On home turf...

I quite like the geographical diversity in the last three posts( this one included). One from Far East, Thai Green Curry, one from the West, Pizza so this one had to be from my homeland. A dish prepared quite regularly in my household and relished especially by the adults.

In the East we often combine fish with other green vegetables. The typical Macha Jhola/Fish curry( that is staple diet in most Odiya households) has vegetables like potato, bhindi, brinjal, cauliflower etc. This makes the dish balanced in terms of nutrients, flavorsome in terms of taste and economical on the purse strings(prawns are going at Rs.400/ a kilo and a family of four could happily eat about half a kilo at one go).

Adding fish to lesser mortals like "lau/bottle gourd"(that is the standard perception about vegetables in most non-veg consuming households, a quick disclaimer I love vegetables and eat all of them without exception) gives it a face/place lift and ensures a wider appeal. Most people I know do not like Lau/Bottle gourd but absolutely love the Lau- Chingudi(prawn) combo. The sweet taste of Lau is balanced by the spicier Chingudi/prawn.

Lau Chingudi(Bottle Gourd with prawns)

Ingredients

Prawns/Chingudi: 200 grams(ideally the really small ones though I have used the larger sized ones here by default)

Bottle Gourd/Lau: One medium sized, chopped into cubes

Jeera/Cumin seeds: 1 tsp

Tej Pata/Bay leaves: 1/2 tsp

Salt: 1 tsp

Sugar: 1/2 tsp

Turmeric/Haldi powder:1/2 tsp

Green chillies:1/2, slit on top

Jeera/cumin powder: 1 tsp

Dhania/Corriander powder: 1 tsp

Green Corriander/Dhania patta: 2/3 tbsps

Oil: 1/2 tsp, ideally mustard oil

Method

This is a dish with very few ingredients. The seasoning needs to be subtle and should not overpower the flavor/taste of the main ingredients namely Lau and Chingudi. Given that prawns are very high in cholesterol try and use it more like a flavoring for the dish.

Add a little bit of salt and turmeric to the prawns and shallow fry them in a Kadai. This should take you only a couple of minutes as prawns cook very quickly. Do not overcook the prawns as they would then turn rubbery. Remove.

Into the same kadai add some jeera, bay leaves, green chillies and saute for a few minutes. Then add the Lau and the rest of the seasoning(salt, sugar, turmeric powder, jeera and dhania powder).

Cover and cook for a few minutes till the Lau softens. Lau will release a lot of water as it cooks so you will need to keep opening the lid a couple of times as it cooks.

Add the cooked prawns, mix well. Cook for a few more minutes.

Garnish with the green corriander.

While making Lau Chingudi try and keep the rest of your menu simple. Maybe plain rice and a moong daal. Provided warmth, coziness and comfort.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

Breakfast like a King......

My children could not believe their luck when they woke up this Sunday morning. Breakfast menu was Pizza. The younger one circled around the kitchen counter a couple of times to make sure that it was Pizza indeed!!! Mom agreeing to Pizzas and that too for breakfast. "unbelievable". Then he sat down and watched me layer the Pizzas.

Each one got customized, lots of mushroom for the older one, chilli flakes and olives for my husband, more corn and less mushroom for the younger one and of course some, 'all of the above' kind of Pizzas too. The biggest advantage of making the Pizzas at home, made to order so as sinful or as healthy as you want it to be.

The challenge was to try and minimize the wait time between each round. Started baking only after I had finished layering all the Pizzas. Next placed one Pizza on the hot plate(top of the oven) while another one baked. Then the ready to eat Pizza made it way to the table while the one waiting on top got shoved into the oven. And so it went on till the men declared that they were done. And could I please save the leftovers for their mid meal snack

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and so if you feel like having a Pizza the best time to have it would be in the morning. That way you have the entire day to burn the calories(sorry, if this bit sounds a little preachy, all for a good cause :-))

Breakfast Pizza

Ingredients

Pizza bases: 4(one per person). Make one or two extras which you could microwave later and eat.

Tomatoes: 4/5

Oregano: 4/5 tsp( about 1 tsp per pizza)

Olive oil: 2 tsps

Mushroom: 200 grams, finely sliced

Onions: 2 finely chopped

American sweet corn: About 1 cup, boiled

Sausages: 3/4, cut into thin roundels

Cheddar Cheese: You decide the quantity. My kids sometimes ask for a double cheese Pizza. Grate evenly over each Pizza and watch it melt and bubble all over.

Tobasco sauce: 1 tsp

Tomato Ketchup: 1 tsp

Method

For the base sauce

Blanch and puree about 3/4 tomatoes( chop one tomato fine and save that for the topping).

Heat some olive oil in a kadai, add some garlic to it. Saute for a few minutes(I like the garlic flavoring in my base sauce, you could make it without the garlic too). Then add some seasoning( try the Roopak Oregano seasoning), the pureed tomatoes and simmer. Let the sauce thicken. Then add some Cilantro/Dhania patta. Add about a teaspoon full of tobasco and another teaspoon of regular tomato ketchup. Check the seasoning. You may need to add 1/2 tsp of sugar.

Now to assemble

Spread about 1 tbsp of tomato sauce over the Pizza base. Then add some/all of the toppings. Mushroom, corn, sausage/salami, onion, tomatoes, chilli flakes, sliced olives, dhania patta, chopped garlic, oregano. Final topping of grated cheese. Bake for about 5 minutes.

Serve hot.

Slice each Pizza into four/two(depending on the number of members in your household) so that all of you can enjoy eating it together. That way you also get to sample a little bit of the other one's Pizza. Then wait till the next one arrives.

Playing for Pizza, anyone?

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

What's for dinner, darling?

Salad/stir fry for the day? What should I cook today?

The eternal question. Ideally something new, something I have not made in a while. The key to make salads interesting is to keep changing most of the ingredients everyday.

As I was going through the motions of deciding on what to cook( this is harder than the actual cooking) I remembered a Sanjeev Kapoor, ' Egg and Lettuce' salad recipe. As a meal accompaniment that would have worked fine but a main meal salad would need to have more "body" and so more ingredients( you cannot possibly have more than one egg per person in your salad). But the combination sounded appetising and I decided to use that as the base and add more ingredients. Some veggies( beans and carrots are always stocked in my refrigerator), some boiled pasta(a handful, should not overpower the veggies, veggies add volume to the salad without adding too many calories) and some sausages( for that wee bit of indulgence).

Now for the dressing. Did not want to use mayonnaise or the olive oil and lime juice combo( think new, think different has to be the mantra). So decided to make a cooked tomato sauce dressing with garlic, fresh basil and Tobasco. In all the combination that I quite hurriedly put together seemed to look good and worked well.

My Thursday Salad

(In the absence of a better name I have decided to name the salads by the day of the week)

Ingredients

Boiled Pasta: About 1 cup

Beans: 4/5 beans cut into two inch long pieces and blanched

Eggs: 2/3 boiled and cut into quartets

Carrots: 1, cut them two inch long pieces( had not initially planned on the carrots but they seemed to contrast so well with the rest of the ingredients, just could not miss out on the photo opportunity- sis would be proud of me)

Tomatoes: 2/3, blanched and pureed

Olive oil: 2 tsp

Oregano seasoning: 1 tsp

Basil leaves: 4/5

Lettuce: 4/5 leaves

Garlic: 4/5 cloves, sliced into thin slivers

Sugar: 1 tsp

Sausage: 2/3 cut into roundels

Tobasco sauce: 1 tsp

Method

For the dressing:Heat some olive oil, saute the garlic. Add the tomato puree, basil leaves, sugar, Tabasco, oregano. Simmer for a few minutes to thicken the sauce. Remove from the stove.

Add the boiled pasta, beans and carrots to the tomato sauce. Mix well.

Layer a dish with some lettuce leaves. Add the pasta with vegetables layer. Top with the sausage, boiled eggs and some shredded lettuce. Serve.

I am learning to think beyond the regular garden salad and making some amazing discoveries in the process.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

P.S: I did not get to sample any of it. I ate the leftover Thai Green Curry but then I am not complaining.

Ban Thai.....

I am so very excited today. I am uploading the post minutes after making the dish.

My first attempt at making Thai green curry and it has turned out well. I love Thai food. Love the riot of flavors, the texture of the curries, the sweet taste of coconut milk being balanced out by the green/red chillies and lime juice/lemon grass. It also comes very close to Indian coastal food. I am from the Eastern coast of the country where coconut milk/grated coconut is used quite regularly to flavor dishes. I also like the strong sour taste in curries. Thai food makes me feel like it was a cuisine created especially for me.

Last week I watched a cookery show where the host was making a Thai Green curry. I had also read a detailed account of Knife(fellow blogger) making the Thai Green Curry. So, this dish has been on my mind for a while.

My success with Tom Yam soup has also encouraged me to get more experimentative with my cooking. And finally the easy access to ingredients like lemon grass( I now grow it in my garden), galangal, kafir lime leaves etc. And where ingredients were not available some creativity/innovation to the rescue.

I had always thought that the green paste would have some really exotic ingredients and would be difficult to prepare at home. Must be to do with the name. Some internet search, sms exchanges with Knife, encouragement from sis and voila the Thai green curry appeared.

I really enjoyed this one taking shape. As it got close to what was familiar, I started breathing easy. So from feeling terribly nervous at the start of my cooking to becoming almost ecstatic after tasting it. And immense satisfaction after my family had eaten and certified the dish.

Thai Green Curry

Ingredients( a long list but most of the ingredients are easily available at home)

For the green curry paste

Corriander seeds: 1 tsp

Green chillies: 4/5, deseeded. This gives the curry paste a fiery green color and pungent smell. But don't worry the coconut milk and lime juice balances this out. Also the gravy in combination with some rice or boiled noodles tastes just right.

Green corriander:1/2 cup, chopped fine

Cumin seeds: 1/2 tsp

Fresh Basil: 2 tbsps

Shallots: 4/5 or about 4/5 tbsps of finely chopped regular onion

Galangal/Thai Ginger: 1 inch piece, chopped fine(you could substitute with regular ginger)

Lemon grass: 2/3 stalks, chopped fine. Save some for the garnish

Kafir lime leaves:4/5

Other ingredients

Soya sauce: 2/3 tsps( or some fish sauce)

Shrimp paste: 2 tbsps( I roasted some dried shrimps and ground them coarsely on my mortar and pestle and added it to the gravy).

Sugar: 1 tsp

Coconut milk: Thin coconut milk about two cups( If using powdered coconut milk, dissolve about 2 tbsps of coconut milk powder in two cups of warm water)

Lime juice: 3/4 tbsps

Chicken: Cut into small pieces( would cook faster and together with the vegetables), about 200 grams

Brinjal: I used a combination of green and purple brinjals(the long ones), so about half of each

Baby corn: 4/5 , cut them into 1 inch long pieces

Mushrooms: 200 grams, quartered.

Oil: 1 tsp

Method

Grind together all the ingredients for the green curry paste.

Heat a wok/kadai. Add the oil. Once the oil is hot, add the green curry paste and saute for a few minutes.

Then add the coconut milk, sugar, lime juice, soya sauce, shrimp paste and mix well.

And the chicken and all the vegetables. I love my thai curry with a lot of vegetables but you could halve the quantity if you prefer to have more chicken in your gravy.

Allow the vegetables to cook in the gravy, simmer for about 10 minutes.

Do check the seasoning. Like most Thai food there is a fusion of flavors but it is very important that they balance out. So add sugar/salt, lime juice as necessary.

Serve with some boiled rice or boiled noodles.

Yumm! This one is sure to make an appearance at meal times with regular frequency. Eyes down for Thai red and yellow curries.

Bon Apetit and Happy Cooking!

P.S: Thanks Knife for patiently answering all my queries.