Prawns with green chillie and coconut water + milk

I learned this recipe from Vicky Ratnani on NDTV. I find this character with his harsh voice and effort to bring in humor very irritating, but the things he dishes out are just fantastic. So I pay the price and sit for his shows to please the gastronomic sutras. Read on.

Ingredients Needed:
Prawns (Jumbo preferably - 5 or 6)
Garlic (5 or 6 clove)
Garlic ( 2 inches)
Green chilli (4)
Spring onion (1 stock)
Coriander (small bunch)
Coconut milk (200 ml)
Coconut water (1/4 cup)
Fish sauce (Optional-1 tsp)
Basil leaves for garnishing.

Blend together garlic, ginger, green chilly, spring onions, coriander, basil leaves and some coconut water. Heat oil in a pan and pour the blended content into it and cook for a minute. Add the prawns and allow it to cook. It should take approx 15 min for the prawns to cook. Once the prawns is done, add coconut milk  and boil for 2 minutes. Add fish sauce for extra taste. Serve hot with plain white rice.

Mushroom Butter-garlic

The first time I tasted Mushroom butter garlic was in the restaurant, Little Italy and must say this is the best thing that they serve. Of course, taste wise the restaurant takes a 5/5 in everything but, their roasted butter mushroom has always been my favorite. I had invited my Aol team over for dinner and served them this. They loved it and could not get enough of it. A very simple to make dish and uses a total of 5 ingredients only! So here goes the recipe.

Our 5 ingredients are:
Mushroom ( 1 packet)
Butter (3 teaspoon - chopped)
Garlic (9-10 pods or just use one whole)
Salt
Pepper
Coriander leaves

Start by melting the butter in a pan over low heat. Add the chopped garlic, salt and pepper. Saute for a maximum of 1 min and then add the mushroom. Cover and cook for approx 10 min or till the mushroom is done.
Serve hot garnished with coriander leaves.

There were some left over chill flake sachet from Pizza  Hut at home which I sprinkled on the dish. It did alter the taste a bit apart from adding color.

Mixed dal dosa recipe

Who says taste and health don't go hand in hand? Here is one simple dosa recipe which is as tasty as it is healthy.

You need:

Rawa - 1 cup

Toor Dal - 1/2 cup

Urad dal - 1 tablespoon ful

Green dal - 2 tablespoon

Channa dal - 2 tablespoon

Red chilli - 4 (or as per taste)

Hing - 1 pinch

Salt - as per taste

Onion and curry leave (optional)

Mix all the dals together and soak for 3 hours. Soak the rawa separately for 1 hour. Grind the rawa and keep aside. Mix chilli, hing and salt to the dal and grind to a fine paste. Add this to the ground rawa. Use this batter to make dosa. Sprinkle onion and curry leaves on the dosa.

I sometimes add washed and cut spinach to the batter. In place of onion you can also try using chopped tomatoes or use onion and tomatoes. Like I always say, let your imagination run.

Cabbage-onion soup

I got this real huge cabbage from the store that seemed to never finish. So I boiled 'em up, added some salt and pepper and got a fantastic soup out of it. Here's how you can try the same.

Microwave cabbabe and onion with water for 7-8 minutes. You can pressure cook it for one whistle if you are not a microwave person. Once done, put the vegetable in a blender. Do not add water here. Also, keep the stock separate. Just blend the vegetable alone. Heat this puree on a wok for 2 min and add the stock. Add salt and pepper as per your liking. Serve this hot, garnished with corriander and lemon.

Grilled Mango Sundae

Mango season, and it is that yellow glob you see every where. On the street, super market and on your plate. Here's is one simple sundae to enjoy on a mango Sunday.

We will need:
Mango (of, course!) - 1
Cardamon powder - 1/4 tsp
Cooking oil - for brushing the grill

Vanilla Ice cream - 1 or 2 scoop per serving if you are not too greedy ;-)

Mint leaf - 1 to give it an athestic look ;-)

Peel and cut the mango length wise. Sprinkle them with cardamon powder and let it marinate for say 20 minutes. Brush the grill with some oil and place each strip of mango on the grill. Heat at high temperature 5 to 7 minutes or till the grill marks appear on the mango. Trafer them to a dessert plate, scoop some ice cream on the plate, decorate it with a mint leaf and dive into it.

By the way, do not leave your kitchen while the mango is on the grill. The aroma of the mango grilling is something worth standing there for.

I tried the same recipe with pineapple, and it was as heavenly. Work your imagination with various fruits. You may want to sprinkle some dry fruits to garnish this dish with or pour on some chocolate sauce.

Avalakki Gojju

A very Kannadiga dish which I absolutely love. My mother learnt it from her Kannadiga collegue, passed it on to me and now, here it is--to be shared with all of you. Makes a very quick and tasty breafast.

Ingridients:

Poha (called avalakki in Karnataka) - 2cups

Jaggery - one handful, powdered.
Tamarind Juice - 2-3cups
Rasam Powder - 3 tbsp
Sambar powder - 1 tbsp
Fenugreek - 1/2 tbsp
Jeera - 1 tbsp
Sesame - 1 tbsp
(Roast cumin, jeera and sesame and make powder)
Turmeric - 1 tbsp
salt - As per taste
Dry coconut grated (Copra)- 1/2 cup
Chopped coriander - for garnishing.

For seasoning
Veg. Oil
Mustard - 1 tbsp
urad dhal - 1 tbsp
chana dhal - 1tbsp
peanut - 3-4 tbsp
Hing - a pinch
curry leaves - little

Grind the poha coarsely and then wash it thoroughly in water. Add tamarind juice, jaggery, rasam powder, sambar powder, dry coconut grating, roasted powder (cumin, sesame, and fenugreek), turmeric and salt to taste.
In a pan, tamper mustard seeds, hing, urad dal, channa dal, peanuts and curry leaves. You may want to add red chillies to the seasoning if you wish. Garnish with coriander leaves.

Jhat pat mushroom rice

This was a result of an experiment while deciding on what to pack for Paresh's lunch. Except for the mushrooms, the fridge had a deserted look. So I got rice and the mushroom together and the end result, must I say was so fantastic that I had to share it. Plus, it just took 15-20 minutes to get it all ready. Here is what it took to get this dish done.

1 cup rice
Salt
2 spoons oil
200 gm or 1 packet Mushroom (sliced)
Corriander
2 tsp soya sauce
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp chilli sauce

Start of by boiling the rice in an open vessel with a tsp of salt. Boil rice till is is 90% done. Once ready, drain out the hot water and soak it in some cold water to arrest further cooking. Add a few drops of oil if you want to. This will help keep the rice from sticking to one another.
In a separate wok, heat oil and let it smoke. Throw in the mushroom and cook till it appears glossy. Note: Mushroom does not take too long to cook. To this add the soya sauce, vinegar and chilli sauce. Saute for a min and add all the rice to the wok. Cook covered for 2-3 mins. Allow the rice to stand for 5 minutes before you un-lid the container. Garnish with lots of chopped coriander.