Fried CatFish on bed of Cabbage, seasoned with Coconut and Poppy seeds

Ingredients

• 2 teaspoons of Poppy Seeds
• 2 teaspoons of Fennel
• 2 teaspoons of Jeera
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of Pepper corns
• 10 Curry leaves
• 1/3 can of coconut milk
• 1/3 can of water
• 1 medium sized Onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of Garlic Paste
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped
• 6 pieces of Cat fish, each about 2 inch squares
• 1 quarter of medium sized Cabbage, chopped fine

Steps

1. Grind the Poppy seeds, Pepper Corns, Jeera and Fennel seeds in dry grinder
2. Heat the oil in a Tawa
3. Put the Curry leaves in the hot oil for 30 seconds
4. Add the ground powder from step 1 and fry for another minutes
5. Add garlic and fry
6. Add chopped onions an fry till the onions turn brown
7. Add the tomatos and fry till the tomatos well
8. Add coconut milk and equal amount of water and cook till the added water is gone
9. Remove some of the sauce into a bowl, enough to batter the pieces of fish with
10. Reduce the the gravy a bit further into a thick sauce
11. Add the finely chopped cabbage and fry for 1 minute
12. Take of the heat and transfer into a square serving plate
13. Batter the pieces of fish in the gravy saved for battering in step 9
14. Shallow fry in hot vegetable oil about 3 minutes each side
15. Lay the fried fish on on the bed of cooked Cabbage  

Poached Cat Fish in a Coconut Poppy seed gravy

Ingredients

• 6 pieces of Cat fish, each about 2 inch squares
• 2 teaspoons of Poppy Seeds
• 2 teaspoons of Fennel
• 2 teaspoons of Jeera
• 1 1/2 tablespoon of Pepper corns
• 10 Curry leaves
• 1/3 can of coconut milk
• 1/3 can of water
• 1 medium sized Onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon of Garlic Paste
• 2 medium sized tomatoes, chopped

Steps

1. Grind the Poppy seeds, Pepper Corns, Jeera and Fennel seeds in dry grinder
2. Heat the oil in a Tawa
3. Put the Curry leaves in the hot oil for 30 seconds
4. Add the ground powder from step 1 and fry for another minutes
5. Add garlic and fry
6. Add chopped onions an fry till the onions turn brown
7. Add the tomatos and fry till the tomatos well
8. Add coconut milk and equal amount of water and cook till the added water is gone
9. Lay the pieces of Cat fish in the gravy, scoop an dour some of the gravy on top of the pieces of fish. After a couple of minutes and turn the fishes and cook for another couple of minutes
10. Get of the heat and transfer to a serving bowl

Persian Saffron Rice - A 24 hour process

Ingredients

• 1 cup Basmati rice
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• pleanty of salt
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil
• 3-4 pieces of saffron
• potato or uncooked chapathi or cooked naan, or yogurt  for "taadig"

Steps

1. Wash the Basmati Rice 5-6 times in water until the run off is clear
2. Soak the rice in salted water for a whole day, about 22 hours. The water must be very salty. Say like tablespoon on salt for every 2 cups of water that you use for soaking.
3. Drain the water out of the soaking rice
4. Bring to boil the drained salty water and add extra water to make sure there 3 cups of water boiling for every cup of rice
5. Add the rice to boiling water and cook for 10-15 minutes(depending on the rice) until the rice is cooked but not mushy. The rice should still have a bit of bite to it and not fully cooked.
6. When done dump the rice into a strainer to strain out the water.
7. Take 2 spoons of the boiling water and mix well with the sugar and saffron and keep aside
8. In a non-stick cooking pot, heat on high and drop the butter and the oil. 
9. When hot add 1/2 cup of water and stir well till the oil and water mix
10. Then poor the liquid out to a bowl, leaving a little bit of it in the bot
11. Layer the bottom of the pot with items for taadig. i.e. slices of potato, uncooked chapathi or a couple of spoons of yogurt mixed with couple of spoons of rice.
12. Then put the rice back into the pot on top of the taadig layer in a mound. 
13. Put some vertical holes into the mound for the rice to breath
14. Pour the water/oil mixture around the rice
15. Pour the saffron water on the rice.
16. Cover the pot with lid wrapped with towel
17. Turn the heat on Medium-High for 5 minutes
18. Then to Medium-Low and cook for 1 hour
19. Remove from heat and immediately immerse the pot in cold water to stop the cooking
20. Scoop out the rice in the bowl
21. Then cover the pot with a plate and invert pot to get the taadig out of the pot
22. "Taadig" is the crusted layer at the bottom and is considered a delicacy by itself