Shrimp Masala

Had some shrimp in the freezer, and really wanted to try something with it and ended up with shrimp masala for lunch.

Ingredients:
Shrimp - 25-30 medium sized
Onion - 1 medium
Tomato - 1 small, cubed
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tsp
Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
Chilli powder - 1 tsp
Garam Masala - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - one spring
Coriander leaves - For garnish

Method:
Saute onions until brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and saute for another minute. Add tomatoes at this point and saute again until tomatoes are cooked. Once this mixture is ready, let it cool and then blend it without adding water(or minimal water).
In the meantime, stir fry the prawns adding the powders in a tbsp of oil. You may even add a slit green chilly if you feel like it. Once the raw smell is gone, add the blended mixture and let it cook. Once the prawns are cooked, add the curry leaves and let it simmer for a minute. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Little Hearts

Ingredients :
Puff Pastry sheet - 1
Sugar - 4 tbsp

Roll out the puff pastry sheet. Sprinkle sugar on top. Roll it gently so that the sugar gets incorporated and do the same on the other side. And now its time for rolling. Roll as per the image below and cut them with a knife.
Bake at 400F for 8 minutes. Let them cool for 5-6 minutes and then turn them around and bake again for additional 4-5 minutes. And lo, little hearts are all set to be devoured :)

The above image is something I found online,  and this is how my own lil hearts turned out to be :)

Easy Parippu Curry

Well... do you forget to but tomatoes every now and then and then think of what curry to make for lunch? This one is a saviour. Very simple and very Kerala-ish.

Ingredients:
Toor Dal - 1/2 cup
Grate coconut - 1/4 cup
Jeera - 1/4 tsp
Green Chilly - 2
Pearl onion - 8-10
Turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
Curry leaves - Half a spring
Salt - As per taste

Recipe
Pressure cook dal with turmeric powder, green chillies, 4 pearl onions and salt.  Blend coconut with jeera. Once dal is cooked, add blended coconut mixture and bring it to a boil. Once cooked, add tadka with mustard seeds, curry leave, remaining pearl onions and red chillies.

And lo, you are done :)

Mixed Noodles

Was going through 'yummyoyummy' when I found a recipe for mixed noodles. And decided to create a version of it with the ingredients I had at home. Do try this at home when you have quite some stuff at home, feel like cooking but not in a mood to put in a lot of work. Well, that was the kind of mood I was in today - could not even bring myself to think about making roti dough.

Ingredients:
Any noodles - 1 cup
Chicken breast fillet - 1, cut into strips
Eggs - 2
Soya sauce - 1 tbsp
Chilli sauce - 1 tsp
Tomato sauce - 1 tsp
Vinegar - 1 tsp
Ginger - 1 inch piece
Garlic - 2-3
Salt
Pepper
Shredded cheese  - if you feel like it (1-2 tbsp)

Mixture of the following veggies(some/all of these can go in, I had only a few!) - 1 cup
Carrots
Red and green peppers
Jalapenos
Onion
Cabbage
Celery
Beans
Spring Onion
Lettuce
Mushrooms

Method:
Cook the chicken with salt and pepper.
Cook noodles as per instructions in pack.
Saute ginger and garlic.
Add veggies with salt to the sauted ginger-garlic. If you are using any veggies that might take extra time to cook, it will be better to half-cook it prior. But since we are talking about a quick recipe here, it will be better to add only those veggies which you do not mind eating crisp(think healthy ;)
Once vegetable are cooked, scramble egg with salt and pepper and add to it. You can do it in the same pan by moving the veggies to a side.
Add cooked chicken pieces to this.
Now it's time for all soya sauce, tomato ketchup, chilli sauce and vinegar. Add these and mix well.
Toss the noodles to this mixture and check salt.
Throw in the cheese after turning the stove off, that is if you decide to add it.
And most importantly, serve hot.

Hope you like this :)

Banana Cake

I have become a baking fan!!!
I was just not feeling upto my afternoon map and decided to try out something new, and thus started with banana cake recipe, and I threw in some blueberries and chopped walnuts too. The result was wonderful, the cake is long gone :)


Ingredients:
All Purpose Flour - 1 cup
Sugar                   - 1/2 cup
Ripe Bananas       - 2 medium sized mashed
Baking soda         - 1/2 tsp
Yoghurt               - 1/2 cup
Chopped nuts      - 1/2 cup, optional
Blueberry            - 1/2 cup, optional
Unsalted Butter   - 1/2 cup
Salt                     - 1/4 tsp (avoid if using salted butter)
Egg                     - 1

Preheat oven to 350F.
Mix together bananas, butter, sugar, yoghurt and egg.
Sieve All purpose flour, salt and baking soda.
Add the flour to the banana mixture, and mix well.
Add chopped nuts and blueberries if you prefer.
Grease the baking pan with butter and flour.
Bake for 30 minutes.

Mushroom Thoran

Today was my first time with Mushrooms in my kitchen, and since its not something on the first few pages of my hubby's favs, I decided to make do with Mushroom Thoran.

I started with watching a few videos on how to clean them. One of them was particularly useful. It said about mushroom's affinity to water and how it will retain water in it making the recipe go bad. Its best to wipe it clean with wet and dry paper napkins instead of leaving it under running water.

Ingredients:
Mushroom  - Finely cut, 1 cup
Coconut     - Grated, 1/2 cup
Curry leaves- 6-7 leaves
Pepper        - 1/4 tsp
Green Chillies - 2(spicy)
Coriander powder - 1/4 tsp
Garlic           - 1 clove
Ginger          - 1" piece
Salt              - As per taste

Mix together all the ingredients except mushrooms, and crush them. If you have very finely grated coconut, then the crushing part applies only for ginger and garlic.
Pop some mustard seeds, and thrown in a little Jeera too if you like the flavour.
Add the mushrooms and saute for a minute.
Add the grated coconut mixture, and mix well.
Cook closed with a little stirring every now and then until done.
This makes a wonderful thoran as an accompaniment to rice.

Chicken Strips

Chicken nuggets are generally deep-fried, and I generally resist the temptation to dwelve into a twenty of them for this particular reason. So decided to bake them cut as strips and evaluate the end product :)

Ingredients:
Chicken breasts cut into long and thin pieces - 1/2 lbs
Salt - As per taste
Pepper - As per taste
Lime juice - 2 tbsp
Egg white  - Of that of one egg (You can use the yolk as well if you feel up for it. For the time being, am sticking to the healthy option :)
Bread crumbs

Marinate chicken with salt, pepper and lime juice. Refrigerate for one hour.
Roll the chicken strips over the egg white and immediately over bread crumbs so that it sticks all around. I used  seasoned crumbs, but the plain ones will be just as good.
In a baking pan lined with a foil, arrange these strips. Spray a little oil(olive oil being my choice).
Put the oven on 'broil' mode, and broil for 7 minutes. Then turn over and broil for an additional 4 minutes. It's always better to check after 5 minutes since the size of the strips you have may vary from what I had.
Once its browned on both sides, enjoy it piping hot with some tomato ketchup and lime wedges (and don't you forget to let me know how it was).

Variation:
If you wish to bake it, bake at 350F for 20 minutes.
Deep frying will make it tastier, if you are game for it!