MUM- bo Jumbo

Happy Holi!

Love the colors in my dish today, definitely goes with the festive spirit.

Growing up along the coast, we had access to the freshest, juiciest, tastiest prawns. Prawns would appear on the dining table with a certain regularity. Since they were fairly common place we did not go all ooh! and aah! at the sight of them. We just ate them in large quantities.

Mom cooked them in several different ways. There was of course the regular jhol( onion, ginger, garlic gravy), Mustard prawns( the prawns turned out really succulent when cooked this way), then she made prawn cutlets and stuck the tail of the prawn onto them- those looked quite unique. Tons of small sized prawns( read shrimps) got added to Chowmein and Prawn sweet and sour( prawn wantons in a fresh tomato pureed sauce) . I loved her prawns any which way.

One of my favorites was sauted prawns- she usually made this dish when we had larger sized prawns. So when my husband bought some of those prawns home I immediately decided to call Mommy for the recipe. As I was cooking the dish this afternoon the house smelt of my Mom's kitchen- that familiar aroma of prawns being sauted with vegetables and sauces.

Mom's Special Prawns

Serves: 4, Cooking time: 20 minutes

Ingredients

Large prawns( we call them Jumbo prawns): 1 kg

Onions: 4 large onions, quartered

Garlic: 1 tbsp, finely chopped

Capsicum: 1 small capsicum, cubed into 1" pieces

Tomato: 2, remove the seeds and cut into 1" pieces

Green chillies: 4/5, slit on top

Chilli sauce: 1 tsp

Tomato sauce: 1 tsp

Soya sauce: 1 tsp

Corn flour: 1 tsp, dissolved in half a cup of water

Oil: 1/2 tbsp

Sugar:1/2 tsp

Salt: To taste( go easy on the salt because all the sauces have added salt in them)

Method

• Clean the prawns, leave the head and tail on.
• Heat the oil in a wok/kadhai.
• Add the sugar and let it caramalise. Next add the garlic and onions and saute for a few minutes.
• Add the prawns, cover and cook for about 10 minutes. The prawns should be almost done by this time.
• Open the lid and add the capsicum, tomatoes, salt, all the sauce and the corn flour. Increase the flame and saute so that the prawn is evenly coated with all the sauces.
• Turn off the stove and let the prawns rest for a bit. Helps the prawns soak up the sauces. You could also the dish covered.
• Serve hot with either a fried rice or noodles. We had ours with regular daal and rice.

You could also add some mushrooms and baby corn to this dish. Serve it over a bed of boiled noodles and you have a wholesome meal ready in a jiffy.

The prawns tasted yumm! and as with most of my dishes helped me relive a bit of my childhood.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!