Prawns Stew

Ingredients (Serves 4 - 5):

Salad Shrimp / Small prawns --   250 gm
Potato                               --   3 - 4 medium size
Carrot                               --   1 medium size
Red Onion                       --   1 medium size
Ginger                               --   2 tbsp,thinly sliced
Garlic                                --   2 tbsp,thinly sliced
Green Chillies                --   2-3
Cardamom                      --   1
Cloves                               --   2
Cinnamon                       --   1" piece
Curry leaves                  --   1 sprig
Thick Coconut Milk     --   1 cup
Thin Coconut Milk       --   1 cup
Black Pepper powder --   1 tbsp, freshly made preferably
Coriander leaves          --   2 - 3 sprigs
Oil                                       --   2 tbsp, preferably coconut oil
Salt                                     --   as required

Preparation :

For the coconut milk: We need half of a coconut grated. Thick milk is usually extracted by squeezing coconut with your hands, or pulsing in a blender couple of times, adding a quarter cup of hot water. For thin coconut milk, add about ¾ cups of water to the squeezed coconut and blend it in the mixer. Strain it.

I used canned coconut milk. 1 cup of thick coconut milk = ¾ cup of canned milk + ¼ cup of water. 1 cup of thin coconut milk = ½ cup of canned milk + ½ cup of water.

Clean the shrimp and keep aside.

In a pressure cooker heat oil and add the cardamom, cloves, cinnamon and sauté for a minute.

Add the finely chopped onions, ginger, garlic and slit green chilies and saute until the onions turn translucent.

Add the shrimp, diced potatoes, diced carrots and curry leaves and saute for few minutes until the water is completely evaporated. Add the thin coconut milk and pressure cook until the veggies are cooked.

Now add the thick coconut milk. As soon as the mixture starts to boil take it off from the stove. Garnish with pepper powder.and chopped coriander leaves.

Serve hot with appam / bread / ghee rice.

Pathiri with Prawns Masala

I usually make my pathiris non-flavored, but last time I saw this recipe on net and thought should give a try. This sounds like neypathal without deep frying. All of us liked this very much and this has now become our way of making pathiris J. To pair with it, I have the yummy prawns masala. It is completely a coconut milk / oil based recipe and hence am sure that anyone from Kerala would love this. Others give it a try, may be you guys will fall for coconut oil with this ;). I was not able to get the step by step pics this time. I shall update the post with more pics when I make this next time.

Pathiri:
Ingredients for Pathiri (Serves 4):

          Rice flour             --   3 cups
          Water                    --   4½ cups
          Salt                         --   as required
          Grated coconut --   1 cup (optional)
          Shallots                --   2 (optional)
          Cumin seeds       --   2 tsp (optional)
          Oil                           --   1 tsp


Preparation of pathiris:

Grind the grated coconut, shallots and the cumin seeds to a coarsely - fine paste (something in between coarse and fine).

Boil the water with the required salt and oil. Once it comes to a boil,add the ground mixture.Let it stay for half a minute. Simmer the flame, and add the flour. Keep mixing while you add the flour.and switch off the stove.

Leave it to cool a bit. Knead well while it is still warm. Make smooth small balls from this dough, as we do for chappathis. Make round pathiris using a press pan/chapathi press/tortilla press.

If you do not have a press pan, you can either roll it out as we do for chapathis or use a flat plate and a zip lock to make a press pan.  Cut the zip lock into 2 plastic sheets. Grease the inner sides well. Keep a pathiri ball on one sheet and cover with the other. Using a flat plate / tiffin box press on top of it. Make sure you do not apply too much pressure to tear your pathiris.

Cook the pathiris on a flat pan on a medium flame until they puff up slightly.

Prawns Masala:

Ingredients for Prawns Masala (Serves 4):
       To marinate: 

           Shrimp/Prawns    --   1 lb / ½ kg 
          Chilly Powder         --   3/4 tsp
          Turmeric Powder  --   ¼ tsp
          Salt                              --   to taste
          Lemon juice             --   1 tsp

     For the masala:

          Garlic                          --   4 -5 cloves, chopped fine
          Ginger                         --   2 inch piece, chopped fine
          Green chillies           --   4 - 5, slit
          Onion                          --   2 medium size, sliced thin 
         Tomato                       --   1 large, chopped
         Turmeric Powder   --   ½ tsp
         Chilly Powder          --   2 tsp
         Coriander Powder --   2 tsp
         Cumin Powder        --   1 tsp
         Black Pepper Powder --   1½ tsp 
        Coconut pieces       --   as required
        Kokum / Kudam puli   --   1 big piece 
        Coconut milk            --   1 cup, medium thick consistency
        Coconut oil               --   2 tbsp / as required
       Curry leaves             --   2 - 3 springs
        Salt                               --   as required

Preparation of Prawns Masala:

Clean and devein the prawns. Marinate it with turmeric powder, chilly powder, salt and lemon juice. If keeping for more than half an hour, refrigerate it.

Soak the kudam puli in half a cup of water.

Heat oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Add the chopped ginger, garlic and slit green chillies.Saute until they are light brown ( 1 - 2 minutes). Add sliced onions and saute until they are golden brown.Now add the chopped tomato. Once the tomatoes is cooked and becomes mushy, add turmeric powder, chilly powder, coriander powder, cumin powder and pepper powder.Saute well until the raw smell goes off. Add the kudam puli with the water, coconut slices and mix well. Add the coconut milk and mix. Let it boil and let the gravy reduce to half. At this stage add the marinated prawns and cook. Make sure to stir in-between and it does not burn in the bottom of the pan. Let the whole gravy get evaporated and you get a thick masala. Switch off the stove.

Optionally add a tsp of coconut oil and garnish with curry leaves.

Pathiri Recipe Courtesy: Internet, Sorry I do not remember where I read this.
Prawns Masala Recipe Courtesy: Amma 

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.

Prawns in Coconut Gravy

Ingredients:

        Prawns                                 --   ½ kg
       Drumsticks                          --    2 – 3 pieces ( Optional )
       Finely chopped onions   --   ½ cup
       Green chillies                      --   2 – 3
       Tomato                                  --   1 medium size
       Garlic                                      --   1 big clove
       Ginger                                     --   1 small piece
       Tamarind                              --    A small ball (walnut size) 
       Turmeric Powder              --   ¼ tsp
       Chilly Powder                     --   1 tbsp
       Coconut milk                       --   1 cup
       Mustard Seeds                    --   1 tsp
       Curry Leaves                       --   1 spring
       Oil                                             --   2 tbsp
       Salt                                           --   to taste

Preparation of Prawns Curry:
         Soak the tamarind ball in water.  Clean the prawns and keep it aside.
          
         Heat oil in a pan. Splutter the mustard seeds. Add the onions, tomato, green chillies, garlic and ginger. Fry until the onions and tomatoes are smashed. Add the turmeric powder, chilly powder and salt.
         
         Squeeze the tamarind and pour the juice into the pan. Once it starts boiling, add  prawns and the drumstick pieces.
           
        Add the coconut milk when the prawns are half cooked.
         
       Let the prawns get completed cooked. Garnish with curry leaves.
        
       Serve hot with rice / dosa / kappa puzhukku.
    

Prawns Biriyani

Ingredients – Rice:

Basmati Rice / Jeera Rice     --   ½ kg 
Water                                            --   1 ½ measure of rice.
Lemon                                           --   1 medium
Cloves                                           --   3 - 4
Cardamom                                 --   1 - 2
Cinnamon                                   --   1 medium piece
Bay leaves                                  --   2 leaves
Ghee                                              --   3 tbsp
Salt                                                --   1 tbsp (Check the taste though)

Ingredients – For garnishing & layering:

Onions                                         --  1
Cashew Nuts                            --  ¼ cup
Raisins                                        --  ¼ cup
Garam Masala                         --  1 tsp
Coriander leaves                    --  A bunch
Mint leaves                               --  A bunch

Ingredients – Gravy:

Prawns                                      --  ½ kg
Turmeric powder                 --  ¼ tsp
Red Chilly powder               --  ½ tsp (I’ve added more green chillies)
Coriander powder               --  1 tsp
Finely Chopped Onions     --  2 – 3 medium sized
Green chillies                         --  6 – 7
Garlic                                        --  8 – 9 large cloves
Ginger                                       --  1 inch piece
Tomato                                    --  2 - 3 medium sized
Garam Masala                      --  1 tsp
Pepper                                      --  1 tsp
Coriander leaves                 --  A bunch (around 10 – 12 stem)
Mint leaves                            --  A bunch (around 10 – 12 leaves)
Oil                                              --  4 tbsp
Salt                                            --  to taste

Preparation of Gravy:

Marinate the prawns with turmeric powder, red chilly powder, coriander powder and salt. Keep it aside for half an hour.

Grind green chillies, garlic and ginger to a fine paste.

Heat oil in a pan and fry one finely chopped onion until its golden brown in colour. Keep it aside for garnishing. Then fry the cashews and raisins and keep them aside. (I did not use raisins as we are not big fans of it.) If you want to fry these in ghee do it just before frying the rice.

Fry the marinated prawns slightly. Do not over cook. Remove and keep aside.

Saute the left over onions in oil until they become translucent. Add the ground chilly mixture. Add the tomatoes, pepper powder & garam masala and cook until the tomatoes are squishy. Add water if required.

 

Add the fried prawns and chopped leaves. Cook it closed for 2 -3 minutes until the prawns and the gravy blends well. Make sure you have enough gravy for the biriyani. Keep the gravy aside.

Preparation of Rice:

Wash the rice thoroughly and soak in cold water for 25 – 30 minutes. Add 2 tbsp of ghee to a vessel and fry the drained rice for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, keep the water on another stove and let it boil. Add the boiling water to the fried rice. Add salt,cinnamon, cloves, bay leaves and cardamom. Once the rice starts boiling, add the lemon juice (strained juice -> this helps the rice to be non-sticky).

Cook the rice with the vessel closed with a lid. Also stir in between to make sure that the rice does not stick on the bottom of the vessel. Once the rice is 80% cooked drain the water from the rice. Empty this into another vessel, preferably other flat vessel/plates and let it cool.

Mix the biriyani:

Spread 1 tbsp of ghee in a big vessel (Oven safe, if baking in oven). As the first layer, spread some rice in the vessel. Spread the chopped coriander leaves, mint leaves, garam masala, fried onions, raisins and cashews. Now, as the second layer; spread the prawns with the gravy. Continue the layering until you are done with a layer of rice and the garnishing at the top.

 

Cover this and keep in a pre-heated oven at 250 F for 15 minutes.

Serve hot with raitha, pappadam and chammanthi.

I would like to submit this for the Festive rice event hosted by Torview.

Prawns Fry

Ingredients:

Prawns                                   --   ½ kg

Onion                                    --    1 medium size

Ginger Garlic Paste             --    2 tsp

Turmeric powder                 --    ½ tsp

Chilly powder                       --    2 tbsp

Pepper powder                    --    1 tsp

Curry leaves                        --   3 springs

Coconut pieces                    --   as required

Oil                                        --   4 tbsp

Salt                                      --    to taste

Preparation of Prawns Fry:

Marinade the prawns with the turmeric powder, chilly powder, pepper powder, ginger garlic paste and salt. If using fresh prawns, cook it until the water is absorbed.

Heat 2 tbsp oil in a pan and add the cooked prawns. Fry them until they turn slightly crispy and fish them out. You can also add the fresh prawns directly into the oil for frying. I cook it before just to avoid the spluttering due to water content.

 

Add remaining oil in the pan and add the thinly sliced coconut pieces. Fry until they are very light brown in colour. Now add the finely chopped onions and curry leaves. Saute until the onions are light brown.

Add the fried prawns, mix well and serve hot.

Varutharacha Prawns/Fish Curry with Dosa

Ingredients:

Fish (King Fish/Prawns)       --    ½ kg

Pearl Onions                        --    2 medium size

Ginger garlic paste               --    1 tsp

Green chillies                       --    2 - 3

Tomato                               --    ½ of medium size

Turmeric powder                 --    ½ tsp

Coriander – Chilly powder mix        --    2 -3 tbsp

Tamarind                             --    a small ball (size as that of a walnut)

Coconut                              --   ½ of medium size

Mustard seeds                     --   ½ tsp

Curry leaves                        --   1 stem

Salt                                     --    to taste

Preparation of Curry:

Soak the tamarind ball in water. Clean the fish/prawns, cut into small pieces and keep it aside.

Fry the shredded coconut and grind it into a fine paste / liquid form as shown here.

Heat oil in a pan and when the oil is hot add the mustard seeds. Let it splutter. Now add the finely chopped pearl onions, chopped green chillies, ginger garlic paste and chopped tomatoes.

When the onions become translucent, add the turmeric powder and the coriander – chilly masala powder. Saute until the raw smell of the masala goes off.

Get the juice from the tamarind and mix it into the masala. Then add the ground coconut paste.  Keep the flame on high and let the mix boil.

Once it boils, add the prawns / fish  and let it cook on a low flame.

Garnish with curry leaves and serve hot.

The same recipe can be followed for any fish. I love to have this with dosa.

I used to make dosa with raw rice as what we do at home. But raw rice @ Indian stores here is too costly and I tried using long grain rice and parboiled rice. After a number of experiments, I was finally successful with the below proportion or rice and urad dal.

Ingredients:

Long grain Rice                     --   1 ½ cups

Parboiled Rice                      --   1 ½ cups

Urad dhal                               --   1 cup

Methi seeds                           --    2 tsp

Salt                                         --    to taste

Preparation of the batter:

Wash and Soak the rice and urad dhal with methi seeds separately for about 6 hrs. Grind the urad dal with methi seeds until it becomes fine. Then grind the rice to slightly rough consistency. Add a little salt and mix both the batter together. Let it ferment overnight.

This gives soft & fluffy idlies and crispy dosas.


If you are preparing this in a large batch, you can store a part of the fermented batter in the freezer. Just remember to transfer it into the fridge, the day before you plan to use it. You can thus save the batter from extra fermentation.