Egg Fried Rice & Goan Shrimp Balchao

Here comes the century.... yay!!!!!!!!!

I wanted to post something special for the 100th post and have been waiting for a while.. Either I dont find the dish as special or I am not satisfied with the clicks. Finally I decided to post whatever I cook today(in fact yesterday) never mind what it is and how the clicks be.

While hopping through the blogs I came across the shrimp recipe @yummyoyummy and decided to try that out with a few tweaks. I checked Maya if it would pair well with fried rice and she gave a 'Go' to it.

And I really do not remember where I picked the fried rice recipe from. I did not bookmark it, but had it written down in a textpad. That was great too and my thanks to the real owner of the recipe.

Egg Fried Rice:

Ingredients(Serves – 3 to 4):

Basmati Rice          --   2 cups
Water                        --   4 cups
Any cooking oil    --   1 tbsp
Salt                             --   to Taste

Ginger                       --   1 tbsp, finely chopped
Garlic                        --   1 tbsp, finely chopped

Carrot                       --   2 medium sized
Beans                         --  10 - 12
Bell peppers/capsicum -- half of a medium sized one
Celery                        --   1 cup, chopped
Cabbage                   --   1 cup, chopped
Spring onion           --   2 - 3

Large eggs              --   3

Soy sauce                 --    ½ tbsp
Green chilly sauce  --  ½ tbsp
Rice vinegar          --   ½ tbsp
Ketchup                   --   ½ tbsp
Black pepper         --    1 tsp , freshly ground

Vegetable oil        --    2 -3 tbsp
Salt                            --  to taste

Preparation of Egg Fried Rice:

Wash and drain the rice. Boil water with salt and oil in a heavy bottom vessel. Taste the water to check the salt. Add rice and bring it to a boil again and then reduce the flame to medium - low and cook covered until rice is fully done and water is absorbed. Transfer the rice to a larger plate or tray and gently separate the rice using a fork.  Let the rice cool completely before mixing with the vegetables, else it would be mushy.

It is best to use left over rice, I did actually cook the rice previous day and left it in the fridge.

Chop the vegetables and keep aside. Keep the white bulbs and stalks of the spring onions separate. We use them separately.

Heat up 1 tbsp oil, in a large wok or any large vessel. Add chopped ginger and garlic and fry till it turn transparent.Now add the white bulb of the spring onions, bell peppers, carrots,beans, celery and stir fry, for 1 -2 minutes in high heat. High heat helps to keep the vegetables crunchy even when cooked. But be carful not to burn the vegetables. Now add the chopped cabbage, half of the green stalks of spring onion and salt.The sauces might have salt in it. So be careful while adding the salt. Mix everything together and transfer to a plate.

Add some more oil, and break the eggs, directly into the pan. Add salt and pepper quickly and stir the egg continuously to get fine scrambled egg and transfer to the plate

Heat rest of the oil, add the cooked and cooled rice and stir well, in medium-high heat. When the rice well separated, add the cooked vegetables and the scrambled egg and mix well. Then sprinkle the sauces,vinegar and ground pepper one by one and mix well. The quantity of sauces can be adjusted to personal taste. The given quantity will give a mild flavor. Check the salt and sprinkle if required.

Switch off the flame and add the remaining spring onion, mix well. Garnish with some. Keep it closed for 10 - 15 minutes. Serve hot.

 

Goan Shrimp Balchao:

Ingredients (Serves 4)

Shrimp                        --   1 lb / ½ kg 
Turmeric powder   --   2 pinches, optional
Onion                           --   1 medium, finely chopped
Garlic                           --   3 cloves, minced
Tomato                       --   1 large, finely chopped
Curry leaves             --  10 , I added more
Whole dried chillies -- 4
Sugar                           --  ½ tsp
Butter/Coconut oil -- 1 tbsp, I used coconut oil.
Canola oil                  -- 1 tbsp
Salt                               -- To taste

For the spice paste :

Chilly powder         --   1 tsp
Garam masala       --    ½ tsp
Ginger                       --   1 inch
Garlic                         --   3 cloves
Vinegar                    --   2 tsp, I used white vinegar

Preparation of Shrimp

Marinate the shrimp with a little salt and turmeric powder.The original recipe does not use turmeric powder,so you can omit it too.Let it stand so for at least 15 - 20 minutes.

Grind the ingredients for the spice paste and keep aside.

Heat oil in a pan. Fry the dry red chillies until brown on medium heat. Add the chopped ginger,garlic and curry leaves. Fry for around a minute and add onions, little salt and saute until brown. Add the tomatoes and cook until the tomatoes are squishy.

   

Add the ground spice paste. Cook until their raw smell is gone and oil starts separating.

Meanwhile fry the shrimp in the butter/coconut oil until firm and pink. If you are using fresh shrimp, let the shrimp take round shape and also let the water coming out of the shrimp completely evaporate.

    

Add the fried shrimp to the sauce and mix well. Cook for 1 - 2 minutes. Switch off. I added 2-3 chopped curry leaves and drizzled half a tsp of coconut oil on top of it. Kept it closed for about 5 - 10 minutes and served with Egg fried rice.