Cooking Fish with Coconut, Cumin and Tamarind

This is a dish I used to watch my grandmother make around 50 years ago. 

My mom still makes it, usually with much smaller fish, in a clay pot, 

but I'm cooking it my way with some really fresh sea bass!

I prefer to cut the fish myself, 'cos the folks in the store don't do it properly. They chop it. 

Small fish should never be chopped, but cut

I'm actually cooking two different dishes, 

that's why you see two different types of ginger and onions in the photos below.

For this dish, I'll be using the red onions, small ginger, some garlic, 

mustard seeds & Thai red chillies (quite hot).

Other ingredients - coconut oil, grated coconut, turmeric, cumin powder and a particular kind of Tamarind which our friends brought us from Kerala, India. 

The tamarind is put in a cup of warm water for the flavour to effuse into the water. 

See the photos below

For those who don't know, Kerala is known as the Spice Garden of India, and they traded spices with ancient Egyptians and Assyrians 3000 years before Christ. 

Also Kerala is where Saint Thomas, one of the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth, 

took Christianity to India in 52 AD (long before America was even discovered!)

Back to the fish ...

Heat a little coconut oil, add mustard seeds, 

fry the mixture of finely chopped onions, garlic, ginger and chillies,

add turmeric, cumin powder, and a little salt,

then add the grated coconut and fry,

add the tamarind liquid along with the tamarind

add the fish, and cover it with the coconut mixture

Cook on low heat till the fish is cooked

Here's an interesting article on the origin of the Christian fish symbol

HE shed light on my path, and changed my life

Though our languages, and cultures differ, our hearts yearn for the same creator!

I don't understand Arabic, but there's something about the Middle Eastern style of music,

that reminds me of where Jesus came from

Lovely song by the BetterLife Team in Egypt

Listening to Gordon Lightfoot, and painting Gordon Lightfoot

I don't paint portraits, but I've been listening to Gordon Lightfoot for more than 40 years, 
and his music has been an inspiration while painting landscapes!

 

 'Canadian Railroad Trilogy' by Gordon Lightfoot

This is how he looked in the '70's 
(no I have never met him, but would love to some day)
☺

I'm painting on birch wood

The Minstrel of the Dawn

I made a temporary brush in the shape of a maple leaf

The floor is filled with fallen maple leaves, it's autumn after all

Gordon Lightfoot

12"x"16" oil painting on wood

An evening in October

As the grass withers and the yellow chrysanthemums fade,

The pink roses show their final gratitude in the evening shade

A second generation Blue Jay eyes the last seeds in the bird feeder,

And I say to myself, "I need to feed her, I need to feed her"

While the newborn squirrel perfects it's autumn acrobatics,

Gathering and hiding nuts using all kinds of tactics

All in preparation for what's to come after summer's all over,

But enjoy the moment, for now, it's a lovely evening in October!

~ John Koshy

22nd October 2017

Have you ever driven through a car wash and seconds later the EPC, Traction Control and Check Engine lights all come on?

Just happened now on the Audi A4, and this is not the first time.

This phenomenon happens every few months on the Audi A4 after a car wash.

The first time it happened I got worried, had to fix an appointment with a mechanic, who diagnosed and found nothing was wrong. (If nothing was wrong why did the lights come on after a car wash?)

I bet you even Audi cannot answer this question.

Just do a Google search P2138 car wash and see how many other people are facing this same problem.

I have actually spent thousands of dollars replacing the Throttle Body and  Pedal Position Sensor on the Audi A3. Could I have saved all that money if I was wiser then? Probably.

Thankfully I now have less money to spend with car dealers, but more importantly, 

I have the Torque App.

Here's how I fix the EPC and Check Engine lights on the Audi A3 & A4

Looking forward to helping others who have these problems on their cars.

Happy driving friends!