A basketful of fresh, juicy and crunchy seafood offerings and interesting sauce and meat combinations are the specialities at Blue Water Grille. Eram Agha sampled fish spiced with oranges and peri-peri
You name it, and they have it — jumbo, black water and tiger prawns, shrimps, river sole, salmon, snapper, surmai and basa fish. Seafood lovers can take a dip at Blue Water Grille and enjoy some interesting and fresh delicacies. The raw fish is sourced from MM Fisheries which is known for supplying fresh catch. They don’t give frozen ones. The executive chef, MM Malhotra said, “In this stretch, which is dominated by Punjabis seafood is a big hit because they love fish preparations.” When asked to name the variety that suits our palate and is most popular, he said, “River sole is for grilled dishes and Surmai is for tikka and curries, it is best cooked in tandoor. Basa from Vietnam is gaining popularity, but since it is bland in taste, we have to think of innovative tangy accompaniments. Mild sauces should be avoided with a vengeance in basa preparation.”
Soon we saw some fresh catches cooked to perfection laid on our table — a basketful of grilled fish, prawns and squids. The orange spiced basa was heavenly. It tastes zesty with orange sauce, red chilli and crushed pepper powder with some lemon juice. White wine compliments the dish. The spicy orange condiment goes well with every other fish but not with salmon.
The chef said, “It has a very strange taste that doesn’t go with every garnish and dressing.” Squid preparation was made by frying. “That’s the best way to make a squid delicacy, either use fresh bread crumbs or batter made of flour and cornflour. Some mustard sauce is strongly recommended,” said the chef.
Other things that followed were Amritsari fish tikka, chilli garlic fish and peri-peri fish, which were served with a generous dose of mayonnaise sauce to cut the spice quotient and buttered vegetables to be savoured with garlic bread. “This platter sums up to a complete meal — packed with right amount of nutrients,” he said.
Between chicken and fish peri-peri, Malhotra likes the latter “because my customers always order this. Punjabis, who are dominant visitors here, will anytime go for a fish over chicken,” Malhotra said.
His secret to give the best grilled fish is simple: “Some salt, pepper and lemon juice is the quickest way, or you can add some mustard,” he said. It is wow!
Among the other meat preparations, our favourite is murgh Mirza Hussaini. This dish is the result of some everyday conversations between chefs from different cultural backgrounds. One of his chefs from lucknow shared the recipe of this chicken.
“All we did to make this dry chicken was, add saffron and some rose water,” he said.The freshness of rose water and taste of saffron changed the flavour. It was light on palate and had strong smell of rose.