Prawns and potato

Lots of things happening right now..

A shift to Chennai, hometown of my husband ...and ensuing chaos with getting late admission for our daughter, getting a flat for rent while renovating our home, meeting with contractors, visiting a lot of tile shops, showrooms, surfing the net for ideas, etc etc ...

And right now, both my daughter and I are in Kerala, with my folks while, hubby is winding up his stuff in the Delhi office..

So am having a lot of amazing dishes and a few experiments of my own also are going on... especially with a few more guinea pigs that usual, I am having a great time making new stuff...

This is a very easy dish and really foolproof... even beginners can make it.

Potatoes - 2 (medium ones cut in to cubes)

Prawns - 500 gms, (shelled and deveined)

Onion - 1 large

Tamarind - 2 pieces

dried red chillies - 2 or 3/4 sp chilly flakes

Turmeric powder- 1/4 tsp

Red chilly powder or even paprika for colour (1/2 tsp)

Soy sauce - 1/2 tsp

Oregano - 1/2 tsp

Boil the potato pieces with the turmeric powder and red chilly powder. When the water is nearly gone, add the prawns and the tamarind and cook for about 10 minutes till the prawns are done. take off the heat. throw away the tamarind pieces.

Now in a kadai/wok, add some oil - about 2 tsp, add the onions and saute till golden brown. Add the prawns, the soy sauce and stir at times till the oil shows. Sprinkle with oregano and serve hot.

Easy plum jam

I saw some great plums and could not resist buying them... I bought two kilos, and we managed to consume quite a few, but still there were just two days before we left for Kerala and i did not want to waste it.. so I searched for a recipe online and found lot of different versions... as usual, I adapted one that was the easiest and thus appealed to me ..especially due to the time constraint...

many of them were not ripened well, so the result was a bit sour. that said, I have to tell you that I absolutely adored it and my daughter also had a great time sampling the jam... in fact, I had to hide it away so she wouldn't keep 'testing' it ..!!!

Plums have natural pectin in them, which is a vital ingredient for making jams. So if you are using this recipe, please make sure that the fruit is either plums, or some other fruit that is as high in pectin.

Plums - 1 kg (ensure they are ripe and add a couple or so of unripe ones to add a slight tang to the taste)

Sugar - 1 and 1/2 cups (add more according to taste. I used less sugar , so as not to overpower the taste of the fruit.

Honey - 1/2 cup

Cloves - 6 (optional - please count the cloves before adding them so they can be easy to remove. This is my own addition to the recipe)

Water - 1 tbsp

Wash the plums well. Slit once lengthwise to the stone. In a thick bottom vessel, put the plums and the water and keep it on a low flame.

Add the sugar and the cloves after about 5 minutes. Stir well. After about 20 more minutes, the stones will separate .

Remove the cloves and the stones.

the plums will become a smooth paste consistency. Add the honey and let the liquid reduce and thicken.

Once the jam becomes the stage where it will coat a spoon easily, but won't run off of it, switch of the stove.

While it cools, it will thicken again. So if the jam is too thick , it will solidify and won't be easy to spread. Likewise, a runny jam won't be nice either.

This recipe yields a sweet and tang jam with a rich and fruity taste. It is easy to spread, but does not turn the bread soggy.

Try it and let me know how it turns out.

Mural work - 2

This is the second one of the three mural pieces that I had taken classes for. Though the earlier Jharokha had been done with a lot of help from my instructor, this has been done almost by myself. I just got the instructions and then I started work on my own.

Of course, it is a bit different from what my teacher would have envisioned, but I think for a first effort it is not too bad.

I was asked by a few of my friends for the instructions on how to do it . and I will be making the tutorials when I have some free time..

right now, life is a little busy with shopping and such for going to Chennai as well as Kerala ..... Not to mention the fact that my little one is at home and keeping her from being bored is taking all my time and energy..!!!!

So I would really like to know your opinion on this particular piece.

Prawn pickle

This was something we dreamed of, while in the hostels. When we went home, this was one item we would definitely ask our mom to make, to take back... and dinner times at the hostel with a bottle of prawn pickle always attracted more people to our table...

With this one thing, we need just rice and curd to make a perfectly satisfying meal....of course, most of the curries were unpalatable, so pickles were always the life-savers those days.

This recipe is my mom's - and the smaller the prawns, the tastier the pickles turn out..

Small prawns - 250 gms (shelled and de-veined)

Garlic - 100 gms (peeled and sliced lengthwise)

Red chilli powder - 2 tbsp

Turmeric powder - a pinch

Sweet Paprika/ kashmir chilli powder - 1 tbsp (this is for colour and consistency)

Vinegar - 1 cup

Water - boiled and cooled - 1 and 1/2 cups

Fenugreek seeds/ uluva - 1/4 tsp

Green chillies - 4 to 5 (slit lengthwise)

Ginger - 1/2 inch piece (sliced fine)

salt to taste

marinate the prawns in turmeric, salt and a bit of the paprika powder. Shallow fry the prawns till they are semi cooked. They should not be tough and crisp. Keep aside

Now in a little oil, add the fenugreek seeds, then the garlic, ginger and chillies over a medium flame till the raw smell is gone.

Now add the Chilly powder, paprika and saute in 1/4 cup of vinegar. Add the rest of the vinegar and sauté the prawns. take off the stove and add the water. Add salt according to taste.

When cooled, bottle and refrigerate. If you want to keep the pickle outside, add a 1/2 cup of warm vegetable oil .

The proportions of vinegar and chilly powder are a matter of taste. So reduce or increase the quantities accordingly.

Jharoka

This is one of the projects that kept me busy the past weeks.. I had been going to learn how to make the three dimensional art work.. this particular one is called Jharoka and is said to be very popular in Rajasthan , Jaipur etc

I have seen many versions made from wood, with stone inlays, as mirror frames, etc..

this one was made with plywood as base. It was great learning how to make it. I learnt many techniques and I really love the bronze color.

Let me know what you think..

Meanwhile, I have two more works in progress, and am really enjoying myself.

Home-made grape wine

I may never have had tried this without the help of my friend Rehna... She actually is an old hand at making this wine and her mother had been making this wine for decades...

When she said that she would be making it this year, I also wanted to join her and we really had a great time making it, and it also yielded good results.... I have no idea what the connoisseurs would say, but what we got was a sweet and great-tasting wine that could be given to our kids too.

I am sure that I would be making it often. So here is the recipe, that has been passed on in Rehna's family...

Grapes - 4 kgs

Sugar - 3 kg (If you want the wine less sweet, reduce about 250 gms)

Egg whites - 4

Wheat grains - 150 gms ( pulse them in a dry grinder to coarse bits)

Yeast - 2 tbsp (dry )

Water - 4 litres (boiled and cooled)

Five litre jars - 3 nos (to store the wine)

Crush the grapes well. Add all the ingredients into the grapes. Mix well. Pour the mix in the jars only upto 3/4th of the jars because the fermenting will cause the wine to froth over.

Stir daily for 21 days. On the 22nd day, strain and keep in the jars for three more days. On the third day, remove the wine into bottles...

We got about 8 bottles .

Shredded chicken and green peas

These days, I seem to be just rushing in and out of the kitchen ... as I can't find the time to make anything very elaborate or time-consuming...

This was a very easy dish to make... you can make it with previously cooked chicken, shredded into bite sized pieces...or boil a few pieces of chicken with a pinch of turmeric, salt and a half tsp of chilli powder.

And you may use green peas, shelled fresh..Make sure that if you get someone's help in shelling the peas, that 'someone' understands that those are not tiny balls to play with , throw in the air or endlessly scoop up and let to escape through the fingers...!!! I shelled some 3 cups' worth, but finally had about 2 cups to cook with....!!!!!!

so to get to the recipe,

Cooked and shredded chicken - 1 cup

Green peas - fresh or frozen - 2 cups

Onion - 1 sliced fine

Tomato - 1 diced

Green chilly - 1

Chilli powder - 1 tsp

Garam masala powder - 1/4 tsp

Salt to taste

Sauté the onions till nearly brown in a little oil. Add the tomatoes, chilli powder, garam masala powder and cook till the tomatoes are mushy.. now add the chicken and the green peas. If the peas are fresh, add about a 1/4 glass of water, put a lid on the pot and cook till done. If frozen, just sauté it with the chicken as they will already be cooked and just need to be steamed through.

Now add more salt if needed, and serve with chappatis, bread or any kind of pulao, curd rice etc...