway seeds, along with the salt, pepper, and turmeric in a spice blender then mixed together with the onion, remaining garlic, remaining ginger, yogurt, egg, and chickpea flour in a food processor. Discarded the garlic/ginger water pre-marinade, and cover with the prepared tandoori marinade for 3-4 hours:



After 3-4 hours, it's ready to cook.



I was originally going to prepare some wild rice basmati, but I found some extra chicken in the fridge that needed cooking or I'd have to throw it out... Had some excess marinade to figured what the heck.



So while it was marinating, I set about other stuff... spinach mint chutney bacon-wrapped habanero stuffed shrimp, and naan.

Ingredients for Spinach Mint Chutney:

Spinach Leaves (pre-washed & trimmed) (about 1 cup cooked down)
1 bunch of mint leaves, stemmed
1/3 bunch of cilantro, stemmed
Cumin, Black Peppercorns (whole), Red Pepper flakes (I used 1 tbsp each)
3 whole cloves
1 star anise
1 cup greek yogurt
lemon juice (to taste).

For the spinach (which I forgot to take pics of... ) I drizzled a wee bit of ghee in a pan, and pre-heated it to a high heat. Once it was shimmering, I dropped the spinach leaves in the pan, and my trusty Alton Brown spray bottle, misted some water on the spinach, covered & reduced the heat. After it wilted, I put it in the fridge to cool while you prepoed the rest of the ingredients for the chutney.

Next, I dry-roasted the whole spices on a low heat:



Washed & spin dried the mint & cilantro:



Once the spinach is sufficiently cool, I put everything into a food processor and blended until smooth and creamy, adding a wee lemon juice for creaminess and tartness.



Next I prepared the bacon prawns. Not really an Indian dish, but what the hell. I love me some bacon, and love me some shrimp, and I really love me some scotch bonnets/habaneros.

Got some giant tiger prawns from the fishmonger, last 3 they had.

Removed the shell but left on the tail.



After deveining them, I butterflied them, then slathered them with a little ghee to help the spices stick.



I sprinkled ground ginger and granulated garlic, along with a wee bit of ground black peppercorns. I also measured & sliced 3 lengths of scallions, and julienned some habanero strips.



Stuffed the habanero strips inside the scallion tubes, then placed the scallion tubes into the prawn channel.



Everything is better with bacon. And bacon is better with paprika & parsley, when it's going to be wrapped around a stuffed shrimp.



Bacon-wrapped habanero-stuffed prawns, ready to go.



Then to my homemade aan experiment, which actually ended up turning out great. Was really worried since the dough was SUPER moist/sticky, the kitchen was a disaster afterward. lol

Ingredients for the naan:

Bread flour (1.5 cups)
Chickpea/gram flour (1/2 cup)
milk (1/2 cup)
plain yogurt (1/2 cup)
baking soda (1/8 tsp)
salt (1/2 tsp)
yeast (2 tsp)



I put it all in the bread machine on the dough cycle... and it came out a sticky, yucky mess! The recipe was supposed to yield 6 naan, which it ultimately did, but instead of being 6 naan 4"x8"... they were about 4x6 (or smaller!). So a lot of waste. Not sure what the problem is/was... but it tasted awesome.



I was originally going to cook it on the egg (since I had it roaring around 800F...) but I was too distraught with how crappy the dough looked and how much was wasted that I said screw it and cooked it on the pizza stone in the oven. Kinda wish I had done it on the egg!

Still, it turned out awesome.



Egg in Action pics:



Tandoori chicken (and bacon prawns) grillin:



mmmm bacon prawns



off the grill.



food finally done, but the kitchen is a disaster. Time for a beer.



Time to eat. Tandoori mackerel, tandoori chicken, salad, 3 bacon wrapped habanero stuffed prawns, spinach & mint chutney, and naan. Awesome meal.