Baked pranws in tomato/ coconut rum sauce

The genesis of this idea is from a fish dish I had at a Sri Lankan friend's place for dinner. With all due apologies to him, this one has nothing common with the lovely fish he served except the use of a coconut liqueur to marinate.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Prawns-  400 gm medium size; de-viened, shelled
• Tomato puree- 1 cup
• Garlic- 4 cloves; finely chopped
• Pepper corns- 2 tsp; coarsely crushed
• Butter- 2 tbsp
• Vinegar- 3 tbsp
• Coconut rum- 4 tbsp (I used Malibu, better would be if you could find vinegar made from coconut arrack)
• Red Chilli's- 2 large (coarsely crushed)
• Salt- To taste

Preparation ( Marination overnight + 30 mins cooking time):

Clean prawns, add half the chopped garlic, 2 tbsp rum, vinegar, salt, half the chilli flakes and half the pepper. Cover dish with foil and let it marinate overnight.

In an oven proof dish, add the tomato puree, remaining, chilli, pepper, garlic and the prawns. Add salt to taste. Bake in oven at 220 C for 30 mins. Fold in the butter, and the remaining into the prawns,  and leave in the still warm oven for 5 mins.

Finally. In background you can see my laptop as I am updating this blog entry

Serve hot with with rice or unleavened bread. The coconut rum/ vinegar gives a normally garlicky dish a mellowed earthy taste. Bon appetite.

Tips:

Great for wintery days where the tomato base warms your tum. If you want, by adding an additional cup of tomato puree and using smaller prawns you could convert this into a ready soup.

Shish Kebab

First, sorry guys for having gone missing for quite some time. Was having one of those phases of staying away from the Net, spending some time out in the outdoors, with friends, family. 

In fact this recipe was cooked up with my BIL (Brother-In-Law) on a lazy Thursday afternoon. What do two guys on holiday do? They plan for an afternoon of beer, and then decide beer is great with barbecue, and head to Walmart to splurge $100 on a barbecue set and beer, only to realize that they have nothing to cook. So necessity became the mother of the "Sheesh Kebab".

So here's the recipe that we turned out after another frantic trip to the local store.

Ingredients (Serves 3 adults and one very hungry dog):

• Lean beef/ beefalo mince - 400 gm
• Onions- 2 large
• Garlic- 4 large cloves
• Green chilli- 3 large
• Paprika powder- 1 tbsp
• Pepper- 1 tsp freshly coarse ground peppercorns
• Cumin- 1/2 tsp (roasted and ground fine)
• Salt- To taste
• Bamboo skewers- As required
• Butter/ Oil- To baste 

 

Preparation (Marination/ Precooking time-1/2 hr, Cooking Time- 1/2 hr):

 First, take bamboo skewers and put them in a jar of clean water so that they soak through. Not necessary, but sure does help to prevent the skewers from burning out and breaking up on the grill. Next chop onions, garlic and green chilli into small pieces, blend to smooth paste. Add paprika, ground pepper, salt, cumin. Fold into the ground thawed mince. Leave to marinate.

Start grill and wait till coals are formed (for novices trying out for the first time like we did, it's the stage that the fire burns without smoke but with enough heat). Spread out the coals. Meanwhile, mold the mince around the skewers. If the meat keeps falling off, try to squeeze as much water as you can out of the mince when you are putting it on the skewer. The idea is to spread it as evenly and as thinly as possible for even cooking. The thumb rule I would say is to have a thickness between skewer and surface of a third or half a centimeter.

Baste the surface of the seekh's with a dash of oil. Place on grill. Keep turning at intervals. You will know that the meat is done from the smell. Visually speaking, the meat turns a light brown and then a dark caramel colour.

Enjoy with beer (if you did not run out during the hot and thirsty work of cooking- We did, ran through two six packs :P).

Tips:

 

• Don't run out of beer. Kidding apart, try pairing this with a salad. On a hot summer day you could throw in a quick 'mojito' - Crushed mint, lemon, white rum, little salt, ginger ale, ice. Heaven
  

Mackerel Curry with Rice

Okay, this is not a traditional Bengali fish and rice combo, for neither is Mackerel a common fish in Bengal (quite a sizable chunk of people had a thing about sea fish), nor is this a recipe that you will find in gastronomic paeans. But the reason for including this one is because of the influence that the traditional 'bhat and macher jhol' recipes had on this dish.

It's easy to cook- right from preparation to serving takes about an hour and is light on the stomach. Maybe the best description for this would be 'comfort food for the restless Bengali soul far from home.' For those of you who are curious but tentative about trying out complex fish curries, this one may be the right one to start off with.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Mackerel-2 (Cleaned and cut into head, body and tail)~ About 300 gm each
• Tomato-1 large
• Onion- 1 large (finely sliced)
• Ginger- 1 inch stick (chopped finely)
• Garlic - 2 large cloves
• Turmeric- 2 tsp
• Chilli powder -1 tsp
• Chilli flakes - 1/2 tsp (just for the smell, trust me it does not make it hot).
• Salt- To taste
• Mustard oil to cook - 4 tbsp
• Bay leaf- 2 small

Preparation:

Clean fish in fresh water, drain, dress with turmeric, salt and leave aside for 15 mins. Chop onions, ginger, garlic. Quarter tomato and cut into halves. Heat 3 tbsp oil in pan till smoking. Fry fish till lightly browned. Remove from flame.

Pour remaining oil in pan. Add onions, garlic, ginger to oil- stir till soft. Add tomato pieces, bay leaf, chili flakes, chili powder. Stir on low flame. Add fish to the mix. Add a little water. Simmer for 20 mins and your fish curry is down.

Serve hot with rice for lunch.


Estimated cost:

• Fish~ OMR 1
• Tomato+ Garlic+ Ginger+ Onion~OMR 0.100
• Oil+ Spices~ OMR 0.200
• Total cost~OMR 1.3 or USD 3.5 for two people

Tips:

• If you have the time and inclination, I would recommend pairing this off with a light 'aloo posto'.

Bhapa Chingri (Steamed Prawns in Banana Leaves)

Prawns, rather shrimp, steamed in a mustard-chili sauce was one of the favourite holiday dishes when we were growing up. Normally, what Mom would do is seal the shrimp with the spices into a small container and put it into the bhater hari (rice-pot) once the rice was half done. The shrimp would get cooked in it's own juices on slow heat over an hour or so. And when at lunch it would be opened, you would have fragrant steam rising mixed with the pungent mustardy, chilli smell. Ahhhh.....Heaven.


Miss those rainy afternoon lunches when we would sit down for long slow lunches. Anyway, here's my personal adaptation. It's extremely simple to make, relies on the natural flavours of the spices to make the dish stand out and is great if you have a cold. Let me know if you try it.

Ingredients (Serves -2, Approximate cooking time-1 hr)

• Prawns (shelled and deveined) - 250 gm
• Mustard seeds- 4 tbsp (more if you are adventurous)
• Green chillies- 8
• Mustard Oil- 4 tbsp
• Grated coconut (optional)- 3-4 tbsp
• Salt to taste
• Banana leaves- If you can get them for wrapping the prawns-2 large

Preparation:


Soak the mustard seeds in hot water for 2 hrs. Grind half of the chillies to a paste. Add salt and the mustard seeds. Grind to a smooth paste.

Mix the paste into the prawns and set aside for 15 mins. Now wrap the prawns in the banana leaves along with the mustard paste. Sprinkle on a little bit of salt, 2 tbsp mustard oil, and two of the remaining green chillies chopped into small pieces. Use the second leaf to make a waterproof parcel as shown below. If you want, you could seal in even this pack in a length of aluminum foil so that you have no messy drips in the oven.

Bake in the oven at 200 C for 30 mins.

Remove the foil and unwrap the banana leaves. Add remaining chopped chillies and mustard oil. Serve hot with rice.

Tips:

• Picked this one up from my cousin. When grinding the mustard seeds, it is recommended that you add a pinch of salt as otherwise the paste takes on a bitter taste.
• If you want, you could add a pinch of turmeric and red chili powder with the marinade in the beginning. Lends colour and masks a bit of the fishy smell.
  

Grilled Chicken Purses with Cheese & Basil Stuffing

Nothing as comforting as baked potatoes, chicken and cheese. Here's a recipe for chilly winter evenings when you are just tired, and want to dig into some comfort food.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Chicken Breasts- 2
• Mozzarella- 1/2 cup grated
• Potatoes- 4 medium sized ones
• Garlic- 2 large cloves
• Button mushrooms- 1 cup
• Butter-1 tbsp
• Basil- Dried, 2 tsp.
  
• Peppercorns- 1 tsp
  
• Salt to taste

Preparation (About60 mins):

Clean the potatoes and pop them into the oven at 300C for 25 mins. While the potatoes get warmed up, clean the chicken and cut into halves. Dice garlic into small pieces, mix with grated cheese, peppercorns, half of the basil and salt to taste. Mash the mixture. Make slits in the chicken breasts and stuff with this mixture. Seal the chicken purses with toothpicks.

Baste the chicken with butter. Once potatoes finish 25 mins in the oven, add chicken to the baking tray. Dab the potatoes with a bit of butter, sprinkle a bit of salt and remaining basil over the potatoes and the chicken. Cook in oven for 20 mins at 250 C.

Turn the chicken over and pour the juices on the potatoes and chicken so that they do not dry out. Add mushrooms to the tray after dusting them slightly in remaining butter. Pop into oven and cook for 10 mins more at 200C. Serve hot.



Tips:

• The potatoes can be mashed with a bit of the gravy that drains out from the chicken . Tastes heavenly.

Hilsa baked with mustard

The perennial Bengali fishà Hilsa is back again. Strange that even in Muscat, you manage to find Hilsa. As my fishmonger Nizam put it, “Bhai, absolutely fresh from the Padma. Only two months on ice.” But then what else could a Bengali guy do when faced with Hilsa.

To top it all, there’s this new chappie in office, who had been eating my ear’s out with stories of home cooking, lau-chingri, posto bata, sukto, einchorer dalna, note shak bhaja. So there I was standing with a kilo of tucked under my arm and no idea of what to cook.

In the end I decided on “Illish Paturi”. Back at home, the hilsa would have been swathed in layers of fresh banana leaf and left to cook in the embers of a dying wood or coal fire, but Muscat being as removed from Calcutta as fish from the desert, what follows is my modified version.

Ingredients (Serves 1):

• Hilsa- 250 gm
• Mustard seeds- 3 tbsp
• Green Chillies- 6 large
• Mustard Oil- 2 tbsp (You can cut it down for a diet h ilsa bake, but it does leave something lacking).
• Salt to taste

Preparation (Processing 10 mins+ Baking Time 25 mins~Total Time 40 mins)

Soak mustard seeds in warm water for half an hour. Cle

an fish in fresh water. Grind mustard seeds, 4 green chillies to fine paste. Add mustard oil and salt to the paste. Spread this paste evenly on the fish. Slit and place the remaining green chillies on top of the fish. Wrap the fish in double layers of aluminum foil. Seal the packet from the edges, as you see in the pic below, so that steam does not escape. Do not wrap the fish too tightly as otherwise the pack may burst in the oven.

Set oven to 250 C and bake for 25 mins. If you have time on your hands, I would recommend cooking at 150 C for 40 mins. The longer time you can give it low temperatures, the better do the flavours mingle.

Serve hot with rice.

Tips:

• Though we are using a lot of mustard and green c hillies, the baking process tempers down the spices. So if you want to have it really spicy, I would recommend serving green chillies on the side for accompaniment.

Grilled Tuna and Vegetables

Well, you can eat Maggi in only so many ways day after day. But what do you cook up that’s healthy but can be done in 40 minutes flat with little intervention. So despite being bone tired after a day’s slugging it out with clients and the production team, here I was at Carrefour buying Tuna fillet.

And man, it turned out great. So here’s the recipe for the day- Grilled Tuna with veggies. Takes only about 40 mins. You could customize it and drop the baked potato’s to make it into a leaner meal.


Ingredients (Serves 1):

• Tuna fillet- about 200 gm
• Broccoli- 1 small floret • Baby carrots- 1 handful
• Potatoes- 2 medium sized one
• Button Mushrooms- 4 or 5 medium sized ones
• Butter- 20 gm
• Lemon- ½ a small lemon
• Rosemary
• Pepper corns- ¼ tsp whole
• Salt to taste

Preparation:

1. Pop the potatoes into the oven. Bake for 20 mins @ 200 C.

2. Clean fish, make small incisions, dress with lemon and salt.

3. Clean the veggies and separate the broccoli into bite sized morsels.

4. Once potatoes are pre-cooked, braise fish & mushrooms with butter. Put in dish with potatoes, veggies, mushrooms. Place the broccoli, carrot near the bottom where they can be stewed in the juices release by the fish. Sprinkle a few sprigs of rosemary and the pepper on top and pop into the oven.

5. Cook for 15 mins @ 200 C. And your dinner is ready.


Tips:

• A glass or two or three of white wine wouldn’t spoil the dinner. ;)

Baked Hammour With Sage

One of the commonest eaten fishes in the Persian Gulf, the "Hammour" is a member of the Grouper family. Available in any and every supermarket, it's great for fries, for a light weekend dinner.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

• Hammour Fillet- 400 gms, cut into medium sized pieces
• Button Mushrooms=100 gms
• Unsalted Butter- 3 tbsp
• Sage- 2 tsp
• Basil- 1 tsp
• Garlic- 1/2 large clove (shredded)
• Lemon juice- 1/2 lemon squeezed
• Lemon Rind- 1/2 sq.cm
• Pepper- 1/2 tsp coarsely crushed
• Salt

Preparation:

Mix the butter with salt, finely shredded lemon rind, shredded garlic, chopped sage, basil, lemon juice. Mix into an even mixture. Make shallow cuts into the fish to increase area over which the sauce can be spread and speed up cooking. Use half of this butter- sauce to coat the fish. Keep aside. Preheat oven to 160 C for ten minutes. Place fish in an open baking plate and place in oven for ten minutes. Turn the fish over. Checking to see how well it's done. Now arrange the sliced mushrooms in between the fish making sure that they are dipped in the sauce. Cover fish and mushrooms with the remainder of the baste, add a sprinkle of salt, a dash of lime juice so that it doesn't dry out. Place in oven, bake for 15 mins. To check if fish is done, pierce with fork, fork shuld come out cleanly. The mushrooms are done if they start to brown over. Take care that the neither the fish or the mushrooms dry out.

Tips:

• In absence of Hammour, you could use any mild white fish.
• If you want something as a side dish to much on, would suggest a brown loaf, that you could break off and mop the sauce with
  

Chicken in Green Chilli-Date Sauce

THE RECIPE for a date night when you are trying your best to woo someone. You can always claim, it's a recipe from faraway Oman, originally created for the Imam at Nizwa. ;). The most enchanting part of this recipe, besides it's novel taste, is it's simplicity. The sweet tidbits of date contrast well with the pungent chili, all of it brought out on the foil of uncomplicated chicken.

Ingredients:

Chicken- 100 gm, diced
Dates- 1 handful, preferably just ripening.
Green chili- 3 large
Red Chills- 3
Cumin seeds- 1 tbsp
Cardamom- 3 small
Ghee- 3 tbsp
Sugar- 2 tsp
Salt- To taste


Preparation:

Grind cumin seeds, red chili, cardamoms, sugar into fine powder. keep aside. Now, de-pip the dates, chop into small pieces. Add to green chills and grind into smooth paste with a little water. Add the chili-cumin powder and a little salt to the mix. Keep processing for 2 minutes more.

Marinate the chicken overnight in this sauce.

Heat ghee in frying pan, fry the chicken till tender. Lower flame and stir in the marinade. Once the fat leaves the sides, add water, and simmer for 2o minutes.

Serve piping hot with rice.

Tips:

• As usual, I recommend a chilled white wine, preferably dry to go with this one.
• And of course, I almost forgot the most important ingredient. Make sure your 'date' is there.

Green Mango & Chicken Salad

Another 'quicky' for hot summer afternoons. Minimal preparation time. Refreshingly tart green mango combined with chicken.

Ingredients (Server two):

Chicken breasts- 2 boiled and cut into pieces
Green Mango- 2; chopped into slivers
Green Coriander- 3 sprigs, torn into smaller segments
Salt to taste.

Preparation:

Toss chicken pieces, green mango in salad bowl. Garnish with coriander. Chill for half an hour and your salad's ready.

Avocado Pineapple Salad

A light and refreshing salad, high on protein perfect for blistering summer afternoons.With lots of fruit thrown in it is extremely crunchy and filling, while replenishing lost body fluids. What's more this one can be tossed together in 15 minutes- Just right for those summer afternoons when you really don't want to cook.

Ingredients:


Avocado- 2 medium sized ones, peeled and chopped
Pineapple- 1 small cut into small pieces
Chicken breasts- 2; Bolied with salt and cut into small nibble sized pieces
Prawns- 100 gm, shelled and boiled
Green olives- Chopped, 1/4 cup
Black olives- Chopped 1/4 cup
Honey- 1 1/2 tbsp
Lime- 2
Lemon- 1
Mint- 3-4 leaves shredded
Salt- To taste

Preparation:


Toss all ingredients together in a salad bowl. Pour the pineapple juice from the cut pineapple over it. Dash with honey and sprinkle salt to taste. Squeeze the lime and lemon juice into the salad. Toss, chill for fifteen minutes.

Your salad's just right.


Tips:

• If you want something more filling, you could serve the salad accompanied by rusks dashed with olive oil. Sprinkle with a tiny dash of crushed rosemary- Just adds the little extra bit of fragrance to the whole tasting experience.
• You could add crab sticks to the salad if you want to make it more 'sea-foody'
  

Duck in Orange Sauce

Once upon a time there was a restaurant in Dhaka called Le Saigon. Unobtrusive and select. Never hit the radar. So different from most restaurants in Dhaka.

Anyway, I am getting ahead. This post is dedicated to this quaint romantic restaurant and to Shammubhai who runs the restaurant in his own unique way.

Borrowed from Shammubhai, here's Duck in Orange Sauce.

Ingredients (Serves 4):

Duck- 1 (Skinned, cut into bite sized pieces)
Orange- 1
Fresh Orange Juice- 2 cups
Red chilli-3
Sugar- 2 tbsp
Oil- for frying
Salt

Marinade:

Fish Sauce- 2 tsp

Ginger- 1/2 in shredded

Red chilli- 2 Shredded

Salt- To taste
Pepper- 2 tsp

Preparation:

Marinate the duck for 2 hours. Deep fry marinated duck pieces till golden brown. Add sugar to caramelize. Add orange juice. Simmer over low flame. Reduce sauce till thick. Add red chillis and orange segments. Serve hot with with rice.

Tips:

In case you are in Dhaka and are looking for a different dining experience, I would heartily recommend Le Saigon (You can find recipes from Chef Que here.)

Bengali Sona Muger Dal

One of the evergreen favourites at any Bengali meal- Moong Dal cooked in ghee. Somehow, despite trying so many times, never could recreate either the aroma or the taste that Mom used to get. Maybe it was some secret ingredient she never told us, or maybe it was just her. Who knows, here’s a recipe from the time I got closest to that old flavour.


Ingredients (Servers 2):

Moong Dal -½ cup (Would be best if you could get the variety we call ‘Sona Mung’ in Bengal)
Ghee- 1 tbsp
Cumin seeds (jeera)- ¼ tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste

Preparation:

Wash dal and dry. Put a pan on low heat and add dal. Keep stirring constantly till dal starts emitting a sweet aroma. Take care not to burn dal to brown. Now add salt and water and boil dal till soft. If you are using a pressure cooker, you should boil till two whistles.

Heat ghee in frying pan, and add the cumin seeds. Once the cumin seeds start to pop add the strained dal and cook for five minutes. Add the water leftover from boiling the dal, salt sugar to taste and a pinch of turmeric powder. Cook till an even consistency. Add 1 tsp of ghee, cover and take off flame.

Serve hot with rice. This aromatic and creamy dal can be had with rice as a complete meal. The best part is that not only does it taste great, but between dal and rice, they have all the amino acids required by the body. So you have a meal which covers all food groups- complete protein, carbohydrates and fat.

Suran ala Crème

No cream in this one. But picked up the name just because of the consistency of the final dish (plus I had created a dish called ….ala Crème). The inspiration behind this dish came while thinking of what could we have with poached fish. Was looking for something, that would be spicy, mashed like potato or tapioca and was different from your run of the mill flavours. Chancing upon yam at the supermarket, gave it a try.

Bon appetite.

[Incidentally, the fire extinguisher that you see in the picture has no specific relation to my confidence on pulling this dish off. It’s standard issue on all my cooking adventures. ;) ]

Ingredients:

Suran (Yam; a.k.a. ‘Ol’ in Bengali) - 400 gm
Onions- 5 large
Garlic- 3 large cloves
Ginger- ¼ inch stick (shredded)
Cinnamon – ¼ cm stick (coarsely crushed)
Turmeric- 1 ½ tsp
Red chilli- 6
Sugar- ½ tbsp
Cooking oil- 2 tbsp
Salt to taste


Preparation:

De-skin the yam and cut into ½ inch cubes, the smaller the better. Boil with turmeric and salt till macerated. Take off from flame and let cool. Julienne the onions and garlic. Heat oil in a non-stick pan and add onions, garlic and ginger. Fry on low heat till the onions start losing their colour. Strain the yam pieces and add to the pan. Keep cooking over low flame for five minutes.

Slowly add the turmeric-water-yam stock. By now the yam pieces would have really become soft. Now, mash the yams while still in the pan. Add the sugar and salt for taste. Break the red chillis’ into small pieces and mash into the yam paste. Keep adding water and cooking over low flame till the yam becomes a paste with the consistency of thick yogurt. Mix in cinnamon powder, cover and let cook for five minutes.

Serve hot with pancakes or rice or as an accompaniment to poached or fried fish with steamed fish. Warning!!!- Because of the large amount of chilli in the dish, this dish will bring tears (of joy I hope) to all but the most die-hard hot food aficionado.


Tips:

• Sometimes, if not cooked properly, yam causes an itchy feeling on lips and throat. Nothing serious, but in case you fall prey, just suck on a slice of lemon.

Pineapple Chicken

‘Something about how they cook chicken with pineapples in the Philippines’- The vaguest recollection about this was that I had read an article in Reader’s Digest when I was in junior school, and yet this memory kept coming back. So finally on this New Year’s Day, based on the vaguest of ideas of how it will taste, I tried to put this idea to test

Ingredients (Serves two):

Chicken breast – 600 gm (diced into bite sized pieces)
Pineapple- 250 gm can conserved
Ginger- 2 inch stick (coarsely chopped)
Pepper- 3 tsp (Whole)
Lime- 1 whole
Red chilli- 2 whole
Oil- for cooking
Salt –To taste
Optional: Lemon grass- Half a stick (in ½ inch pieces)


Preparation:

Make small incisions in chicken cubes to speed up cooking. Bruise ginger lightly and add to chicken pieces. Toss in the pineapple along with the syrup and squeeze in half a lemon. Mix thoroughly and let it marinate for 2 hours. The enzymes in the pineapple, along with the lemon will tenderize the chicken.

Heat oil in a pan and fry chicken till tender. Once the chicken is cooked, add a little more oil and throw in the pineapple pieces. Let it simmer for five minutes. Coarsely crush the pepper corns with the flat knife side. Now add pepper and garlic from the marinade along with the red chillis (for flavour). Add remaining marinade and salt to taste. Cover and reduce flame to low. For those willing to experiment, you could add the lemon grass now. However, lemon grass with its overpowering flavour can unbalance the gingery sweet taste of the dish. Some like it some don’t. I leave the choice to you.

Leave on simmer till sauce is reduced to a consistency of a thick soup. Before serving sprinkle a little lime juice on chicken. Serve hot with rice.

This dish is simple to cook. Estimated cooking time is ½ - ¾ of an hour and is a combination of many flavours. The first impression is the sweet pineapple taste which combines well with the chicken. As you munch along, the other flavours that you chance upon, the tart lime juice sprinkled in the end, the piquant taste of ginger and hot bite from the coarsely crushed pepper refreshes the palette and reawakens the sense of smell as you move along.


Tips:

Being a sweetish dish, I would recommend a side dish of a spice vegetable (dominant flavour being hot) so that the palette does not get jaded. I tried it with a side dish of mashed yam (Suran ala crème) and pancakes.

Dessert suggestion- With a main course whose dominant flavour is sweet, it’s extremely difficult to find a dessert. An alternative could be a tart fruit like Kiwi. Peel Kiwi, slice into thin chunks and chill in freezer. Just when your guests are done, serve in martini glasses topping off each serving with a ripe cherry. Accompany with whole wheat crackers and a dry ripe cheese.

Star Fruit and Shrimp Salad.

I am in one of those “Eat Healthy” phases. For the past few days my lunch at office has been fresh fruits or salads, of course rounded off by the once in a while pizza. While thinking of new salad ideas thought up this one, and seems it turned out not to bad. For those of you wondering whether or not I tried it out myself, well, I have. ;)

It’s a pretty nifty one. Refreshing on a hot summer’s afternoon or as a cold snack when you return from office.

Ingredients:

Star Fruit/ Carambola (or ‘Kamranga' as we call them in Bengali)- 1 green, the more tender the better the tart taste.

Shrimp- 200 gms, shelled and boiled in salt water with Paprika.

Paprika coarsely ground into powder- To taste.

Salt to Taste

Preparation:

Slice the fingers of the Carambola lengthwise, leaving behind the core which contains the pips. Chop these into small triangles. Sprinkle a healthy dose of paprika onto the shrimp. Salt to taste. Toss with the Carambola slivers. Chill. Serve.

Tips:

• Originally thought of making a dressing with 'Saké, and 'Wasabi'. Marinade the prawns in this pungent mix. And post marinade, you could mix in a little more sake and pour over the salad as dressing.
  
• To increase volume you can add shredded salad greens.
  

Mutton Stew With Coconut Milk

Picked up from a former roomie. Modified from a traditional Malyali recipe, this one has a nice creamy taste and you can add vegetables as you want to make this as nutritious as you want.

Ingredients (Serves 2):

Mutton/ Lamb- 250 gms
Coconut milk- 1 cup
Carrot- 1 medium sized, chopped
French beans- 50 gm, chopped
Onions- 4 large, finely sliced
Cinnamon- 3 large sticks
Sun dried red chillies- 3
Salt, sugar to taste
Oil - 2 tbsp

Preparation:

Boil mutton with salt till tender. Fry onions till white and mushy. Add mutton, cinnamon stick and cook till fat leaves the sides. Add the chopped vegetable. Stir in the coconut milk slowly, cover and cook over low flame. Regulary stir and add the stock bit by bit. Reduce gravy.

Tips:

Traditionally eaten with appams, but goes just as well with rice. Goes well with brown toast, just make the gravy thicker.

Greek Salad

Whatever, I like calling this a Greek Salad, therefore a Greek Salad it is. Fast to cook. And as one of my girl friends like calling it, the perfect 'horny-porny' food.

Ingredients:

Iceberg lettuce- 4
Cherry tomatoes- Half a handful
Black olives depipped and chopped- Half a handful
Feta cheese- 100 gm, chopped into small pieces
Mushrooms- Half a handful
Baby corn- 6 small
Pepper corns, roasted- 1 tsp
Olive oil and vinegar dressing

Preparation: [The snaps not mine, but does look inspiring:)]

Wash all the greens thoroughly. Chill iceberg lettuce. Throw all ingredients together in mixing bowl, shred chilled lettuce, add to bowl. Toss around with olive oil and vinegar dressing and a little salt for taste and volia, your salad's ready.

Tips:

• Perfect for a brunch after a late night. Also goes very well as an entree for dinner.
• Works perfectly with white wine and candleight. ;)

Sauted Veggies with Mustard Twist

A quick dish for the times you want a veggie side dish for a heavy meal.

Ingredients (Serves 2):
Potatoes- 3 large
Tomato- 1 small
Spring onions sprigs- 100 gms
Onions- 1 large
Oil- 2 tsp
Pepper corns- 1/2 tsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Salt & sugar to taste


Preparation:
Boil potatoes. Heat oil in pan, and fry onions till golden, add the chopped potatoes along with mustard seeds, pepper corns, salt, sugar to taste. Fry till potatoes are almost cooked. Add chopped tomatoes, spring onions and a few sprigs of corriander. Cover. In five minutes it can be served.

Methi Chicken

This one's passed down from a cousin of mine. This was the first dish cooked successfully for a lunch for junta, my first success as a host. This one's for you Gopalda. This one can be whipped up in a jiffy, about twenty-five minutes actual cooking time, is minimal fuss and requires very simple ingredients.

Ingredients (Serves- 2):
Chicken- 300 gms
Curd/ Yogurt- 100 gms
Green chillis- 3
Chilli powder- 1/2 tsp
Methi seeds- tsp
Oil- 2 tbsp
Salt and sugar to taste

Preparation:
Prepare a marinade of beaten curd, salt, chilli powder, salt. Marinate chicken for 2 hrs.
Heat oil, add methi seeds on low flame. Just as they start turning golden brown, add chicken pieces. Once the fat leaves the sides, add the marinade into the pan, stir and and leave covered for fifteen minutes. Once the chicken is done, slit the chillis lengthwise and add. Serve hot.

Tips:
The taste though similar to most creamy chicken dishes is suprisingly different because of the methi and the smell of green chillis added in the end. Great with rice.