Butter Garlic Prawns

 

Prawns are yummy in any way. They are great as main dishes or as starters/entrée/appetizer. They are quick to prepare because the cooking time required for prawns is just 2-3 minutes for the small/medium prawns. Cook any longer and they become rubbery. You really do not need to marinate them for long. They absorb flavors quickly.  The only downside is that they are usually expensive. Select prawns that are not stale. They should be firm on the touch and should smell fresh. If you do not want to go through the hassle of cleaning them, buy them frozen which are already peeled and deveined.

Go to any restaurant serving sea food and you will always find butter garlic prawns on their menu. This is a recipe that lends itself to a lot of variations that are fun to make and super tasty to eat. The basic ingredients are butter, garlic, prawns, lemon juice and seasonings like salt and black pepper. So below is the very basic version of this recipe. I have added a bit of bell peppers to this preparation as you can see in the pictures. But you can avoid them if you do not like them.

 

Ingredients

• 200 gm of peeled and deveined prawns. You can leave the tails on to make the prawns look more sophiscated.
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped garlic cloves. You can add more garlic if you love them.
• 2 tbsp of butter (Amul butter for those in India). If needed add a bit (1 tsp) of olive oil too along with the butter. The olive oil prevents the butter from getting burnt.
• 1 tsp of finely chopped coriander leaves
• 1 tbsp each of yellow, red and green bell peppers cut into 1 cm x 1 cm cubes
• Salt as per taste
• Black pepper powder as per taste
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Method

• Wash and pat dry the prawns using a kitchen towel
• Heat a skillet over medium heat
• Add the butter (and olive oil) and once the butter melts add the garlic
• Sauté the garlic until the raw smell goes away (1-2 min). Make sure that the garlic does not turn brown. So reduce the flame if needed while stirring the garlic often.
• Add the bell peppers and sauté for a min.
• Add the prawns and sauté for about 2-3 min (depending on the size of the prawns) until they turn from translucent to opaque white inside and pinkish on the outside
• Season with salt and black pepper powder. If you have used salted butter (like Amul) then add less salt than usual.
• Add the chopped coriander leaves
• Add the fresh lemon juice

Serve hot on a bed of iceberg lettuce

 

Mutton Masala

Ingredient Set A – To be dry roasted and ground

• Black cardamom – 2
• Green cardamom – 5
• Clove – 4
• Black pepper – 1 tsp
• Black cumin seeds (Shahi Jeera) – 1 tsp
• Cumin seeds – 1 tsp
• Whole coriander – 2 tbsp
• Nug meg – a small piece
• Mace – 1 full
• Dried bay leaf – 2
• Cinnamon – 1.5” piece
• Poppy seeds – 2 tbsp

Dry roast the above ingredients without any oil until the aroma is released. Cool and then grind them into a fine powder.

Ingredient Set B

• Vegetable oil – 4 tbsp
• Finely sliced onion – 4 large numbers
• Finely chopped red tomato – 3 large numbers
• Curd – 1 cup (curd should not be sour)
• Water – 2 cups or as required
• Green chilly slit lengthwise – 2
• Kashmiri red chilly paste – 3 tbsp (You can substitute with 3 tbsp of Kashmiri red chilly powder mixed with a little water)
• Ginger garlic paste – 2 tbsp
• Chopped mint leaves – 2 tbsp
• Chopped coriander leaves – 2 tbsp
• Salt as required.
• Mutton cubes with bone – 1 kg

Method

• Heat a large skillet or kadai and add the oil
• Add the sliced onions and sauté them until they are translucent and begin to turn golden brown
• Add the washed and drained mutton cubes to the onions and over medium high heat sear them in the oil – cook them this way for about 10 minutes turning them around after every minute or so.
• Move the mutton pieces and onion to the sides of the skillet and add the ginger garlic paste into the oil at the center. Sauté the ginger garlic paste for about a minute in the oil. And then mix the ginger garlic paste with the mutton pieces and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
• Add the red chilly paste and then cover and continue cooking for another 5 minutes.
• Add salt as per taste at this stage.
• Now add the garam masala powder prepared earlier (Ingredient set A)
• Now add the chopped tomatoes and then cover and cook for another 10 minutes or until the tomatoes are fully cooked and have become mushy and the oil is separated from the masala
• Add the curd, chopped mint and coriander leaves and cover and cook for another 5 minutes
• Add sufficient boiling water and then cover and cook over low flame for another 25 – 30 minutes or until the mutton pieces are tender and the gravy has the desired thickness.
• Adjust salt as required.
• Serve hot garnished with chopped coriander leaves along with rice or naan/roti. The dish would have a rich dark red color and velvety gravy.

I have not added any garnish since the curry looked so beautiful without any garnish.

 

Pan Seared Tuna Steak

 

Tuna is an interesting fish. They can be as small as weighing 1 kg and can be as large as ones weighing upto 400 kg (Atlantic Bluefin Tuna) or more. The ones I have seen in the local markets are about 1 – 3 kg in size. Tuna has red flesh and you can get large chunks boneless fillets. Because of this, it can be used for cutlets, sandwich filling etc. It is also used extensively in Japanese cuisine for Sushi & Sashimi. In the West they are cooked like steak – rare, medium rare etc.

Ingredients

• One tuna steak – ½” - 1”thick, 1" - 2” wide, 6”-8” long
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped coriander leaves
• 1 tsp of finely chopped curry leaves
• ½ tsp of finely chopped green chilly
• Salt as per taste
• Black pepper powder as per taste
• 1 tsp fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp of olive oil for the marinade
• Finely sliced onions and lemon for garnish
• 2 tbsp of vegetable oil for pan searing the steak

Method

• Wash and pat dry the tuna steak
• Apply the marinade of salt, black pepper, lemon juice and olive oil all over the fish and leave it in the refrigerator for about 30 minutes
• Mix together the coriander leaves, curry leaves and green chilly in a plate and then roll the tuna steak to coat on all the sides with this mix
• Heat the oil on a pan and the sear the tuna steak on all the sides until done
• Serve with a garnish of onion slices drizzled with lemon juice and lemon wedges.

 

 

Bacon Wrapped Chicken, Sausage and Vegetable Roll

Ingredients
Ingredient Set A - For the roll

• Two boneless leg pieces with the skin (not just the drumstick but the whole leg). Ask your butcher to prepare these for you. If not you can do this at home using a small boning knife and with a bit of care.
• Bacon strips
• 2 tbsp of olive oil or any other neutral tasting vegetable oil (avoid oils like coconut, mustard oil etc.)
• 1 tbsp of fresh lemon juice
• 1 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
• Black pepper powder as per taste
• Salt as per taste

 Ingredient Set B - For the stuffing

• 1 cup of chopped sausages (use any sausage of your choice like pork, chicken etc. In the pictures shown I have used minced chicken breast, but sausages would be the best)
• 1 large finely chopped onion
• 1” piece of finely chopped ginger
• 2 tbsp of finely chopped coriander
• 1 finely chopped green chilly
• 1 tbsp of finely chopped mint leaves
• Black pepper powder as per taste
• Salt as per taste
• Juliennes of vegetables like bell peppers, carrots, beetroot etc. In the pictures shown I have used green bell peppers and carrots

Method

• Wash the boneless chicken legs and pat them dry with a kitchen towel
• Spread the pieces flat and if needed use a meat tenderizer to spread out the meat evenly
• Season these with salt, lemon juice, ginger garlic paste and black pepper powder. Set them aside for 30 min.
• Mix together all the ingredients under the “Ingredient Set B”
• Take a large aluminum foil and grease one side with oil
• Sprinkle a bit of black pepper and salt
• Lay out the bacon strips on the foil so that they cover the width of the boneless chicken leg
• Place the chicken leg with the skin side down over the bacon strips
• Spread the stuffing over the chicken legs
• Now wrap the chicken legs together into a cylinder (you will get an idea from the pictures)
•  And then roll the bacon strips around it along with the foil and tighten both the ends like a toffee wrapper
• Prepare both the chicken legs this way
• Boil enough water in a large vessel
• Put the chicken rolls into the boiling water and cook them for about 30 min
• Remove the rolls from the boiling water, wipe them dry and then put them in the refrigerator to set
• Remove from the refrigerator after about an hour and carefully open and remove the aluminum foils
• Heat a skillet and add olive/vegetable oil to it
• Once the oil is hot, place the rolls in the skillet and fry all around the roll by rolling them in the skillet every few minutes until the bacon strips are crisp
• Remove from the skillets and slice the rolls into ½” thick pieces
• Serve hot some with spicy sauce like szechwan (or schezwan as we call it) sauce

Tip
Use your imagination and experiment. If you do not eat bacon/pork, substitute with chicken salami or something similar for the outer wrapper and the filling.



The Poached Rolls

The Unwrapped Rolls Ready for the Final Frying



The Roll Slices Plated

 

Vadukapuli (Wild Lemon) Red Pickle - Onam Special

I love this pickle. It is spicy, tart and slightly bitter. It cleanses your palette while stuffing yourself during a Sadya, particularly Onam Sadya. So when these lemons were available at the local Kerala store, I decided to try my hand at making this. I decided to try the red version full of spices instead of the white version that usually contains very little or no spices. I have just tasted the one day old pickle and loved it. I am now waiting for it to mature for about a week before digging into it.

Presenting you "The Vadukapuli Pickle"

Presenting you "The Vadukapuli" - see how it compares to the regular lemon.

Ingredients

·        Two wild lemons/vadukapuli lemons (approximately 750 gm). Cut the lemons into 1 cm thick roundels and check if they have thin skins or thick skins. If the white spongy stuff (pith) below the skin is thick, it is better to get rid of that. This is what adds the bitterness to the pickle. So cut out the pulp from the pith and chop the pulp into small (0.5 cm) pieces. Cut out the skin from the pith and chop them up into small pieces. The skin has a lot of flavor and so we should use that. If the lemons have thin pith, you can simply cut them into small pieces without going through the hassle of removing the pith.

·        4 tbsp of finely chopped ginger

·        5 green chillies cut into thin roundels.

·        2 tbsp of Kashmiri chilly powder

·        2 tbsp of regular chilly powder

·        4 tbsp of gingelly oil

·        Salt as per need

·        1 cup of water

·        ¾ tsp of turmeric powder

·        ¾ tsp of fenugreek powder (dry roast 1 tsp of fenugreek seeds and then powder them to a fine powder)

·        ¾ tsp of asafoetida powder

·        1 tbsp of sugar or 1” piece of jaggery (optional)

       

Tempering Ingredients

·        1 tbsp of gingelly oil

·        1 tsp mustard seeds

·        2 sprigs of curry leaves

·        3 whole dry red chilly broken into smaller pieces

Method

·        Take a kadhai (deep round pan) and heat the oil

·        Once the oil is hot, reduce the flame and add the chopped ginger and green chillies. Sauté for around 2 min.

·        Add the chopped lemon pieces and sauté for 3-4 minutes. Add the sugar/jaggery after about 2 minutes into this step.

·        Add salt, turmeric powder, red chilly powder and asafoetida powder. Sauté for another 2 minutes.

·        Add the water and bring the mixture to a boil and add more salt if required.

·        Turn off the flame

·        Now add the fenugreek powder and mix everything well.

·        Heat another pan and add 1 tbsp of gingelly oil

·        Once the oil is hot add the mustard seeds and after they splutter add the broken whole red chilly and then add the curry leaves and fry until the curry leaves are crisp.

·        Pour this tempering including the oil over the pickle.

·        Cool the mixture and then transfer to a storage bottle. Make sure the bottle is clean and sterilized with hot water and has an airtight lid.

·       After transferring the pickle to the bottle, heat and then cool a few tablespoons of gingelly oil and pour this over the pickle so that oil forms a layer on top of the pickle. This will prevent the formation of fungus and the bottle need not be refrigerated. If you already have a layer of oil on the top, do not add more oil. You can add more oil as you start using the pickle and as the layer of oil on the top gets depleted. Store the bottle in a cool, dark and dry place.

·        Use the pickle after about a week or at least after 2-3 days. With age, the lemon skin will become more and more tender.

·        Always use clean and dry spoons to serve the pickle from the bottle. This will prevent the pickle from getting contaminated.

·        If you want this to be less spicy, use 4 tbsp of Kashmiri chilly powder and avoid the regular chilly powder. You can also reduce the number of green chillies.

Go and make that pickle now. Experiment and enjoy.

Chicken Malai Kabab

 

 

This is a kabab that children will love since they are not very spicy and has a mild flavor. Made the right way, they will be soft and succulent with the mild flavours of nutmeg, cardamom, cheese and cream. Green chilly paste, pepper powder gives it a bit of spicy bite. I made it in two batches today. Once for lunch and once again for dinner. The above two pictures are from the lunch and the bottom pictures from the dinner.

 Ingredients for the first marinade

• 500 gm boneless chicken pieces cut into bite sized pieces which are not thicker than ½ cm. Use chicken breasts since they are easily available. If you are using breast pieces make sure not to overcook them since they tend to become quite hard and non-moist if you overcook them. By experience you will know how long to cook them.
• A pinch (¼  teaspoon) of nutmeg powder
• Salt as per taste
• Juice of 1 lime
• 2 tbsp of ginger garlic paste
• 1 tbsp of green chilly paste (reduce/increase the quantity depending on how spice you want this to be)
• 1 tsp of white pepper powder (use black pepper powder if you do not have white pepper powder and also adjust the quantity as per your taste)

Ingredients for the second marinade

• 1 cup of grated processed white cheese (you can use cubes of Amul processed cheese). You can use any other cheese if you like something else. But use something that has a more or less neutral or mild flavour
• ¾ cup of fresh thick cream
• 2 tbsp of  corn flour
• A pinch of green cardamom powder (use the powder of 3-4 green cardamoms)

Method

• Marinate the chicken pieces using the first marinade for about 20 minutes.
• After this mix together all the ingredients of the second marinade and marinate the chicken pieces for 3-4 hours in the refrigerator
• Preheat the oven for 10 min at 200 degree Celsius
• Put the chicken pieces on to skewers. If you are using wooden skewers, soak them in water for about 30 min before using them
• Place the skewers on a greased (use a bit of oil for this) baking tray and bake them for about 15 min at 180 – 200 degree Celsius. Check for the pieces once in a while. Depending on the size and thickness of the chicken pieces they may get cooked faster or could take more time.
• You can baste the chicken pieces with the leftover marinade occasionally while you are cooking them.
• Serve hot with green coriander/curd chutney and a salad of thinly sliced onions dressed with lime juice.

If you have access to a coal barbecue set, use that and you will get an even better flavor and look with slightly browned or singed edges and it will also cook much faster. While using an oven, you may not get the browned or singed edges and do not keep cooking until you get them since that will overcook the kababs and they will no longer be tender or juicy.

The serving plate all decked up to receive the kababs.

Kababs on skewers.

 

Have fun making these kababs and see how much your family loves you.