Butter Prawn

My love for Chinese Cuisine, I just can't explain. I love the cuisine because of its quick preparation and does not need long hours of waiting even when you order in a very busy restaurant. I have admired the food since I was a kid, dad used to bring us to Chinese restaurants almost every week, my love for it grew fonder after I have started cooking. Butter Prawn is a dish that have been my all time favorite and must order dish when ever we eat out. It look me so long to get a perfect recipe of this dish, you can find many similar recipes in the net but I have copied this recipe long long ago even before I blog so I don't write down the source of this recipe. My heart felt gratitude to those who have shared this recipe, now let us see how to prepare this easy and delicious dish;

Ingredients:

10 large prawns (cut the antennae)

3 egg yolks (I have used 2 large whole eggs)

2 sprig of curry leaves 

3 bird eye chilli (chopped)

1/4 cup evaporated milk

2 tbsp of vegetable oil

2 tbsp of corn starch

1 tsp of white pepper powder

4 tbsp of butter

1 tsp of sugar

Salt to taste

Marinate prawns with salt and pepper for 10 minutes, before frying add cornstarch. Heat 2 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of vegetable oil, let the butter melt and fry prawns until it turns red/pink/peach colour. Do not over cook the prawn, it take a couple of minutes to achieve this. Drain the prawns and keep aside.

In another pan add 1 tbsp butter and oil, pour the whisked eggs and fry until you get tiny pieces of scrambled egg (very tiny pieces like you can see from the above picture). Pour the balance 1tbsp of butter and oil add curry leaves and chopped chilli, then add the evaporated milk when it starts bubbling add prawn, sugar and salt. Quickly stir fry until all the ingredients are well incorporated and serve.

This dish best eaten while its hot. Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Pineapple Fried Rice (Vegetarian)

My husband loves Thai fried rice because they add pineapple to it, the sweet and sour taste of the pineapple adds an unique taste to the rice. I planned to fry some rice not in Thai style but my own version by adding some pineapple chunks to it. Now let us see how I made this;

Ingredients:

2 cups of cooked rice

1/4 cup of pineapple chunks

1/4 cup of frozen mixed veges

1/2 cup of soy made sausages

3 pcs of bird eye chilli (chopped)

1 tbsp of mushroom sauce

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Heat oil in a frying pan and fry sausages, bird eye chilli for a couple of minutes then add frozen mixed veges, stir well until the veges are soft. Now add the mushroom sauce and salt mix well with the veges and stir in the cooked rice. Incorporate all the ingredients well and finally add the pineapple chunks, Pineapple Fried Rice is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

Less-sweet Dates Kesari

Ingredients:

1 cup of slightly roasted semolina
1/2 cup of coconut milk
2 tbsp of ghee
2 tbsp of chopped dates
2 tbsp of broken cashew nuts
1 tbsp of yellow raisins
2 drops of yellow coloring
1/2 cup of sugar
A pinch of salt
1 cup of water

Fry cashew nuts and raisins in ghee and keep aside.

In another pan, boil water once boiled add in coconut milk, yellow coloring, sugar, salt and mix well to dissolve the sugar. Do not boil once coconut milk is added, now slowly add in the roasted semolina mix well. 

Add in chopped dates, cashew nuts and raisins incorporate well with the semolina, add in 1 tbsp of ghee before serving the kesari to give a good shine.

Now our Less-sweet Dates Kesari is ready to be served, do try and let me know how was it!

Soft Idli

Idli have been my favorite dish I love since young, to be precise I used to have Idli as a substitute to rice. I can have idli for breakfast, lunch or dinner especially if I have spicy chutney or curry to go with it, chicken curry or mutton peratal which mom makes are the best combo for Idli. Now coming back to the recipe, nowadays people have the luxury of getting ready made Idli or Dosa powder in the grocery shop but nothing can beat home made stuffs.

Now let us check how I made this;

Ingredients:

4 cups of rice(soaked)

1 cup of white Urad dhall (soaked)

1 tbsp of fenugreek (soaked)

Salt to taste

Water to grind 

Clean and soak rice, white urad dhall and fenugreek for at least 6 hours,you can combine urad dhall and fenugreek together. After soaking blend rice, then urad dhall and fenugreek to a smooth batter, pour the batter into a big vessel or pot. Add enough water to get thick consistency of the batter not too watery. Then add salt and make sure you mix  the salt and batter using a clean hand. Cover the vessel or pot with a lid and let it ferment overnight.

The next day mix the batter well with a spoon, grease Idli pan and pour the batter to the whole and steam for 10-15 minutes or until its completely cooked. Now our Idlis are ready to be served.

My mom's recipe doesn't call for yeast or baking soda as some of my family member used to have stomach discomfort after having Idli with yeast or baking soda. So mom said to make sure the batter ferment perfectly, you have to let the batter to sit and ferment overnight at least for 10 hours.

Do try this easy peasy steps and let me know how it turned out!

Spicy Cauliflower Pakoda

It has been a very tiring day working and driving back home because the traffic was so heavy, I just hate heavy traffic especially on the way back home. Today I have made very simple dishes Tilapia Fish  Deep Fried with Lip Smacking Sambal, Egg Sambal and Cauliflower Pakoda. I love Cauliflower cooked in any style, be it Chinese, Indian, Western or Malay.

I love spicy food so I made this pakoda slightly spicy, its best eaten just as it is that's how I have eaten. Now let me bring you to the recipe;

Ingredients:

1 whole cauliflower (cut into florets)

5 tbsp of wheat flour

2 tbsp of cornflour

1 tbsp of chilli powder

1/4 tsp of turmeric powder

1 tsp of cumin seed

Water to mix the batter

Salt to taste

Oil to fry

Blanch cauliflower for a couple of minutes not until too soft, drain and set aside.

In a bowl mix wheat flour, cornflour, chilli powder, turmeric powder, cumin seed, salt and mix with little water, we need not too diluted and not too thick batter. Marinate the blanched cauliflower in the above batter for at least 20 minutes.

Fry the marinated cauliflower until it turn golden brown and drain the oil. The fried cauliflower will be very crispy and delicious, now our spicy Cauliflower Pakoda is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it was!

Ennailappam/ Nei appam

This is a dish loved by all my family members and also people who visit us during this day. I would like to share our family recipe with you all today. Lets check out the recipe;

Ingredients:

3 cups uncooked rice (soaked 4 to 6 hours)

600g of palm sugar (mix with water and strain)

Half coconut flesh (cut small)

Enough water to mix the batter

Salt to taste

Drain the soaked rice and dry blend and strain to get fine flour, keep the coarse grains for use later. Mix the palm sugar that have been soaked and strained with the rice flour and 2 tbsp of coarse grains. Add salt to the above mixture with some water to get thick batter consistency. Keep this mixture overnight covered.

This is how the coconut flesh supposed to be cut

The next day add coconut flesh to the mixture and fry in deep hot oil to get appam like this.

Muruku

It has been 10 days since I have updated my blog, I have been extremely busy with work,business and Diwali preparations. Today I found a few minutes to write a post early in the morning, nothing much to say so let me bring you direct to the recipe; 

Ingredients:

6 cups of rice flour

3 cups of ulunthu flour (urad dal)

1/4 cup of white sesame seeds

1/4 cup of cumin seeds

1/4 cup of ajwain seeds

4 cups of coconut milk

1 tbsp of salt

2 tbsp of butter

Oil to fry

Dry roast rice flour and ulunthu flour and keep aside. Simmer coconut milk with salt, until warm do not boil it.

Mix butter to rice flour,ulunthu flour, butter and add 1 cup of coconut milk

Add sesame seeds, cumin seeds and ajwain seeds to flour

Now add the rest of the coconut milk and knead dough well and apply some oil to the dough

Press dough into a close coil like design and keep aside

Arrange all the pressed dough on a tray to fry

Heat oil and fry the coils in hot oil and fry until golden

Strain the muruku and keep aside to remove excess oil

Now our muruku is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Im sending this recipe to Love2Cook's Event Deepavali Delights 2012

Chippi/ Green Gram Cookie

Wow there's only two more weeks for Diwali, I'm sure many of you are very busy preparing for the celebration. From shopping for new clothes, painting house, cleaning house, preparing cookies especially traditional ones. Okay, I have started mine by making cookies that have been order by my friends and other customers, to name a few Chippi, Almond London, Sooji cookies, Pineapple tarts, Chocolate chips cookies, Peanut cookies and a few others.

Today I made Chippi, this is my mom's signature cookie many relatives of mine loves this, usually this is the one which finishes within a week. This doesn't take much of your time if anyone assist you in making but I have done it alone and it took me around 45 minutes for four small bottles.

Let me share how did I make this Chippi;

Ingredients:

4 cups of rice flour

2 cups of green gram flour

1/4 cup of white sesame seeds

1 cup of coconut milk (thin)

2 tbsp of butter

2 tbsp of oil

5 cups of oil to fry the Chippi

Salt to taste

Dry roast rice flour and green gram flour, constantly stir it do not burn. Keep aside. Simmer coconut milk with salt, do not boil it. 

In a bowl add, dry roasted flour, white sesame seeds, and butter, mix well then slowly add the coconut milk. Knead the dough well by adding the coconut milk little by little until a well mixed dough is formed. Apply oil to the dough and cover and leave for 5 minutes while preparing hot oil.

Take some dough according to your cookie press

Insert in cookie press and cover

Line some news paper and press the dough on it, like the picture above

Using a knife cut the dough into diamond shape

Collect all the cut dough and transfer into a plate

Now deep fry the dough in hot oil for 5 minutes or until the chippi turn golden brown, 

drain the chippi and let it cool before serving or storing in a container

Now our Chippi is ready to be served

Do try and let me know how it turned out for you!

I'm sending this recipe to Love2Cook Malaysia's Event Deepavali Delights 2012

                                      

Sabudana Vada Guest Post by Vimitha

Ever since I have started blogging, I have got so many blogger friends who support me by faithfully visiting my blog every time I post a new recipe. One of the dearest blogger is Vimitha from My Culinary Trial Room, I love her blog because she has wonderful pictures with different varieties of delicious recipes. When I have requested her to do a guest post for my blog, she whole heartedly said yes and told me will message to me the recipe very soon.

I was so happy when I received her recipe today and told her will post this recipe as soon as possible. It's a wonderful recipe and I would love to try the recipe very soon, I looks so delicious and mouth watering. Now let's read what she has to say about this guest post and recipe in her own words. Thank you so much dear for this recipe, I'm loving it.

Vimitha@ My Culinary Trial Room

To those who do not know me, I am Vimitha and I blog @My Culinary Trial Room. A software engineer by profession, I never knew that even I would have cooking genes in me and I didn't even think about giving it a go until I got married and moved in with my in-laws. Even then I dared to take up the job of my MIL's sous-chef only. When we moved out and I got my very own kitchen, cooking became a chore rather than a hobby and I starting taking baby steps in the art of culinary with the advise from my MIL and amma. I started trying different recipes to impress my huss. Recipes scattered around the house instigated me to make a journal out of them but then writing is my weakness and I didn't have the patience to jot down every ingredients in a diary. Then I got introduced to the world of blogging and I got hooked to it. Inspired by many, I started my own blog and here I am doing my very first guest post in a lovely space.

When Sumanarthy asked me to do a guest blog at her space, I did not have any reason to tell no. And when she said that the theme was navratri special, I was super excited since I had wanted to try the sabudana vada that is traditionally made for navrathri vrat / fasting season and what better time than this. The recipe is simple to put together but be sure to use good and fresh sago pearls or else the vada tends to burst when put in hot oil.

This makes a super crunchy snack for your tea-time. Crispy outside and soft inside, you can never say no to this. I would suggest eating this fresh out off the kadai as they tend to lose their crunchiness after some time.

~*What U Need*~ Sabudana / Javvarisi / Sago / Tapioca pearls - 1/2 cup Potato - 1, medium Roasted peanuts - 1/4 cup Rice flour - 1 tbsp Green chillies - 2 nos, finely chopped Chopped coriander leaves - 1 tbsp Curry leaves - 1 sprig Cumin seeds - 1/4 teaspoon Salt - to taste Oil - to deep fry

How I Made it:

Wash sago pearls and soak in water for 4 to 6 hours. Drain and set aside. Pressure cook the potato for 2 whistles. Cool, peel the skin and mash well. Peel the skin off the peanuts and blend to a coarse powder. 

Take the soaked sago pearls in a mixing bowl along with mashed potato and peanuts. Add rice flour, green chillies, curry leaves, coriander leaves, cumin seeds and salt. Mix well. Make small round patties from the mixture and arrange them in a plate. 

Heat oil in a kadai and fry the vadas till golden brown. Drain the excess oil using paper towel.

Serve hot with tea / coffee.

** My Notes:
If the mixture is not binding together, add extra rice flour and mix.

So thats it Folks...
With Love,

Signs off!!!

Soy Sauce Tofu/ Tauhu Kicap

Ingredients:

3 firm white tofu (cubed)
1 tbsp of sweet soy sauce
1 tsp of thick soy sauce
1 tsp of light soy sauce
1 tbsp of chili sauce
5 bird eye chili (slit)
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/4 cup of water
Oil to fry

Lightly fry tofu to golden color, keep aside.

In a pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil add cinnamon stick and star anise fry for a while. Now add chili fry for a minute and add tofu with all three soy sauce and chili sauce. Mix everything well and pour water and let the gravy simmer and thickens.

Taste for seasoning, adjust if needed and now our Soy Sauce Tofu is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Beetroot Stir Fry

Ingredients:

1 large beet root (cleaned and grated)

1 tsp mustard seeds

1 sprig curry leaves

1/2 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp coconut grated

1 tsp mushroom sauce

1 green chili (slit)

1 tsp oil to fry

Salt to taste

In a pan, heat oil fry mustard seed and let it splutter. Then add curry leaves, green chili, grated beetroot and stir well. Now add turmeric powder, salt and mushroom sauce mix everything together. 

Cook the beetroot until completely soft and add grated coconut, incorporate coconut with beetroot and our Beetroot Stir Fry is now ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how it turned out!

Thalicha Sweet Upma

I'm missing mom and her cooking a lot. today I thought of making my mom's style upma for breakfast. She maked two different type of upma, one is Thalicha Upma for my dad and Sweet Upma for us the kids. Yea Kids! So I have combined both and make Thalicha Sweet Upma, very easy to make I have just added sugar to the normal Thalicha Upma.

Now let us look at the recipe;

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of sooji/ semolina

2 dried red chili (cut half)

1 sprig curry leaves

1 tsp of mustard seeds

A pinch of salt

2 tbsp of sugar

1 tbsp of ghee

1 cup water

In a pan, heat ghee and add mustard seeds to splutter, then add curry leaves, dried red chili. Now add water and let it boil, once water boils add sugar and salt.

Finally add sooji and stir well, sooji will absorb the water and thickens. Mix everything well and turn off the flame and upma is ready to be served.

Do try and let me know how was it!

Potato and Tofu Spicy Peratal

I have got a very special tofu dish for today, it's Potato andTofu Peratal. This dish was so tasty and very easy to make, it's similar to my Chicken Peratal dish but I didn't add onion or garlic to this dish, you will know if you have read that recipe. Tofu is a very good source of protein as everyone knows, potato is high in carbohydrate so overall this dish a complete meal by itself if you would like to have it on its own.

Let get to the recipe now;

Ingredients:

3 white firm tofu cubed
1 large potato cubed
1 sprig of curry leaves
1 tbsp of curry powder
1 tsp of dry chili powder
1 tsp of ground black pepper
1 tsp soft brown sugar
2 tbsp of roasted grated coconut
1/2 cup of water
1 tsp cumin seed
1 cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1 tsp of salt
Oil to fry

Shallow fry potato and tofu until golden and set aside.

In a pan, heat oil add cinnamon stick, cumin seed and star anise, then add curry leaves. Now add in fried tofu and potato, add curry powder, chili powder, brown sugar and water.

Let this mixtures simmer and gravy thickens, add salt and ground black pepper mix well. Finally add in roasted coconut and stir well until gravy completely coats the tofu and potato.

Now our Potato and Tofu Spicy Peratal is ready to be served.