Prawns with tamarind - A Thai recipe

I hardly have any non-veg recipes in my blog .. probably this is the first one. I must say that I am not a vegetarian, I do cook and consume fish once in a while but avoid cooking and eating meat varieties.. I just don't enjoy that part. 

Came across a Thai cookery book and tried a recipe from that using prawns. We love the thai flavours so just got to try this recipe :)

The original recipe is stir fried prawns with tamarind... but mine looks more like a curry a not a stir fry. nevertheless the dish was finger licking good :)

Ingredients

Dried red chillies - 6 

Veg oil - 2 tbspn

Chopped onion - 2 tbspn

Palm sugar=- 2 tbspn

Water/stok - 2 tbspn

Thai fish sauce- 1 tbspn

Tamarind juice - 6 tbspn

Prawns - 5 oo gms

Fried chopped garlic- 1 tbspn

Fried slice shallots - 2 tbspn

Method

Heat the wok and dry roast the chillies without burning them and set them aside. Crush it when it cools slightly.

Add the oil to the wok and heat. Add the chopped onion and cook over med heat, stirring occasionally for 2-3 minutes until softened and golden brown.

Add sugar, stock/water, fish sauce, crushed dry roasted chillies and the tamarind juice and stir occasionally for 2-3 minutes. Bring to the boil, then lower the heat slightly.

Add the prawns, garlic and shallots. Toss over the heat for 3-4 minutes, until the prawns are cooked, Garnish with the spring onions and serve.

I bet its very tasty!

cook and enjoy ..

thanks!

Poppy seeds and white chocolate chips cookies

Poppy seeds and white chocolate chips cookies

These days I want to explore a lot on recipes but I feel a little lazy in blogging and I am not happy about it. Nevertheless I want to record my experiments and share it with my readers. So here goes the recipe before I miss it from my mind :)

Ingredients

Whole wheat flour - 1 1/3 cup

Poppy seeds =- 2 tbspn

Butter- 1/2 cup

Sugar- 1/2 cup ( powdered)

Baking powder - a pinch

Egg - one ( optional)

Milk - few tspns

Vanilla essence- 1 tspn

Method

Preheat the oven  at 150 degrees Celsius

In a huge bowl mix the flour, poppy seeds, softened butter, baking powder, vanilla essence and egg. Use few spoons of milk just to bring the soft dough together.Please dont knead the dough hard! it will spoil the texture of the cookies.

Make small balls from the dough, slightly flatten it and keep on the greased baking tray and bake for about 15 mins or until the sides turn slightly brown. If you prefer to have a golden brown top turn the knob of the oven to grill mode for few minutes. Once done quickly remove the cookies with a spatula and let it cool on a wire rack.

Once cool the cookies will turn crispy and crunchy.

Bake and enjoy :)

Thanks!

Rice (unpolished) dumplings in coconut milk

Just while I started typing this recipe and wrote 'rice dumplings' my dear husband barged in and said these are kozhakattas :) Yes that's how it is called back in Kerala which is soaked in thengapal( coconut milk) and sugar while eating. Not sure why this is a breakfast item ..for me this is more like a dessert or sweet. and we totally relish eating this !

Anyway coming to the recipe I used unpolished rice flour for this recipe and mind you its not ragi, though my ragi loving darling daughter thought its ragi( finger millet ) and I had to correct her :)

Ingredients 

Rice flour - 2 cups

Hot water - as required

Salt - 1.5 tspns ( or as per taste)

Oil - one tspn

Cardamom powder - a pinch (optional)

For the coconut milk

One med sized coconut 

warm water

Method

Dry roast well the rice flour in a huge thick bottom vessel/ kadai.
Remove from heat and place the flour in a huge flat bowl.
Add the dalt and oil to the flour.
Slowly add the hot water stirring the flour with a fork slowly. Keep pouring until the dough is soft.
The flour keeps absorbing water so dont worry if you find the dough a little sticky in the begining. Once the dough is cool enough to handle work on it , knead it thoroughly to make  soft dough.
Make small balls from this dough and steam the dumpings for about 20 - 25 mins or until cooked.

For making coconut milk, scrape /grate the coconut and grind it  with warm water in the mixer and strain. Repeat it until all the milk is removed from the coconut.

So while serving place the dumplings in a bowl, pour the coconut milk, add sugar and cardomom powder and enjoy it warm :)

Cook and enjoy!
Thanks!

Ariunda - A popular Kerala three ingredient sweet

Ariunda has been my childhood favorite sweet and I am sure its just not mine but there will be hardly any Keralite who would not like this sweet. This sweet was most seen when the sweets are gifted to the bridegroom's family by the bride's family and then again during the delivery of the baby(s).

Also, those days it was pounded in a traditional grinding machine called ' ulakka and ural' where they pound the three ingredients until it comes together and forms a ball. And to those who have eaten would remember how hard it used to be but very very tasty too. It was the worth the effort breaking one open and devouring it :) And not to forget to mention it used to be really huge size ball. 

My recipe is very different from the traditional way, its easy, sweet and of course extremely soft.Me and my family like it that way ..so here goes the recipe

Ingredients

Rice - 1 cup

Coconut - one med size

Jaggery syrup - one cup

Cardomom powder - a big pinch

Method

Wash and dry the rice and then dry roast it well. Let it cool for sometime and then powder it well in the mixer.

Grate the coconut and grind it well in the mixer.

I usually melt one kg of jaggery in one cup of water . Out of this I  removed one cup of syrup. If you are not intending to melt one kg jaggery you could probably take some 300 gms of jaggery  and melt in 1/4 up of water, strain and use one cup of the liquid.

Once these three ingredients are ready mix the powdered rice and coconut well and add cardomom powder too. Slowly add the jaggery syrup ad bring the mixture together. Leave it for 15 minutes so that the syrup is absorbed a bit. Make soft balls of the mixture and your ariunda is ready.

My family loved it a lot as it came out very soft, and my dear husband commented that it just melts in the mouth :) 

cook and enjoy!
Thanks! :)

Arbi (taro/ colocasia) fry

Simple arbi fry

This is a simple recipe with arbi which I cooked my way today.

Following is the recipe

1 Arbi(taro root)- 500gms

2.Oil- 2 tspns

   Mustard - 1/2 tspn

   Jeera- 1/2 tspn

   Crushed peanuts - a handful

   Garlic 3-4 cloves - finely chopped 

   Curry leaves

   Turmeric powder - 1/2 tspn

   Salt

3.Green chillies - finely chopped    

   Fresh grated coconut- 2-3 tbspn

Method

• Peel the arbi and cut into med sized cubes and rinse it once in water. Steam in a steamer until its soft ( and not mushy)
• Take a big kadai and add oil. Once oil is hot enough throw in all in the ingredients in serial no.2.
• Add the steamed arbi little by little mixing well in the seasoning until all the arbi is added
• Garnish with grated coconuts and green chillies.
• Option: You may add the green chillies and coconut in the tadka itself.

Happy cooking! :)