Goan spiced marinated seafood with chilli coconut panna cotta and lentil salad

Goan dishes are usually fresh, punchy and designed to suit the southern Indian climate.  I love the sheer amount of flavour they have and there are 2 dishes in particular I love to make.  One is a recharde marinade with a spicy marinade and chilli coconut panna cotta dish from my Rasoi cookbook by Vineet Bhatia and the other is Goan spiced salmon with lentil salad from my Cinnamon Club cookbook by Vivek Singh.  So.....I decided to combine both.

Instead of making 2 separate marinades as per Vineet Bhatia I combined both.  So I combined the recharge marinade and the spicy marinade.  I've done this before with success but this time I also combined the marinade from the Vivek Singh recipe too.

I'm writing it down because it was without a doubt one of the most delicious Indian meals I've cooked.  It was an absolute knock out.  Here goes (and yes there's a LOT of ingredients):

Marinade:

1 tablespoon crushed dried Chilli

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 tsp coriander seeds

1cm piece of cinnamon stick

2 cloves

4 tablespoons coconut vinegar

3/4 tbsp gram flour roux

1 tbsp chopped garlic

1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger

3/4 tbsp chopped green chilli

1/2 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

2 dessertspoons tomato ketchup

salt

Blend together to form a paste.  Let this sit overnight in the fridge.

Dry roast the following spices:

4 cloves

1tsp coriander seeds

2 tsp black peppercorns

1 black cardamom pod

2 star anise

2 while dry red chillies

Once dry roasted, crush and add to the above marinade.  The whole thing can be done at once and sit in the fridge all mixed together.  

Lentil Salad:

30 gms white urad dahl

60 gms red lentils

Soak in water overnight in the fridge.  Rinse and drain.  Shake out excess water.

Add…

the zest and juice of one lime

salt

1 small ripe mango chopped 

approx 2 tbsp chopped fresh coriander.

heat 1tsp mustard seeds in  pan until they cackle.  Add a handful of fresh curry leaves to temper and then pour into the above lentil salad.

I also added some chopped kohlrabi for crunch.

Set aside in the fridge.

Chilli and coconut panna cotta:

80 mis coconut milk

1/4 stick of lemon grass chopped

4 kaffir lime leaves

1 sprig curry leaves

1 garlic clove crushed

1 tbsp chopped ginger

1 red chilli chopped or 1 tsp Kashmiri chilli powder

1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander

1/2 gelatine leaf

salt.

Put all ingredients in a pan except gelatine.  Bring to the boil.  Blitz and then pass through a fine strainer.  Soak the gelatine leaf in cold water till soft.  Squeeze and add to the warm coconut milk mixture.  Pour into 2 little moulds and leave to set in the fridge.

To cook and serve:

So Finally, coat some seafood in the marinade mix (I used salmon and prawns).  Grill until cooked under a hot grill.  When using fish with skin coat the flesh side only and cook skin side up.  

Plate up the lentil salad, demould the little panda cotta, top the lentil salad with the cooked seafood.  Scatter with coriander and viola.  Bloody gorgeous!