Bengali shrimp with eggplants

The traffic has been getting worse by the day and today it took me 11/2 hours to get home. Anyway either it takes me 10 minutes or 100 minutes I have hungry mouths to feed and yummy shrimp dish is for dinner

Bengali shrimp with eggplant (Shrimp with eggplant in sweet and spicy mix)

Bengali Shrimp with Egg Plant

Ingredient 

1. 1 large egg plant cut into medium cubes
2. 1 large onion thinly sliced
3. 1 tsp. garlic paste
4. 4,5 green chilies slit lengthwise 
5. 1 medium tomato coarsely chopped
6. 15-20 medium sized prawns cleaned
7. 1 tsp. turmeric powder
8. 1 tbsp red chili powder
9. 1 tsp. nigella seeds
10. Coriander leaves
11. Salt
12. Sugar
13. 11/2 tablespoons oil

Mix the prawns with turmeric powder, salt and keep marinated for 15 mins. Heat oil in a pan and fry prawns till they turn golden. Do not over fry the prawns.Otherwise they will turn rubbery. Remove and keep it reserved for later use. 
Take half of the fried prawns and make a coarse paste of it.
Temper the same oil with kalonji and wait till it splutters. Add sliced onions and green chilies to it. Fry on medium high heat till they turn light brown. Add turmeric and chili powder to it. 
Add garlic paste and saute for a while. Throw the eggplant cubes into the pan and mix well with spices. Add chopped tomato to it. Sprinkle salt and sugar to your taste and mix them well. 
Cook it covered till the eggplants become soft but not mushy and then add fried prawns along with the prawn paste and mix it well. Wait till the oil starts oozing out from the sides. Remove from heat and finish it off with freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Iranian jeweled rice

In Los Angeles there used to be a Persian restaurant which was my husband's favorite favorite favorite. 

Today for some reason I got thinking about its lentil rice which was my favorite with lamb shanks. 

I cooked similar rice with lots of dry fruits and chicken drumsticks 

Persian jeweled rice ( rice with lots of dry fruits)

Ingredients 

1. 6-8 chicken drumsticks 

2. 1 tablespoon each of olive oil and canola oil

3. 1 medium large red onion chopped fine

4. 1 teaspoon grated garlic

5. 1/2 teaspoon ginger garlic paste, saffron 

6. 1 tablespoon each of chopped walnuts, dates, cranberries, raisins, almond, chopped mint

7. 1 large carrot cut into match sticks

8. 1 lemon squeezed for juice

9. 1/2 cup lentils

10. 2 1/2 cup basmati rice

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions on low flame for 10 minutes. Add ginger and ginger garlic paste and fry for a minute. Add drumsticks and fry for 10 minutes. Add 1 cup hot rice and cover and cook for 30 minutes

Add 1 cup hot water to lentils

After do minutes take the chicken out of the pan and add the rest of the ingredients and cover and cook for 20-30 minutes. Until the rice is cooked. Add the chicken back to the pot and enjoy.

Seafood Gumbo

Gumbo at last... Aaaa how comforting it was I cant explain.

I have been wanted to taste gumbo forever but of course it has sausage in it and for us it's a no no 

But today I found chicken sausage with chicken casing. And I got a whole variety of seafood for the gumbo and yum yum yum... I can eat it for 3 days straight.

Seafood gumbo

Ingredients: