Prawn Okra Curry (Chennai Prawn Vendaki)

I am a big MasterChef Australia fan. The participants, judges and guests, variety of fresh ingredients, delicious food, inspiring innovation and altogether great attitude - all are so amazing. It's a great show to get some inspiration as well as useful cooking tips. I wrote this recipe down while watching a MasterChef class, probably, from season 2. The recipe is by Kumar Mahadevan. At that time, I was not very familiar with Tamil food (well, to be honest, I'm still not) and I was intrigued by this dish. I had to taste it! It did require some preparation, a little bit more effort and some loving - not something I would make after a loooong day in the office - but the result was surprisingly good from the very first attempt. I made it on several occasions since then and my hubby has nominated it as one of his favourite curries that I make :) Thank you Kumar!
It came out a little pale this time, but Kashmiri chili powder will give it a lovely red colour. In case you cannot get okra where you live, you may try making it with, for example, string beans.

You will need: 2 tsp mustard seeds 1 tsp fenugreek seeds 1 tsp cumin seeds 100 g shallots (or red onion), chopped 100 g okra, trim and make small incision on one side 1/2 tsp turmeric powder 2 generous tsp coriander powder 2 tsp red chili powder (or according to taste) 2 tomatoes, diced ~1 tbsp tamarind pulp 100 g ground coconut 2 tbsp chana dal (yellow split peas) 12-15 large prawns, cleaned (you can leave the heads and tails on for more flavour) a couple sprigs of curry leaves 2-3 dried red chilies oil for frying salt to taste 1. Heat some oil, add the mustard seeds and fry on high heat till they stop popping. Add the fenugreek and cumin seeds and fry for a few seconds. Add the shallots/onion and stir fry for a couple of minutes. Add the okra, sprinkle with salt and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove the okra and keep it aside. 2. Next, add the turmeric, coriander and red chili powders, add ~400 ml of water and bring it to a boil. Add the tamarind pulp and tomatoes, mix well, reduce the heat to medium, cover and cook for around 10 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, grind the coconut and chana dal in a food processor adding ~150 ml of water. 4. Next, add the prawns to the sauce, sprinkle with salt, cover and cook for another 3 minutes. 5. Stir in the coconut paste, add back the cooked okra and add half of the curry leaves. Mix it gently, cover the lid and continue cooking while you prepare the tempering. 6. For the tempering, heat some oil in a small pan and fry the dried red chilies on high flame till black and blistered. Remove the pan from the heat and add the remaining curry leaves to the hot oil. Pour the tempering into the curry, cover the lid and cook for another 2 minutes. Serve hot with rice.

Enjoy!

Prawn and pumpkin coconut milk curry (Konju Pulungari)

This is a Kerala dish called Konju Pulungari. "Konju" means prawns and "pulungari" is a curry with coconut milk and something sour, either vinegar or tamarind. Pumpkin is a festival vegetable in South India. This dish is originally made without spinach. But we tried making it with spinach and it complimented the smoothness of the coconut milk and sweetness of the pumpkin very well. Very very satisfying and it takes so little time and effort to make it. Serve it over a bowl of steamy basmati rice. If you cannot get curry leaves, just skip them. Yet again, this is great comfort food!

You will need: 500 gr prawns, cleaned 150 gr pumpkin [red, if you're in India], cut into medium size cubes a handful of spinach, coarsely chopped 400 ml coconut milk 2 medium onions, thinly sliced 2.5 cm ginger, peeled and sliced 2 green chilies, halved lenghtwise (remove seeds for a milder version) 10 curry leaves (optional) 1/2 tsp of turmeric powder 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds 1 tsp of cumin seeds 1 tsp of vinegar 200 ml of water salt to taste oil for frying 1. Heat some oil in a pot and first fry the mustard and cumin seeds until the mustard seeds start popping. 2. Next, add the curry leaves, ginger, chilies and onion and fry on a medium flame until the onion softens and becomes translucent (don't let it brown, reduce the flame if needed). 2. Add turmeric powder, salt to taste and pumpkin cubes, mix it well and fry for another couple of minutes. 3. Pour coconut milk and water, bring it to a boil and cook until the pumpkin softens. Stir occasionally. 4. Finally, add the prawns and spinach, mix it and cook for up to 5 minutes or until the prawns are cooked. Add one teaspoon of vinegar and mix it well, taste for salt. Serve it over rice or with white bread.

Enjoy!

Suji ka Halva - Semolina/Rava Halwa - Sheera

When it is made well, it is one of my favourite Indian sweets. It is very simple and easy to make, and if you have just a little bit of patience and follow a few instructions - success is guaranteed! Suji/rava means semolina, so you can find it under such names as suji (ka) halva or rava halwa, but in Maharashtra this dessert is also called sheera. It can be garnished with any kind of dried fruits and nuts, and flavoured with, for example, rose water. A very common version is with cashew nuts and raisins, but since raisins don't agree with me very well, I love it with just well roasted cashew nuts and cardamon. Also, it can be served just like this or pressed with more ghee (clarified butter) and then cut into pieces. We and everyone we know prefer this healthier version without additional ghee. It tastes the best while it is still warm, so if you are serving it not right away, put it into a microwave for a minute or so.

You will need: 1 cup of semolina (rava) ~1/3 cup of cashew nuts (or any other type of your favourite nuts) ~100 ml of ghee (clarified butter) OR regular unsalted butter, melted ~1/2 cup of sugar (adjust per taste) 400 ml of cold milk seeds of 4 cardamon pods, crushed a pinch of nutmeg powder handful of raisins (optional) 1. Heat 50 ml of ghee/butter in a pot, add the nuts and fry them till they brown nicely. If you are using the raisins, fry them together with the nuts. Remove the nuts and raisins from the ghee/butter and keep them aside. 2. In the same ghee/butters, fry the semolina on a medium flame until it releases the aroma and browns nicely. Keep mixing it periodically so that it browns evenly, don't let it burn. Be patient and don't rush this step, it will take several minutes and it is a very important step. 3. Add 1/4 cup of water, mix it well and let it cook for about 2-3 minutes. Add the sugar and mix it well again. 4. Remove the pot from the stove and add cold milk, mix it well. Put the pot back on the stove and keep stirring continuously now so that it doesn't become lumpy. When it starts simmering, pour in the rest of the ghee/butter while mixing, add crushed cardamon seeds and nutmeg powder, keep stirring until halwa thickens all of the sudden (it will take about 2 minutes). Halwa will become dry, but will still be soft, smooth and silky. Remove the pot from the heat. 5. Garnish the halwa with roasted nuts and raisins and serve it while it is warm. Leftovers can be warmed up in a microwave the next day. Enjoy!

Kerala Fish Curry with Fresh Coconut

This is a traditional Kerala curry and one of my favourite Amuma's [Ranjit's grandmother], who is an excellent cook, dishes. It's gravy has a nice combination of hotness from red chilies and smoothness from fresh coconut. I could eat it everyday! Amuma was very nice to share her recipe with me after I told her about my blog. If you cannot get fresh or dried curry leaves, just skip them. And you don't necessarily need raw mangoes, which are added for sourness. You can replace them with tamarind water or lime/lemon juice. So here we go.

You will need: 1 kg of white fish, cleaned and sliced 1 coconut 5-7 dried red chilies (adjust according to taste) 3-4 shallot onions (can be substituted with regular red onion) raw mango OR a small piece of dried tamarind OR ~1 tbsp juice of lime/lemon 1 tsp turmeric powder 1-2 green chilies 12-14 curry leaves (optional) 1 tsp coconut oil for garnishing (optional) 1. First you will have to open the coconut. If you haven't done it before, you can find very good instructions here. It takes a little bit of work, I used to do it myself while living in Lithuania, but the taste is so worth it. And since I moved to India, I get my fresh coconut from the market like this: 2. Next, put coconut pieces into a food processor and grind it till you get a coarse paste. Here, I am using this cool gadget to scrape out the coconut without having to get it out of the shell first: 3. If you are using shallot onions [sambar onions], that are milder and sweeter, you can soak them in water for a bit so that it is easier to peel them. If you don't have shallots, you can just substitute them with a regular red onion, peel it and cut into quarters. Also, soak the dried red chillies in some water so they are easier to grind. Put the onions and dried red chillies into a food processor or a blender and grind them till you get a as smooth as possible paste. You might need to add a few tablespoons of water while grinding. 4. If you are using dried tamarind, soak a small piece (marble size) of it in a couple tablespoons of water for about 10 minutes and then squeeze out the juices, disregard the skin and seeds. If you are using raw mango, keep it aside for now. Mix together the red chili and onion paste, ground coconut, turmeric powder and tamarind/lime juice [if not using raw mango]. The paste should be slightly coarse. 5. If you are using the raw mango, peel it and slice it. Also, cut the green chillies lengthwise and remove the seeds. If you like milder food, you can soak them into some water, I don't... 6. In a big pot, mix together the coconut paste and 2 cups of water. Bring it to a boil, add the green chillies, curry leaves and raw mango slices [if using them]. Add salt to taste and mix it well. 7. Reduce the flame and add the fish slices. I used kingfish, but any white meaty and less bony fish will do. Cover the pot and let it cook for about 8-10 minutes or till the fish is cooked. In Kerala, they garnish it with just a few drops of coconut oil at the end (optional). The colour of the gravy will depend a lot on the kind of red chillies you used. We used red Kashmiri chillies, which add this bright colour to the dish. Serve it over hot rice and with lots of gravy. Enjoy!