Tilapia with Indian Style Fried Rice

In my house we all love fish. During the summer season I prefer to make wild caught salmon because that's the time when U get it fresh but other times I try to make different kinds. One popular one among my family is Machi Tawa fry. It's basically very simple recipe and can be used with any kind of fish. So I'm not writing the recipe here again as it's same as this one except in that recipe I made rainbow trout but here I have made tilapia. Cooking time is almost same for both the fish, they don't take more than 7-9 minutes on pan depending upon how thick the fillet is. Cut each fillet into two or keep it full. One more difference is I've stopped using my non-stick pan from long time & I use my cast iron pan(lodge) to tawa-fry(pan-fry) the fish.

I served the fish with Indian style fried rice. I had some left over rice so basically made some tarka with veggies to make fried rice. Here's the recipe for very flavorful rice :

What U need :

• 1 cup cooked rice (preferably left over, if cooking fresh let them cool completely before adding them to tarka)
• around 3/4 cup of  veggies like carrots, green/red bell pepper, shelled peas, corn
• one medium size onion thinly sliced
• 2-3 green chillies chopped
• salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1/2 tsp. red chilli powder
• 1 tsp. cumin powder
• 1 tsp. mustard seeds
• few curry leaves(curry patta)
• 3-4 pieces laung(cloves)
• 3 tablespoon liquid : water/ chicken stock/ veg. stock
• 3-4 tsp. cooking oil

What U do :

• If peas are hard par-boil them or microwave them for 2-3 minutes. Chop carrots & bell pepper into small cubes.
• Heat oil in karahi(wok), add sliced onions & cook them till translucent.
• Using a slotted spoon move them to a side of the karahi. Now add mustard seeds & Laung/clove & curry leaves. Once they start to splutter add all the veggies. Sprinkle some salt & saute the veggies for 2-3 minutes.
• Add rest of the spices & chopped green chillies. If tarka/veggie mixture looks dry add  2-3 spoons liquid(water/veg. stock/ chicken stock), once it's hot add rice to this & mix them nicely so each & every grain get the coating of spices & flavors. Turn the gas off & cover the rice & let them sit for 5 minutes or so.
• Serve them with yogurt/dahi or any kind of meat/fish U like.

Notes : 1) don't add too much of liquid otherwise rice will become mushy.
2) make sure rice have no lumps before adding it to the tarka, break the lumps using your hands. Once rice is added to the tarka be gentle, otherwise rice grain will break into pieces.

3) I'm not using lot of oil which means rice can stick to the pan so be careful. I use my Iron karahi(wok), it works as non-stick, so if U want U can use non-stick pan or may be increase little bit of oil to avoid sticking problem.

Here's one close look.....