Tangy Herbalicious Prawns!!!

An impromptu recipe which I hope I can remember correctly! But actually there isnt much to remember in this recipe of Prawns except the fact that I dunked in a lot of fresh herbs into it and the final product reflected the freshness of herbs blended beautifully with the buttery fresh prawns with minimum spices....

Ingredients :

750gms cleaned shelled de-veined  prawns.

1 bowl full of chopped coriander and some (for garnishing)

1 bowl full of curry leaves

1 mmedium sized capsicum chopped
8-10 garlic cloves

1 diced onion & 1 finely  chopped onion
1 chopped tomato

freshly crushed peppercorns

chilli flakes

juice of 3 lemons

rock salt

a pinch of sugar
chopped green chillies & whole green chilies

potatoes cut as in french fries. 

white sesame seeds - 2-3 tbsp

rice flour (optional) - 2-3 tbsp
Oil
Tej Pata -1 

Procedure
Prawns :
1. Marinate the prawns in lemon juice, rock salt, crush pepper for 1/2 hr - 1 hour.
2. Lightly saute the prawns. Keep aside.
3. In a kadai / wok, heat oil and throw in a Tej Pata, a tsp of crushed pepper corns and finely sliced garlic cloves. Also add the diced onions & chopped onions and a pinch of sugar for caramelizing . Fry till the onions turn translucent.
4. Add the chopped capsicum and fry on medum to high heat.
5. Now add the 2 bowls of fresh herbs - curry leaves and  coriander leaves. Stir them around. The aroma of fresh herbs is mindblowing!!!!
6. Add the chopped tomato and stir it around on high heat.
7. Add rocksalt.
8. Now add the sauted prawns and add salt, pepper and chili flakes as per your taste.
9. Stir briskly on high heat till prawn is done but ensure it's not overcooked. Squeeze a lemon, mix it around and garnish with the leftover chopped coriander.

French Fries with a crunchy twist:
1. While frying and stirring the herby prawns, marinate the sliced potatos lemon juice, salt, chili flakes and (slightly moistened) rice flour and abot 1-1.5 tbsp white sesame seeds (Til) .
2. In a frying pan/wok, heat oil and fry the potatoes on medium to high heat.When it's almost done, sprinkle some more white sesame seeds on the almost-done-potatoes. To minimise oil consumption, while frying potatoes, the potato slices may be blanched followed by being chilled in freezer.

Serve the herbilicious prawns with rice and garnish with the crunchy crispy french fry kind of potato fries!!

Chicken garnished with Sesame-seed-speckled Capsicum

Surprise in the fridge!
The weekend was near and the fridge almost empty. And I had resigned myself to a dinner of dal, cabbage and rice. Even the stock of eggs was dwindling to one....quite a sad affair indeed! (Yes! I am a shamelessly unrepentant carnivore!!)
Just as I was about to close the freezer door shut after having opened it out of sheer habit, saw a little flash of red lid peeping from behind the big packets of frozen peas and sweet kernels. The mood perked up and a quick shuffle and it was a red lidded box of marinated chicken breasts which I had completely forgotten about. I had marinated the meat in my perennial marination of lemon-salt-pepper-ginger-garlic and there it was sitting pretty in the freezer waiting to be discovered!

Ingredients

Chicken breasts - 500 gms
Lemon juice of 1 large or 2 small lemons
Ginger-garlic paste - 1tbsp
Bay leaf - 1
Sliced Garlic cloves - 4-5 cloves
salt
pepper
diced onions -1
diced capsicum
Worcestershire  sauce - 1.5-2 tbspn
White sesame seed (added as an afterthought!)
Potatoes diced - 1 large (optional...I'd added to add volume)
Olive Oil - 2 tbsp

Procedure

1. Marinate the chicken breasts in lemon juice + salt + pepper + ginger-garlic paste for a couple of hours. Though I had marinated or rather marinated and forgotten about it for more than 3 days.;)
2. Heat  oil in a wok. Temper with the Bay leaf.
3. Add the potatoes.
4. Add the diced onions and sprinkle some sugar on it for colour. Fry on high heat and keep stirring
5. Throw in the chopped garlic.keep stirring
6. Add the marinated chicken after cutting them into small pieces. Cook on high heat.Since it was in the marination for so long, the meat is very tender and takes very less time to cook.
7. Add some pepper powder, followed by Worcestershire  sauce. Toss around and keep stir frying.

8. Just as I was about to add the diced capsicum, an idead struck and I took out my tawa, put it on flame, threw the capsicum and tossed them around to dry roast. As a final touch of brainwave, threw in a tablespoon or two of white sesame seeds into the tawa and roasted till they were crisp and pale golden.

9. Now garnish the chicken with the dry roasted capsicum and white sesame seeds.

10. Finally throw in some green chilies and garnish with coriander leaves.

Penne Pasta with Roasted tomato sauce and vegetables, chicken nuggets

As the kids grow up , fussiness and tantrums are often on the rise. Variety is not an option anymore but a compulsion. Same similar food on consecutive days is a big no no...the whine is almost instantaneous. Family meals , especially dinners are often dictated by their likes and dislikes, at least to ensure the given meal is finished without much ado. I am sure most Moms would agree.  

In my home, the current rage being pasta, I take the opportunity to pack in as much of veggies  into a bowl full of pasta as I can.....

 

Ingredients :

1.Penne Pasta cooked 'al dente' as per pkt instructions - 250 gm
2.Blanched vegetables for stir fry - carrot, beans, baby corn, brocolli etc

3.Tomatoes cut into quarters - 8-10 medium sized

4.Chicken breast cut into bite sized pieces - 250 gm, marinated in ginger-garlic paste-lemon juice-White 5.Sesame seeds-3 tbsp

6.Pepper corns - crushed

7.fennel seed paste

8.Rock Salt

9. Pepper

10.Chilli flakes 

11.Basil - a handful

12.Garlic - finely chopped - 8-10 cloves

13. Dried Oregano

14. Italian seasoning

15. Grated cheddar cheese - 1 cup

16.Salt to taste

17. Butter/Olive Oil

Procedure :

Roast Tomato Sauce (inspired by Kalyn's recipe of slow roast tomato)
 
1. In a mortar pestle roughly grind 2 tbsp of fennel seeds with a few drops of water
2. Brush the baking tray with oil and preheat the oven (OTG) to 250 deg C
3. Smear the quartered tomatoes with the fennel paste, pepper powder, rock salt, dried oregano and drizzle EVOO.
4.Place on the baking tray cut side down.
5.Set the OTG in grill mode for about 25 minutes at 250 deg C. Keep and eye to ensure the tomatoes dont get charred.Continue till the skin of the tomatoes are wrinkled.
While the tomatoes were being grilled, I continued with the stir fried vegetables & chicken
6.In a pan/wok, take a tsp of EVOO. Add chopped garlic and basil leaves. lightly fry.
7. Add the roasted tomatoes and mash them.
8. Add water drained after boiling pasta mixed with a spoon of cornflour. Add 1/2 cup of grated cheese. Mix well

Stir fried Vegetables : 
1. Blanch the vegetables after cutting them into small equal sized pieces.
2. Dry roast white sesame seeds in the wok. Remove
3. Heat EVOO/Butter. Add crushed pepper corns, a dash of sugar.
4. Add the blanched vegetables and toss them around in high heat.
5. Add required salt, dried oregano and chili flakes
6. Sprinkle the toasted sesame seeds



Chicken nuggets

1. I used some previously marinated (ginger-garlic paste, salt, pepper, lemon juice) chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces.
2. Heat oil in a wok. And throw a bay leaf or two.
3. Pour the chicken pieces. Brown them on medium-high heat.

In a large bowl assemble the cooked (al-dente) penne pasta, stir fried-white sesame garnished vegetables and chicken nuggets along with the roast tomato sauce. Toss them around to mix well. Garnish with grated cheese.