From fish market to frying pan

From the slippery floors of the Colaba fish market to a five-star kitchen where he stirs up a mean pomfret dunked in Normandy butter sauce, Executive Sous Chef Himanshu Taneja takes us on an origin-to-destination journey, punctuated by handy tips and psychology-of-a-lobster trivia

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It's seven in the morning, and 31 year-old Himanshu Taneja, dressed in formal trousers, a white shirt and comfortable sandals, is standing outside the Colaba fish market,u00a0 watching basket-toting fish mongers walk by in a hurry.

Inside, round wooden blocks wait with immutable patience for them to arrive with their catch. In a corner, under moist slats, three cats lick their paws in anticipation.

As the first of the sellers arrive, Taneja, Executive Sous Chef at JW Marriott, Juhu, steps in. He watches them lay their fish on the white marble slabs in front of their round wooden seats. As the rohu, pomfret, boi, and betki emerge from gunnysacks and water troughs, Taneja walks from one stall to another, prodding the scales and examining the eyes.

In one deft move, he pulls open the gill of a silver pomfret to examine its colour. He looks at the prawns and smiles, but the two-foot-long rohu doesn't leave him too happy.

"When you stand in front of the ocean, you don't smell fish, do you?" asks Taneja, for whom Khar fish market was a favourite haunt when he was a young hotel management graduate. The best sort of fish, he says, as he sniffs the pomfret, is the one that smells of sea breeze.

A beginner's guide to buying fish
Just then, a white cat with one eye whizzes past, chasing a kitten out of the fish market. Unfazed, Taneja continues his lesson.

"The eyes of the fish should be clear, not cloudy, and when you press the flesh, your finger shouldn't leave a dent."

A really fresh fish should have red gills, but the liquid that oozes from it shouldn't be reddish. Look for cloudy white. Is that why he scrunched his nose at the large rohu, we ask.

He nods. As a child, Taneja grew up as every other urban boy does in Delhiu00a0-- idolising his mother's vegetarian preparations ("She's the best cook in the world") and studying to become an engineer.

Taneja's foray into the kitchen began with a pack of Maggi and progressed to rice and dal, all made during study breaks.

And while he still can't make omelettes like his grandma whipped up, or the parathas his mother makes, the chef can cook a mean Seared King Prawn and Pan Fried Pomfret.

Sleight of hand
A drive across the city and into the Mariott kitchen, the chef takes his deboning knife and chops the head of the pomfret. "Don't forget to wash it nicely before you start," he says.

Then he slices it into four neat fillets. "The pomfret is one of the easiest fish to debone, because the bones come out in one go. The hilsa on the other hand, has bones everywhere," he grumbles.

As he slices the veins off the king prawns, he suggests the best way to preserve fish is to lay it out on ice, while making sure the water drains off. If the ice melts into the fish, the fish rots faster.

"If you don't have ice, wrap it in a damp cloth, but cook it as soon as possible."u00a0 And here's why it's best for prawns to keep their shell on while in the panu00a0-- they retain the moisture and flavour.

The flame shouldn't be too high. Small prawns turn rubbery, and bigger ones go dry, he says, while sliding in onions, basil leaves and sundried tomatoes into the pan.

In another pan, Taneja is making the butter sauce ("the buerre blanc is a Normandy specialty"). He drizzles in some white wine, olive oil and vinegar over the fish fillets. Before you know it, the pomfret is ready and the prawns are on their way to perfection.

As you struggle to keep up, Taneja's lessons continue. "And have I told you about the lobsters?" You can taste chef Taneja's preparations at the sea food festival at Lotus Caf ufffd, JW Marriott, Juhuu00a0 every Friday and Saturday till June. Call 66933276 for reservations.

You can cook like taneja

Ingredients
1 whole pomfretu00a0
1/4 u00a0cup refined flour
A pinch of dry oregano
1 large potato
4 shallots (small onions)
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/2u00a0fresh fennel bulb
50 g butter
1/4u00a0 cup white wine vinegar
1/2u00a0cup white wine (use any)
Sea salt to taste
1/2u00a0 tsp cracked peppercorn
1/2u00a0 Meyer lemon
1 tsp fish stock (if available)

Preparation
For fork mash, boil potatoes with skin, peel off and mash the potatoes with fork. Add butter and salt (to taste) and mash till soft and fluffy.

For the buerre blanc sauce, take a small pan, add chopped shallots, pepper corn, white wine and white wine vinegar, and fish stock. Wait till it's reduced to 1/5th the quantity, then add frozen butter cubes and keep whisking the liquid. Frozen butter is added to help maintain the temperature at 90 C, which is important, else the emulsion will get curdled. Wait for butter to melt and take off flame.

Peel the shallots and slowly cook with balsamic vinegar and finish it with butter. Shave the fennel bulb and keep the slivers in ice water to retain the crispiness.

Now, for the pomfret. Take out two fillets of pomfret with skin, dust them with seasoned flour and oregano just before cooking. Heat a heavy bottom pan, add extra virgin olive oil. Sear the fillets, skin side first and then the other side till golden brown. Take it off flame, add butter and lemon juice. Never add lemon while cooking the fish, else the dish will turn bitter.

Seared King Prawns in Spicy Cherry Tomato Sauce

Ingredients
2 (8 to 10 size) King prawns
1/2u00a0 a cup of cherry tomatoes
2 fresh red chillies
1 fresh tomato
1/2u00a0 a cup white wine (any)
10 leaves of fresh basil
1 shallots
1 tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 dollop butter
Sea salt to taste
1/4u00a0cup cous cous
1 sprig parsley
1/2u00a0 Meyer lemons
10 Arugula leaves
1/2u00a0 tsp garlic oil

Preparation
Soak Cous Cous in warm water overnight, strain and finish with chopped parsley, sea salt and lemon juice. Remove the centre shell of the prawnsu00a0-- keep the head and tail on. Cooking a prawn within its shell retains the flavour. With a slight insertion of the knife, remove the vein. Sprinkle sea salt on the prawns.

Heat the pan. Add olive oil and sear the prawns till half done. Add chopped shallots, garlic oil, half-cut cherry tomatoes, sliced fresh red chilly and saut ufffd for a while. Add white wine, and as the wine quantity decreases, add fresh blended tomatoes. Keep turning the sides of the prawns to ensure it's cooked evenly. Finish it with fresh butter and basil.

Toss arugula with extra virgin olive oil, sea salt and lemon juice. Do this in the end so the leaves remain crispy. Arrange over the prawns and serve.

Like lobsters? Don't traumatise them

If chef Taneja is to be believed, lobsters are sensitive souls. After they are caught, they go into trauma and their flesh becomes taut. "That's the wrong time to kill them, since the meat will be rubber-like when cooked."
So the French (who else?) catch their lobsters and dunk them in a water tank for a week or two. The idea is to let them acclimatise and loosen up. That's when they are finally taken to the frying pan.

And 2 more tips to buying fish

>The scales should look shiny, not dull. But don't get taken in by fishmongers who sprinkle water over the fish so that it glistens.u00a0

>Prawns should have pink tentacles, a full tail and an intact head. They should not be greying, and the same smell rule applies to them toou00a0-- should smell of sea breeze, not fishy.

In their case, size does matter

Although prawns are bought by the kilo, they are known by their size. If they are large-sized, you should get between eight and 10 of them in a kilo. If smaller, you should get between 30 and 35 inu00a0 a kilo.