Royal Foodie Joust September: Smells-so-good baked fish with lemon rice

Last month's joust winner Kittie of Kittens in the Kitchen hit the homerun with her trio. Kittie's challenge this month was to come up with something using ginger, citrus, and whole grains. Wait-a-minute, halt-your-horses! Whole grains? Thankfully, after much confusion as to what actually constitutes "whole" grains, Kittie and the Queen clarified everything and I was on my way to bliss...


Smells-so-good (because I can't think of a better name) baked fish
Ingredients:
2 Fish steaks
1 red Chilli finely chopped (if you want a bit of a kick, use birds eye chillies)
A handful of shallots finely chopped
1 teaspoon ginger, chopped
8 - 9 tablespoons Light Soy Sauce
3 teaspoons Sesame Oil
Cherry Tomatoes (optional - I just wanted to add veggie quotient)

Method:
1. In a bowl, mix chilli, onions, ginger, soy sauce and 2 teaspoons sesame oil.
2. Brush remainder sesame oil onto baking foil and spread a bit of the soy-sauce soaked onion chilli mixture. Place fish steaks on top and spoon the marinade over fish.
3. Fold foil into an envelope, making sure all sides are firmly crimped (this lets you get a "steamed" juicy fish instead of dried roasted fish)
4. Bake for about 25 minutes in 150 celcius (depends on how thick your fish steaks were) or until fish is done.
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Lemon Rice
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon Light Sesame oil
½ teaspoon mustard seeds
A pinch fenugreek seeds
4-5 curry leaves roughly torn
1 tablespoon split brown chickpeas or chana dal (soaked for a few hours)
1 teaspoon chopped ginger
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
salt to taste
3 tbsp lemon juice
1 cup cooked long grain rice or you could use brown rice (make sure its seperated and not sticky)

Method:
1. Heat the oil in a large non-stick frying pan and add the mustard seeds, fenugreek seeds and the chickpeas and stir fry until lightly browned.
2. Add the ginger, turmeric, curry leaves and salt to taste. Fry for a few seconds and take aside.
3. In a seperate bowl, stir in the lemon juice with hot steaming rice using a fork. Add in fried spices and mix well (be careful not to break up the grains too much... if rice is too sticky, spread it on a baking tray for about half an hour, then heat it up and serve).


Didn't bother with any fancy plating because was hurrying dinner to get myself stationed in front of the tv with mom to catch the Olympic Badminton finals between Malaysia's Lee Chong Wei and China's World Number One Lin Dan. Chong Wei may have gotten crushed but despite what everyone else says, to me he is worthy of the olympic hero title as he gave us Malaysians (who for the last decade most of us would rather support foreign athletes than our own) -- hope.

p/s: If you want to check out the other entries or join in the Joust, visit here.
p/p/s: Hehe... I kinda 'accidentally' dropped in too much turmeric into the rice, so if you follow the recipe, your rice should be a light yellow and not that bright...