Welcome to Morocco...Sea Bass curry, cherry tomatoes and olives

"You know what, basil is available in Spar! What say shall we experiment with some Thai?"
"Sounds good, lets get some coconut milk, lemon leaves and some sea bass...this should let us come close to something Thai-ish"

At Spar...all excited we pick up the fish and rush to the veggies section. Another reason for chasing basil is cause we have been hoarding
pine nuts and olive oil ever since one of us had some brilliant pesto pasta. As luck would have it, they had to be out of basil only today! Bloody! Well this isnt gonna stop us from making the Saturday night dinner...scanned the shelves and spotted the best looking cherry tomatoes, leafiest corriander and some fresh organic mint. Morrocan it is!! (you know what, we would like to take a moment and gloat about the fact that we thought on our feet :P )

Just to rewind a bit, earliar today we were going through the Moroccan recipies by Ghille Basan. Awwman, the ingredients like cumin, bell pepper, corriander and mint are so familiar to us but the cooking techniques and process are so foreign, it kind of stayed on.

So, Moroccan it is.

Ingredients:
10 cherry tomatoes
1 tomato (chopped)
1 onion (chopped)
1 spoon ginger garlic paste
15 large cloves of garlic
8-10 green olives
5 sambhar onions (those bonsai onions)
Handful of mint and coriander
1 tbl spoon of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of turmeric
2 teaspoons of paprika and one of ground cumin

Process:
Marinate the the fish in lemon juice, 5 cloves of garlic, paprika, 1 tbl spoon of oilve oil and chopped coriander, cumin powder and salt to taste. Keep aside for about 15 mins. In the mean time, in some hot oil saute the onion, tomato, 5 cloves of garlic, 1 teaspoon of paprika anmeric, for about 5 mins. Bring it to room temp and grind it to a coarse paste.

Now, shallow fry both the sides of the fish till it is cooked. Keep aside.

In about 2 tbls spoons of olive oil, add about 5 chopped garlic cloves, when it changes color, add the cherry tomatoes, shallots and saute till thy e tomatoes are soft. To this add the groud paste add about 2 cups of water, olives, rest of the coriander and bring to a boil. Slide the fish in with some mint and close it wit a lid for at least 5 mins.

Garnish with corriander and serve on a hot bed of rice!!!