Thai Prawn Red curry and Thai Fragrant rice with Prawns

Thai Red Prawn Curry

Ingredients:

• Prawns – 1kg
• Red Curry Paste - 3 Tablespoons
• Fish Sauce or Oyster sauce - 2 Tablespoons
• Prawn head & tail – ground and juice strained
• Brown Sugar - 1/2 Teaspoon
• 100 ml thick Coconut Milk
• 50 ml Water
• 2 Red Chillies – chopped diagonally
• 2 Kaffir Citrus Leaves
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• Red bell pepper – one chopped into big pieces

Method:

1. Fry the shrimp in oil for 30 second and remove onto a plate. (I removed 15-20 prawns to use for the rice.)
2. Into the same pan, put the red curry paste and oil and fry for a few seconds to release the flavours.
3. Add the coconut milk, sugar, fish sauce, prawn juice and water and fry on a low heat while mixing, it only takes a few minutes to make.
4. Add the chillies, bell peppers into the frying pan.
5. Add the prawns into the curry sauce. Garnish with slices of the kaffir leaves.

Thai Fragrant Rice with Prawns

Ingredients:

• Basmati rice - 1 cup
• Spring onions with greens  - 5 to 6
• Coconut milk - 1 cup
• Vegetable stock  - 2 cups
• Lemon rind grated  - 1 teaspoon
•  Lemon grass roots - 1 inch
• Ginger - 1 inch piece
• Salt  to taste
• Cooking wine – 3-4 tablespoon
• Garlic – 7 to 10 pods chopped fine
• White Onion – half sliced into big pieces

Method:

1. Fry onions, garlic for 2 mins and add cooking wine and add the fried prawns. Stir for few secs,  remove & keep aside.
2. Trim the spring onion greens and reserve. Roughly chop the stems and quarter the bulbs.
3. Heat a deep non-stick vessel, add a tablespoon of oil, stir in the spring onion bulbs and stems.
4. Now add the drained rice, coconut milk, vegetable stock and lemon rind. Stir for few secs.
5. Add sliced lemongrass root and ginger.
6. Add salt and mix. Cook till the rice is done.
7. Chop spring onion greens and garnish the rice.
8. Add the fried prawns.

Serve hot.

Red pumpkin cake

Ingredients:

• All-purpose flour / maida - 1¼ cup
• Powdered sugar - 1 cup
• Butter  -  1 cup
• Baking powder - ¼ tspn
• Corn flour - 1 tbspn
• Pumpkin puree - 100gms
• Eggs - 3 nos
• Salt - a pinch
• Cinnamon powder - 1/2 tspn
• Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tspn
• Vanilla essence - 1/2 tspn

Method:

1. Mix all-purpose flour, corn flour, baking powder and salt
2. In a bowl mix butter and sugar, until sugar dissolves. Add eggs one by one and beat it until the mixture becomes light and fluffy
3. Add the flour mix, pumpkin puree, spice powder and vanilla essence. Stir it well so that it becomes a smooth batter
4. Pour the mixture into a greased microwave tray and microwave for 20 mins on medium power
5. Serve hot with cherries & chocolate sauce or just plain with Tea

Buttermilk Fried Chicken

Inspired by~

Stefano's Buttermilk Fried Chicken - In the Kitchen with Stefano Faita

INGREDIENTS

• 1 chicken, cut into 8 to 10 pieces 
• 3 cups buttermilk 
• 1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce 
• Hot sauce, as per taste 
• 2 1/4 cups flour 
• Salt and freshly ground pepper, as per taste 
• Pinch of cayenne, or as per taste 
• Canola oil or any oil of your choice for shallow frying

PREPARATION

1. Take buttermilk in a large bowl. Add Worcestershire sauce and drizzle a little of hot sauce. Mix well. Add the chicken to the buttermilk mixture and coat it well. Cover and let it marinate in the fridge overnight or for at least 6 hours.
2. Heat oil over medium heat in large cast iron fry pan. Add enough oil to come up about 1-inch to 2-inches up the side of the pan.
3. Combine flour, salt and pepper and cayenne in a shallow dish. Dredge the chicken pieces in the flour mixture and coat well. Double dredge the chicken and dip back into buttermilk and then once again in the flour. Shake off any excess flour.
4. Add chicken to hot oil. Shallow fry over medium to medium low heat. Cook chicken until juices run clear and no longer pink, flipping once during the cooking. Depending on thickness of chicken pieces, total cooking time should be about 20 to 30 minutes. 
5. Remove chicken and place on a platter covered with paper towels to drain off excess fat. Serve hot or cold.
6. Alternatively, shallow fry chicken until golden brown, about 7 to 8 minutes per side. Finish in preheated 350 degrees F oven until juices run clear and no longer pink, about 10 to 15 minutes.

Tips:

• Marinating the chicken in buttermilk makes the chicken tender and juicy. 
• For crispy coating, double dredge the chicken in the seasoned flour.

Taralli - Italian snack

Taken from David Rocco's recipes
I've been watching Fox traveller and taking down few recipes. One particular show I wait eagerly to watch is David Rocco's Dolce Vita and have come to become a fan of his recipes. In today's show, he shared some simple and easy to make ilalian sweets and snacks with ingredients you'd already be having at home. One that I'm planning on trying is Taralli. It looks like a donut.

(Picture By Marco Leogrande via Wikimedia Commons)

Ingredients:

• 2.2 lb (1kg) all-purpose flour
• 1 cup (250 ml) extra virgin olive oil
• a splash of red wine
• 1 cup (250 ml) lukewarm water, or as much as you need

To start your Taralli:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Place flour on a worktable. Make a well in the centre of the flour and add olive oil, wine and water. Combine together and knead until the mixture becomes an even dough. If necessary, add a little more water and continue kneading. 
3. Cut off a small amount of dough and roll into a 1/2 inch thick log. Cut the log into 5 inch long pieces. Then form a 'doughnut-like' shape by pinching opposite ends together. Repeat the above process until all the dough is used up.   
4. Place the taralli in a pot of boiling water for about a minute or until they float to the surface. Stir to prevent from sticking together. Remove the taralli from the water with a slotted spoon and dry off any excess water with a dishcloth.   
5. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and bake for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown on one side. Turn the taralli over to cook the other side. Serve with wine.

Yield: Several dozen servings

Avial - mixed vegetable stew in coconut

Ingredients:-

• Yam cut in cubes -  1 cup
• Sambar Cucumber cubed -  1 cup
• Snake gourd cut into 1 ½" length pieces - 1 cup
• Carrot sliced into into 1 ½" length pieces - ¼ cup
• Long runner-beans sliced into 1 ½" length pieces - ½ cup
• Drumstick cut into 2" length pieces - 2 nos
• Potatoes cubed - ¼ cup
• Raw bananas sliced into 1 ½" length pieces - 1 no
• Mango pieces or tamarind juice or sour curd (to give a little tangy taste)
• Turmeric powder -½ tsp
• Salt to taste
• Grated coconut - ½ quantity
• Green chillies - 5 nos
• Cumin seeds - ½ tspn
• Curry leaves – 2 sprigs
• Coconut oil - 3tbs

Method:-

1. Coarsely grind the coconut, green chillies and cumin seeds. Keep it aside.
2. Heat 2tbs coconut oil in a thick bottom vessel. Add the vegetables and cook in a low flame.
3. Check if vegetables are cooked. Now add turmeric powder, salt and mix it well. Remove the vegetables from the middle and put sliced bananas and mango pieces /tamarind juice /sour curd and cover it with the other vegetables.
4. Add the coconut paste and stir well. Add some water if too dry and cook till vegetables are soft but not mushy. Remove from fire. Mix the remaining coconut oil and curry leaves in the avial.

Chena Theeyal - Yam in fried coconut curry

Ingredients:

• Elephant yam(Chena) cut into small cubes - 1 cup
• Onions - 1 cup 
• Tamarind juice (juice extracted from a lemon-sized tamarind soaked in water) -1/3 cup
• Salt to taste

Masala (to be roasted & ground):

• Grated coconut - 1 cup
• Coriander powder -1 1/2tbsp
• Cumin Powder - 1/2 tsp 
• Chilli powder -1 tspn (you can add more if u want it spicy)
• Pepper powder- 1/2 tsp
• Turmeric powder - 1/4 tspn
• Asafoetida - 1/4 tspn
• Oil - 1 tspn

For tempering:

• Mustard seeds -1/4 tspn
• Fenugreek seeds - 1/2 tspn
• Dry red chillies - 3 nos.
• A sprig of curry leaves
• Oil (coconut oil will give the authentic taste)- 2 tsp

Method:

1. Heat oil for roasting the masala. Add coconut first and roast until dark brown (a minute short of burning). Then add all the powders, fry for few seconds and remove from fire. Cool the mix and grind it to coarse powder and then add some water and grind to a smooth paste.
2. In a kadai, add the tamarind juice,  one cup of water, onions and the yam. Bring to boil and add the ground masala paste. Simmer for 10-15 mins until gravy thickens.
3.Add salt and mix well. Remove from fire.
4. Heat oil for tempering. Add the mustard seeds and once it starts spluttering, add the remaining ingredients. Pour this into the curry. Mix well.

Serve hot with rice.

Vanpayar Mezhukkupuratti - Simple Red cow peas

This is one of my favourite Kerala dishes. I love simple dishes that's made with less oil, less masala. I have been gathering recipes from the internet and I came across this blog which had the recipe that gave the exact same taste of the red cow peas which I tasted as a child. So, all credits to "kaipunyam".

Vanpayar Mezhukkupuratty

Ingredients:

• Red cow peas- 1 cup
• Crushed dry chilly - 3
• Crushed garlic - 10 to 12 pods
• Crushed shallots - 8 to 10
• Turmeric pwdr - 1/2 Tsp
• Pepper pwdr - 1 Tsp
• Mustard seeds
• Curry leaves
• Water
• Salt 
• Oil

Method:

1. Soak red cow peas for 2 to 3 hrs. Cook it with salt and keep it aside. 
2. Heat oil in a pan and add mustard seeds. When it splutters, add curry leaves, crushed garlic, shallots and salt. Saute till its turns light brown. 
3. Then add crushed dry chilly and turmeric pdr. Mix well and add cooked red gram. 
4. Add pepper pdr and mix well. Remove it from fire.