I am a Selfish lover- Red prawns in Malai

I am a selfish shellfish lover. I have a love for crustaceans. Even though crab tops the list , prawn comes in a close second. If you have read couple of my previous blogs you would have realised i love recipes that is easy(less pounding, grinding mixing), fast, less ingredients and last but not the least tasty. Red prawns in malai as my previous post Kerala Fish Bake , and Karimpumkala Toddy Shop Prawns Fry is simple and taste great.

Ingredients
Prawns - 2 cups
Sliced Potato - 1 cup
Vinegar - 2dsp
Ginger - 1"
Garlic 1dsp
Sliced onions - 1 cup
Turmeric - 1/2 tsp
Tomato pieces 1/2 Cup
Dry chillies - 10
Sugar - A pinch
Salt as you req
Cream - 2 tbspoon
Oil - 4 Dsp

Cook prawns in vinegar , salted water and minced ginger till dry.
Grind the skin of chillies with garlic. If you want it spicy leave 3 chillies with seeds on.
Cut the potato slices into thin matchstick pieces and keep in water. Dry them and fry them crisp over low fire. Next fry onions till golden brown and remove. Now add the ground masala and saute well and add prawns. Fry for 3 minutes. Add the fried potato, sauteed onions , tomatoes, a pinch of sugar and salt. Let it cook for 5 minutes or till the tomato is completely cooked. Now simmers and add the cream . Let it cook for a minute or two in low fire and remove it. Your dish is done . SAVOUR IT WITH RICE OR CHAPATHI.

Suggestion: I have tried this with the matchstick french fries we get in freezer section instead of potatoes. Works well too

“Eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper- Stawberry, banana , Date Breakfast Parfaits

Look who is talking? I am Queen of missing breakfast. One reason or other I forget it. So for people like me here is yummy Yogurt Parfait( Don't be fooled by word yogurt. It taste like ice cream. Kinda. Its good . )

1/2 cup yogurt (any flavour, vanilla used here)

1 banana

6 strawberrys

1/4 cup cornflakes

1/4 cup dates

1 tsp honey to drizzle on top.

Layer the ingredients with strawberry as first layer. Top the parfait with cornflakes, dates and drizzle honey. I use raisin bran usually. But in order to squeeze in two events, I used dates and cornflakes. For those of you who prefer plain yogurt make sure you the yogurt is not sour. Fruits can be substituted.

Whenever I hear about any events I feel urge to participate. This months events AFAM - Date By Chandrika of Akshayapatra and WBB # 17 Cornflakes by Nags of For the cook in me

Mamma Mia- Noodle Mania....................

Sometimes you can be too cocky in life, and that's when disaster strikes. The dish the that you have made zillions of times and each time turned out to be perfect becomes a flop. What do you? Lasagna is one those recipes that I had mastered and it was perfect for my crazy venture of making recipes from seven Continents. I had been following Sara Moutlton recipe for ages and it was hit every time I made. My DH l on our grocery shopping trip last week asked me to gather stuff ,so I could make Lasagna . It had been a long time since i made it. I gathered the pasta, sausage, cheeses and came home. But when I searched for the recipe I couldn't find it. So what the heck ? My dear friend ,the Internet can help me.I googled and guess what I couldnt find the recipe. So from memory I tried making it. It didn't become exactly the way it should be or rather i should say I prepared little less Sphagetti sauce. My poor DH felt disappointed but gobbled it up . Now four days later I still cant find the exact recipe. Sofor you folks out there this is a recipe that is similar to the lost recipe -Lasagna

Since my lasagna was unsuccessful, I decide to make Pasta with carbonara sauce the next day (Dh likes this also). When i started cooking with Italian, ,the sauces I knew was only Marinara & Alfredo. Thanks to Tom Cruise appearance on Oprah I learned about Carbonara Sauce . Click here for TC Carbonara sauce. When I am short of time, I end up making carbonara sauce with pasta .The sauce contain proteins and if you serve it with salad on the side you have your proteins, greens and carbs right there. It isnt a very figure friendly recipe though.

• 4 eggs
• 1/4 c. butter
• 1/4 c. milk
• 1/4 lb. bacon, cut up (I used a table spoon of Bacon bits instead)
• 1 c. grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
• 1/4 c. snipped parsley or 1 tbs dried parsley
• Pepper & salt as reqd
• 1 tsp red chilly flakes
• 1 cloves of garlic.
• 1 Lb Pasta (your choice though Fettuccine recommended)

Beat the egg , milk and cheese in a bowl. Boil pasta as per direction in box and drain it. Meanwhile in a pan heat butter .Saute bacon and garlic. Add red chili flakes and stir for a minute. Now add the boiled pasta.When the pasta is heat add the egg mixture and switch the heat off. Mix thoroughly. The pasta's heat cooks the eggs and coats it. Now serve with a garnish of Basil.

I am not a good photographer , but I like to participate in the Click Events by the funny JB. Why? Only because I feel that events challenges my brain to come up with something. This was stolen idea from my sons project. He came home with turkey cut out and he had to dress up a turkey. I bought the colored pasta and did the project. With the left over pasta I created my entry for Click event. My sons turkey had to be here tooooooooooooooooooo.

Camera used is the humble Canon Powershot A630

Thai Chicken with Basil- Gkai Pad Gkaprow

In Novemeber, I decided that I would try and post recipes from the seven continents. We have gone to South America(Arroz Con Pollo), North America (Chili with Turkey ) and now its time for Asia. One of my favorite cuisine Thai. A dear friend of mine AA loves Thai food a lot. So this is special gift to you from me . Enjoy.........................................................

Thai cuisine is characterised by five fundamentals flavours hot (spicy), sour, sweet, salty and bitter (optional). Gkai Pad Gkaprow or Basil Chicken is classic example of using this fundamentals. Brown sugar gives the sweetness, Thai chillies provide the heat, soy sauce the salt, fish sauce the bitter , lemon grass the sour.

"This recipe is for one of the favorite dishes of the Thai people. They will make Basil Anything – substitute the chicken with pork, beef, squid, shrimp, seafood, . . . anything you like. This dish is often served at breakfast with a deep-fried egg, sunnyside up, on top. One of our particular favorites is to make it with ground pork and lots of Thai chillies. For pork, make sure you use holy basil (Bai Gkaprow), as it goes especially well with pork. " *

This is a recipe adapted from Good house Keeping Reciepe book. I added lemon grass to the recipe.

Ingredients
1 lb boneless chicken
3 tbs Asian Fish Sauce
1 tbs Soy sauce
1 tbs brown sugar
2 tsp vegetable Oil
1 Large onion cut into 1/4 inch thick slices
3 Thai chilli pepers or 2 serrano peppers cut matchstick strips
2 tsp minced ginger
2 crushed garlic
1 1/2 cup Basil leaves
1/2 cup lemon grass

Preparing the chicken :

Cut chicken into strip holding the knife in slanting position. In a medium bowl , combine fish sauce , brown sugar, soy sauce . Add chicken and marinate it for 30 minutes or maximum up to 1 day. In a nonstick pan heat oil in medium high till oil is hot. Add the marinade and chicken and cook stirring frequently until chicken loses its pink color. (approx 3 -4 minutes). With a slotted spoon remove the chicken and keep aside. Now add the onion and stir fry for 4 minutes. Stir in chilies , ginger, and garlic cook for a minute. Return the chicken to skillet, heat through. Stir in basil and lemon grass and serve.

This recipe was even more tasty as I used Basil and lemon grass from my garden and Thai chillies from my neighbors plant. I wish my neighbour had a chicken farm too,then it would have been easy. The dish I served it in is my own creation too. Yes I made the serving dish . Not a masterpiece though but I did it.

Basil
Thai Chilies

Lemon Grass


This is my contribution to the event GYO hosted by Andrea.

Serving suggestion - Rice as I did or mix in some greens as a Salad.

Facts about Lemongrass

Usually the tender white part of the lemongrass stalk is used for adding to dishes, but the remainder can be used for stocks or infusions or even dried to use in potpourri and tea. So, don't waste any part of it! Some cooks will grind the stalks and use this for seasoning. Or you can treat it more like bay leaf and leave it in larger pieces that can be removed before serving. Try tying several blades together with cooking string and place them on top of fish as you are grilling, baking or broiling. Another neat thing to do is to take a few of the blades, tie them together and pound them with a meat tenderizer to bruise them, then use them as a brush to baste meat or seafood as you grill. Lemongrass is a great herb to use with chicken. **

Alternatives are: Lemon zest with small amounts of fresh ginger. Approximately 1/2 Tbsp. combination total for 1 lemon grass stalk. A few leaves of lemon balm or lemon leaves. Approximately 2 leaves for 1 lemon grass stalk.Sometimes zest of lemons in place of lemon grass - 1/2 tsp for each 3” of lemon grass stalk base.

There is no perfect substitution for fish sauce. However, if you do not have fish sauce available you can substitute with soy sauce; although the flavor will not be as robust.If you cannot locate this, you can substitute a light soy sauce or rice vinegar with a little extra salt added.

* courtesy http://www.thaifoodandtravel.com/recipes/baschi.html
** courtesy http://www.seedsofknowledge.com/lemongrass2.html

Chili with turkey-I am addicted to OPM

"Autumn, the year's last, loveliest smile"
Lost in woods

I love Autumn. The nature at its best. I remember reading in one of blogs that “Autumn is a second spring where every leaf is a flower” and I truly believe it is . It has been three long years since I have seen the fall colors. I live in Florida where leaves don't change colors. The pictures above are from personal collection taken 4 years ago. It was beginning of fall and colors had just begun change. Didn't want to steal pictures from other sites.

As I have said before I love making OPM(Oh Oh I meant One Pot Meals). The cool temperatures always make crave soups , stews and chilis (the mother of all OPM's). My love for chili began when I sampled a cactus chili on Cowboy festival in Stockyards ,Fort Worth Texas eight years ago. Chili being served by a Cowboy on a chuck wagon added more spice to it.

On Halloween night my neighbor LJO gave me some South Western chili to taste. They tasted so good that I had to make more. So on Sunday I made big pot of chili.

Chili is a spicy stew with basic ingredients beef, beans , tomatoes. It is believed to have its origins in Mexico. There are various variation of chili most recognised being Texas chili, Cincinati chili , vegeterian chili .

I modified the recipe given by LJO by

1. Substituting ground turkey instead of beef.

2.Adding fresh garlic instead of Garlic powder

3.Adding red kidney beans instead of the black bean .

4. Added Frozen corn in place of canned corn

Southwestern chili

1 Can of Black beans or red kidney beans

I bottle of Salsa or Picante sauce

1 can of rotel tomatoes

1 can of corn

1 lb ground turkey

1 packet taco seasoning mixed in 1/2 cup of water

1 tsp of Garlic powder or 2 medium cloves of garlic chopped.

1 small onion diced.

1 tsp of Tabasco or chili sauce.

Garnish

Fat free sour cream, Cheese, green onions, Tortilla chips.

Combine all ingredients in a large pot and let it simmer for one hour to one and half hours. Garnish it with sour cream., grated cheeses and green onions. Serve with side of cornbread .

How to make Rotel tomatoes from Scratch

How to make Taco seasoning from scratch

More Chili recipes

Other OPM in my blog

Easy Lazy Chicken

Blogging Addiction - Cherry Pineapple cobbler

Arroz con pollo

This is my event entry to Blog or Bust event . My comfy chili will warm up any cold day.

Arroz con Pollo - Chicken with Rice Latin Style

What do call a pantry where you don't find anything when you need to?

Mocha's Pantry

Since I decided to be full MOM Shuttle Service(shuttling my son and daughter to various activities and school and mind you they are just 5 & 2.5) my kitchen is a mess. I never find anything I have to ,when I want to . I had some guest over two weeks back and I wanted to make some easy snacks, so vegetable pakoras came to my mind. I rummage my pantry and couldn't find besan, so decided to make Corn fritters using Gulab jamun Mix which turned out to be good according my hubby but disaster according to me.

When Sunita announced Safforn as theme , I wanted to post an entry because I have had some saffron in my pantry for long time and I thought this was a good excuse to use it. Did I find it?No

Yesterday I said "Enough, I need to get my kitchen in order" and rearranged everything and guess what saffron and Besan was right there.

Just a slight detour................................................. Will be back on this track

Weekends Meals:

I prefer to make one pot dishes for lunch on Saturday. This is only because less dishes to wash and as soon as lunch is done we can be out doing something more worthwhile. This weekend since I found Saffron ,I decide to make Arroz Con pollo . This is a distant cousin to Paella which needs a lot more ingredients mainly seafood . If you search the web you will be able to find zillions of versions of this particular dish. The way I make it a combinations of three recipes found on the net and seen on Food TV.

Ingredients

Chicken - 1 Large cut into 8 pieces (if you prefer breast that's fine too)
Olive oil -3 tbs

Rice - 1.5 cups

Chicken stock- 3 Cups

Tomato paste- 1 Tbs

Onion - 1 Medium chopped

Tomato -1 small chopped

Green pepper - 1chopped

Garlic -1 Tbs diced

Paprika - 2 tsp

Dried parsley - 1tbs

saffron threads 1/4 tsp

Peas 1/2 cup

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Method:

Heat oil in rice cooker, cooker or a large pan . Brown the chicken pieces in the oil. Keep it aside.

Add the onion, bell pepper and garlic to the oil in the same vessel cook over medium heat heat until soft but do not brown, about 1 or 2 minutes. Add the tomato and cook for one Combine Broth, tomato paste, parsley, saffron threads, paprika, salt and pepper. Add it to the onion, bell pepper, garlic .Return the chicken pieces to the cooker. When it starts to boil add the rice. Simmer till rice is tender. Usual about 20 minutes. If it starts to dry out and rice is still al dente, add more liquid. If it gets too soupy, uncover during the last 10 or 15 minutes of cooking.Now add the peas and switch the stove off.

As Ricky Ricardo would say" You have splained* my favorite dish enough."

Verdict:
When I took it out of rice cooker to serve it my first reaction was "Its thakali Sadam or tomato Rice with Chicken, Oh No". But the first spoon of Arroz con pollo was enough to convince me this was different. I liked flavors a lot. The saffron gave a wonderful aroma , the tomato slight sweetness and tartness and the chicken stock flavored the rice. I liked a lot. It is a good meal. It taste like yellow rice you get in Cuban restaurants. Definitely will come back to my table for a meal.

Variations: Some recipes call for oregano, bay leaf. The rice for this dish is short-grained Valencia-style rice If you cannot find it in your area, the Italian Arborio rice will be a good substitute.I have read recipes where they use beer and broth combination. Some people leave out the peas .

Splained: Instead of explained Ricky of I Love Lucy used to say Splained. For those of you who haven't watch I love Lucy you need to watch it.