Prawn Sukkha

Prawn is a sure shot hit at home. Hence I experiment with different types of Prawn recipes and you can seldom go wrong with prawns.

It was a busy Sunday and I wanted to cook something quick and nice and I thought of Prawn Sukkha. This is a traditional Mangalorean dish. Thanks to my several Mangalorean colleagues, I have been exposed to all kinds of traditional cuisine of the land and have taken a liking to it as well. I love the aroma of the spices and the coconut flavour

You Need :-

1. Prawns :- 250 grms. Shelled, cleaned and de-veined.
2. Coconut :- 1/2. Coarsely grated.
3. Dried Red chilies :- 7
4. Garlic :- 6 Pods
5.Oinion :- 1 No. Finely chopped.
6. Coriander Seeds :- 1 tsp
7. Jeera Seeds :- 1 tsp
8. Tamarind Paste :- 1 tsp
9. Turmeric Pd :- 1 tsp
10. Red Chilli Pd :- 1 tsp
11. Mustard seeds :- 1 tsp
12. Curry Leaves :- 1 twig
13. Lemon Juice :- 1 tbsp.

Method :-

• Wash the prawns and marinade them with salt and lime juice for about 15 minutes.
•  
• Dry roast about 5 dried red chillies, cumin and coriander seeds in a kadai and grind them to a  powder. Keep aside.
• Heat oil and add mustard seeds and curry leaves. Fry for a few minutes.
• Add the diced onions and garlic and fry till the onions are cooked.
• Add the powered masala and continue frying.
• Add the grated coconut and fry for a few minutes.
• Add the tamarind paste and fry
• Once the masala is well fried, add the prawns and salt and cook for 2 to 3 minutes.

 

Tit Bits :-

 

1. Do not over cook the prawns as they tend to become stiff.

2. Use fresh coconut. The flavor of fresh coconut is unparalleled.

Shorshe Maach ( Fish in Mustard Gravy)

Some friends were jamming up for a pot luck dinner on a regular work day in honor of a friend who was visiting us from the US.  I hate cooking and socializing in the middle of the week  but I couldn't get out of this commitment. So I had to dish up something typically Bangali such that it fitted in with the theme of giving a typical home coming meal to our NRI Bangali.

After some deliberation I decided that nothing to beat Shorshe Maach. Simple to cook and absolutely traditional and needless to say, it was a good decision.

Shorshe Maach is a very traditional Bengali dish. This is an acquired taste. Over the years I have seen several of my non- bengali friends relishing this dish and several other who found the overwhelming taste of mustard quite unpalatable.
 

You Need :-

1. Fish :- 1 Kg ( I have used the Rohu fish)
2. Black Mustard :- 5 Tbsp. Ground to a paste
3. Fenugreek(Methi) Seeds :- 1 tsp
4. Green Chilli :- 4 ( slitted )
5. Turmeric Pd :- 2 tsp
6. Dried Raw Mango ( Optional) :- 4 to 5 pieces
7. Kalonji ( Onion seeds) :- 1/2 tsp
8. Mustard Oil :- 2 tbsp
9. Tomato :- 1 No. Chopped
10. Salt :- To taste
11. Coriander Leaves :- one fist full for garnishing
12. Cooking Oil

Cooking Method:-

1. Clean and cut the fish to slices.
2. Thoroughly wash the Fish and pat dry with a kitchen towel.
3. Soak the mustard seeds for 30 minutes in about 4 tbsp of water. Grind the soaked mustard and 2 green chilli's to a fine paste.
4. Add 1tsp of turmeric and a little salt. Smear the fish slices well with this and keep for 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Heat the cooking oil in a wok and fry the fish.The fish should slightly fried and not well done. Keep aside.
6. In a wok, heat oil and add the methi seeds and kalonji. Let it sizzled for a few seconds.
7. Add the ground mustard paste and 1 tsp of turmeric. Fry for a few minutes and add the chopped tomato and the dried raw mango. 
8. Once the tomatoes are well cooked, add a glass of water and let the gravy boil. 
9. Add the slices of the fish to the gravy. Add salt and let it cook for 10 minutes.
10. Once the gravy thickens, add the mustard oil and mix well. Cook for a couple of minutes.
11. Garnish with Coriander leaves and serve with steamed rice.

Tit Bits

• Traditionally this dish is made with sweet water fish but I have tried this with sea fishes like pomfret and sear.
  
  
  
  

Lauki ( Bottle Gaurd) Kofta Curry

I have been asking my sister Sonali to start a food blog for quite a while. But she is so busy cooking and entertaining her plethora of friends that she does not have the time to commence a food blog. After a certain amount to coaxing and cajoling she decided to contribute a recipe to my blog and I am hoping that she will be a regular contributor.



Lauki Kofta Curry



  

This recipe is contributed by Sonali Nimbagiri

Ingredients :-

For Kofta 

1. Bottle gourd/Lauki: 1 no (Peeled, seeded and grated)
2. Besan/Chickpea flour: 5 tbsp or more if required
3. Bread Crumbs – ½ cup (Use this if you think your mix is too soggy)
4.Onion :- 1 Cup finely chopped
5. Ginger Paste:- 1 tsp 
6. Garlic paste :- 1 tsp
7. Salt :- As per taste
8. Green chilli ::- 5 no's
9. Coriander leaves:- 2 tbsp ( Chopped)

For Gravy

1. Cloves :- 3 no's
2. Cinnamon :- 1 inch Piece
3. Cardamom :-3 no's
4. Bay leaf :- 1 no
5. Cashews :-1 tbsp
6. Onion :- 1 no
7. Green chilies :- 2 No's
8. Tomato :- 2 No's
9. Salt :- To taste
10. Red chili powder :- 1 tsp
11. Cumin powder :-1 tsp
12. Fennel Powder :- ¼ tsp
13. Coriander powder :- 1 tbsp
14. Turmeric :- ¼ tsp
15. Poppy seeds :- 1 tsp
16. Kasoori Methi:-1 tsp
17. Whipped Cream :- 1 tbsp
18. Water 

Preparation Method :-

Kofta - 

• Peel and grate the bottle gourd and let it stand for sometime. Squeeze out the water of the gourd as much as possible.
• Mix in the chopped onions, Ginger & Garlic Paste, chopped green chillis, salt and coriander leaves.
• Add the besan and mix well into a dough. Add bread crumbs if required if your dough is soggy and needs to be stiffened up a bit. Make small balls from the dough and keep aside.
• Heat oil in a wok and fry the lauki till it is crisp and golden brown.
• Your Koftas are ready. Keep aside and start on the gravy. 




Lauki Koftas

Gravy

• Heat oil in a pan, add the Cinnamon & Cardamom, chopped onions, chopped ginger, chopped garlic and chopped green chilies. Fry till the onions become translucent or change color.
• Add chopped tomatoes and cook till they become soft. Cool this mixture and grind to a paste and keep aside.
• Heat oil in the same pan and add bay leaf and the ground paste. Add turmeric pd, chili pd, cumin pd, fennel pd, coriander powder, salt. Cook till the masala is well fried.
• Add about 1 ½ cup of water.
• Cook till the gravy thickens. 
• Add crushed Kasoori methi & whipped cream and cook for another 2 mts.
• Your gravy is done.

 Serving Instruction

• Place the Koftas in a serving dish.
• Pour the gravy on the koftas such that the koftas are covered in the gravy
• Garnish with chopped coriander leaves.



Home Style MicroovenTandoori Chicken

From the time immemorial Tandoori Chicken has held a firm position in my list of favorite comfort food. Innumerable days have seen me indulging in Tandoori Chicken and a glass of red wine with a movie for dinner. I even judge most North Indian restaurants by the quality of the Tandoori Chicken they are able to dish out.

The juicy chicken with the aroma of several spices and slight burnt flavour will never go out of fashion for me...

Last weekend out of the blue my "not so enthused about Tandoori Chicken " husband had a craving for the same. And he made himself very handy around in the kitchen ( Lucky Me !!!!). Thank fully he let me handle the marination and I let him do the grilling. And I must say that a successful joint venture it was .... 

You need :-

1. Skinless Chicken :- 600 grms ( I have used only the breast peices )
2. Yogurt :- 3 tb sp
3. Lemon Juice :- 2 tb sp
4. Kashmiri Chilli Pd :- 1 tbsp
5. Garlic Paste :- 1 tsp
6. Ginger Paster :- 2 tsp
7. Cumin Seeds :- 1 tbsp. Dry fried and coarsely ground
8. Coriander Powder :- 1 tsp
9. Garam Masala :- 1 tbsp
10. Ghee ( Clarified butter ) :- 1tbsp
11. Kasuri Methi ( Dried Fenugreek leaves ) :- 1 tbsp
12. Chilli Pd :- 2 tsp
13. Salt :- As per taste
14. Chat Masala :- 1 tsp

Method :-

• Throughly wash and chicken and trim the fat.
• Using a sharp knife cut slashes across the chicken

1st Marinade

• Apply and mixture of yogurt, Kashmiri chilli pd and lemon juice to the chicken and marinade the same for 15 to 30 minutes.

 2nd Marinade

• Add the ingredites 5 to 13 one by one to the chicken peices. Smear it well and marinade from atleast an hour. Over night marinations works best.

   

Marinated Chicken



Cooking Method :-

• Place the marinaded tandoori chicken on the the grill tray ( normally given with the microoven startup kit ).
• Choose the combination of Convection+grill and cook for 10 minutes. Turn once after 5 minutes.
• Cook in grill for 20 minutes. Turn after every five minutes. Brush oil and sprinkle a pinch of chat  masala while turning the food.
• Serve hot with green chutney, sliced cucumber & onions and lime wedges.

Tit Bits :-

• You can use food color for the restruant like look. I prefer the Kashmiri Mirch which lends a nice red color.

Simple Banoffee Pie



Banoffee Pie



I discovered Banoffee pie quite by chance and in one of the most unlikely of places.

Keeping up with the typical bong trait of being experimental with food and that too street food , we frequent the mosque road in Bangalore every year during the month of Ramadan to try the various delicacies of the Indian Muslim community.

The mosque road comes alive with food stalls buzzing with activities along the entire stretch of the road ( about a kilometer ). The smoke thickened air, the aroma of the various meat delicacies and the mass of people feeding themselves like the end of the world is here, is an experience in itself.

You will find foodies ( specially meat lovers ) from all walks of life flocking the street during Ramadan. The sheek Kebabs with idiappams, Haleem and Pather Gosht are some of my personal favorites.

No meal is completed for a Bong without a dessert. So after we had our fill of the Kebabs and a few other delicacies, we went on a quest to find the traditional Phirni and the Rabri.

We managed to stumble upon just the place to appease our sweet tooth. We started off with the Matka Rabri and the traditional Phirni. They had several other visual delights on the offering. Curiosity turned to greed ( I had an instantaneous amnesia in regard to my diet regime) and we elbowed our way to the front of the stall,inveigled the attention of the cute little fellow (probably the owner's grandson) who was more than happy to let us have whatever our fingers pointed to.

One of the visual delights turned out to be the legendary Bonaffee Pie ( who would have dream t of discovering the legendary English desert in the streets of Mosque Road !!!!)

We simply loved it and I had to try my hand at making it...

Easy Banoffee Pie

Ingredients

1. Sweetened Condensed Milk :- 1 Tin ( I used the Nestle 400 g tin)
2. Ripe Bananas :- 2 No.s Big Bananas( Should not be overly ripe )
3. Fresh Cream :- 300 ml ( I used the Amul Fresh Cream )
4. Unsalted melted Butter:- 100 Grms
5. Digestive Biscuits ( Crushed ) :- 250 Grms ( I used the Marie Biscuits )
6. Sugar ( Powdered ) :- 1 tbsp
7. Grated Chocolate :- 2 tbsp

To Make the Base

• In a bowl, nicely mix the biscuit crumbs and the melted butter to form a coarse mixture.
• Spread the mixture in a pie tray and firmly press it with a spoon to make a pie shell. You can use a loose bottom baking dish as well. I do not have one and hence used the standard Pyrex pie stray instead.  
• Bake it for about 6 to 7 minutes at 190 C.
• Your Pie shell is ready.

For the Filling

•  You need to make the Dulce de Leche by placing an unopened tin of Condensed milk in a tub of boiling water. Leave it to boil for an hour. Open the tin after it has cooled down. You will have a thick, golden, squidgy caramel. 
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•  Spread the caramel evenly into the pie crust.
•  Slice the banana's and make a layer  above   the caramel

• Add sugar to the cream and whip lightly.
• Layer the banana's with the whipped cream .
• Sprinkle the grated chocolate for decoration.
• Refrigerate, cut into wedges and serve.

Tit Bits

•  Banoffee  Pie is an English dessert which was created in 1872 at the Hungry Monk restaurant in East Sussex.
• The name Banoffee Pie is a portmanteau of Banana and Toffee.

Chingri Chalkumrar Ghonto ( Ashgourd with Prawn )

"Ghonto" is a traditional Bengali form of cooking which is mostly made of one or sometimes two vegetables ( and sometimes fish). Very less oil is used and the vegetable are well diced so that it can cook in its own juices and results in a mushy  juicy dish. Ghonto's can be made as a pure vegetarian dish or shrimps / parts of fish can be thrown in to cater to the carnivorous palate such as mine. 

Vegetables like gourds were never a hot favorite of mine ( and my little Sis's). Dad is a firm believer of " Shob Kichu Khete Hoy" ( You should eat all kinds of food ). Hence a handful of shrimps was my Mom's way of making us eat the otherwise boring gourds.

Ingredients

1. Chal Kumra ( Ashgourd) :- 500 grms
2. Shrimps ( small sized ) :- 200 grms
3. Cumin Seeds ( Jeera ):- 1 tsp
4. Green Chilli :- 2 or 3 No's depending on your taste
5. Red Chilli :- 1 No.
6. Ginger Paste :- 1/2 tsp
7. Turmeric Powder ( Haldi ) :- 1 tsp
8. Salt :- As per taste
9. Coriander leaves :- About 3 to 4 twigs for garnishing

Cooking Method

• Heat 1 tbsp oil in a Kadai ( Wok ) and shallow fry the shrimps ( cleaned and deveined ) with a pinch of salt and turmeric pd. Keep aside.
• Shallow fry the prawns ( cleaned and deveined ) with a 1/2 tsp of oil for about 2 minutes. Keep aside. Please note that prawns cook very quickly and overcooked prawns tends to become stiffer.
• Diced the ash gourd and boil it with a pinch of salt.
•  Heat 1 tsp of oil in a wok. Add the cumin seeds and the red chilli and let it splatter.
•  Add the ginger paste, turmeric powder and slit green chillies and fry for sometime.
•  Add the Ashgourd and cook till the water content dries up and the vegetable becomes slightly mushy.
• Add Salt and mix well.
•  Add the sauted shrimps and cook for a couple of minutes
•  Garnish with coriander leaves.

Tit Bits

• This is a traditional dish of East Bengal and is a typical winter dish.
• Best served with hot steamed rice.

Banana Raisin Cake





Banana Raisin Cake

I was all set to vacation with a girl friend sans the husband that too on the long weekend of the Independence day. So I had to make sure that the husband is appeased and what better way to do it than trying the stomach route (lucky me that I have a foodie husband !!!!).

I needed to concoct something quickly and what better than banana Cake !!! It is quick, simple , yummy and you can seldom go wrong. So here it is ....

Ingredients:-

• Butter :- 125 Grams
• Caster Sugar :- ¾ Cup
• Vanilla Essence :- 1 tsp
• Egg :- 1 No.
• Ripe Bananas :- 2 Nos
• Raisins :- ¾ Cup
• All purpose flour ( Maida ) :- 1½ Cup
• Baking Powder :- 1 tsp
• Milk :- ¼ Cup   

Method :-

 1. Melt butter and sugar in a saucepan over a medium heat. Add the vanilla essence once the butter and sugar has melted.

 2. Remove the pan from the heat and add the bananas ( well mashed) and mix well using a spatula or hand blender.

 3. Beat the egg separately and add it to the above mixture. Mix well.

 4. Stir in the flour, baking powder and add the milk. Add the raisins. Mix well using a blender

 5. Grease a cake tin with butter and pour the mixture into the prepared tin.

 6. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes.

And your Banana Raisin Cake is ready. The entire process takes about a hour only. This is a nice moist cake and is better when served warm with a dollop of vanilla ice cream or sweetened cream.

Tit Bits :-

• You can use almonds or walnuts instead of raisins.
• You can replace Flour + Baking powder with self rising flour.
• Use a toothpick to check if the cake is well baked.

Bhapa Chingri ( Baked Prawn)




Bhapa Chingri with Steam Rice

  The mere thought of ” Bhapa chingri” would make most Bengali;s drool. And what more, it is absolutely easy to curn out and one can seldom go wrong with this dish.

You need the following :-

•Prawn :- 250 Grams

•Mustard seeds :- 4 tsp
•Green Chilli :- 2 to 3 ( As per taste)
•Turmeric Powder :- 1/2 tsp
•Grated Coconut :- 5 tbsp
•Mustard Oil :- 2 tbsp
•Salt :- As per taste
•Lime Juice :- 2 tsp
•Coriander Leaves :- 2 to 3 sprigs ( Chopped Finely )

Method :-

1.Marinade the prawn ( deveined and cleaned ) with the lime juice, termaric powder and salt.

2.Soak the mustard seeds in 3 to 4 tbsp water for about half an hour and then grind it in a mixer along with the green chilli and grated coconut. This needs to be a thick paste and hence add water carefully while grinding.

3.Place the marinated prawns in a microoven safe bowl with a lid. Add the ground mixture of mustard and the mustard oil to the prawn. Mix well.

4.Place the lid covered bowl in the microoven and cook for 3 minutes with high power.

5.Garnish with coriander leaves.

6.Serve with steam rice.

Tit Bits :-

•This is an acquired taste. I have seen some people finding it difficult to palate the strong taste of mustard.

•You can use mustard powder instead of ground mustard. They are available quite easily these days. Thanks to the regional food counters in various super markets.

•My Mother-in-law cooks this dish the traditional way. She places the entire prawn mixture in a steel tiffin box with the lid closed and places it in a vessel of hot rice such that the rice cover the tiffin box from all sides. The heat emitted form the rice cooks the prawns to perfection.

•Prawns cook very quickly. Hence you need to be careful with the timing. Overcooked prawns tends to be stiff.

The short and simple ingredient list followed by a few minutes of cooking does result in finger licking guests.