Maat ki Phalli Khatta

Maat ki Phalli or cluster beans...I have a love hate relationship with them. I really crave them sometimes and sometimes I do not want to even see them. Right now I am going through the "loving it" phase and this is one of my fav recipes.

Maat Ki Phalli Khatta (Cluster beans in tamarind gravy)

Maat ki phalli khatta

Ingredients:

1. 1 cup of cluster beans cut into 1 inch pieces
2. 2 cups of juice from a lime sized tamarind
3. 2 tablespoons rice flour
4. 1 tablespoon each of oil, roasted peanuts powder
5. 1/2 cup chopped red onion
6. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, turmeric, chopped garlic
7. 2 green chillies
8. few curry leaves

In a pressure cooker add the oil and heat it. Add cumin, urad dal, mustard seeds and curry leaves and fry till they start to splutter. Add onions and fry for 5 minutes. Add garlic and fry for a minute. Add cluster beans and fry for 2 minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients and close the cooker and cook for 3 whistles.

If you are not using cooker then cover and cook for 20 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with white rice and shrimp

Amaranth Shrimp fry (Dry peanut based leafy vegetable and Shrimp fry)

Thota kura Shrimp fry

Ingredients:

1. 2-3 cups chopped Amaranth leaves (Thota kura)
2. 12 oz medium shrimp peeled and deveined
3. 1 cup chopped onions
4. 2 tablespoon oil
5. ½ teaspoon each of salt, turmeric, urad dal, mustard seeds, chopped ginger, chopped garlic
6. 1 heaped teaspoon coriander powder
7. 2 dried red chillies

Dry roast

1. 2 tablespoons peanuts
2. 2 dried red chillies (reduce if you like less spicy)
3. Few curry leaves
4. 1 tablespoon dried coconut
5. 1 teaspoon cumin

Dry roast the ingredients under dry roast and let cool. Grind to a fine paste

In a pan heat the oil and add urad dal and mustard seeds along with broken chillies and curry leave. Fry for a minute. Add chopped onions and fry till they start turning brown. Add ginger and garlic pieces and fry for a minute. Add chopped thota kura and add salt and turmeric and cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add shrimp and all the other spices and cook for 10 minutes. Add ground peanut powder and mix well. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot steamy rice

Jhinga fry Jhinga curry Jhinga Biryani

Back in the olden day when I was a kid (Man!!! that seems so long ago...well I am not that old you see. I am only 3 decades old) my dad used to have a friend who had shrimp farms. At one time in India or atleast in Andhra there was this craze about opening shrimp farms and exporting Tiger prawns to US and European countries.
              Anyway, my father's friends' farms were very profitable until one day there was a typhoon (Hurricane) and all this shrimp farms were destroyed
             Anyway, the point it, once or twice an year when they used to harvest these shrimps or prawns he would send us a bucket or about 3-4 Kilograms of fresh shrimp and for 2-3 days my mom would make every possible delicious dish with shrimp until we all will get tired of eating shrimp any more.
           Today I am going to b-log three of those recipes and and here is one more recipe the Jhinga Shami Kabab

Jhinga Fry (Amazing shrimp pan fry curry)

Fried Shrimp with Sliced Onions

Ingredients

1. 1 lb medium shrimp peeled and deviened
2. 3-4 tablespoons oil
3. 1 medium red onion ground to paste
4. 2 cloves and 1 inch cinnamon stick broken
5. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon chilly powder, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin
7. 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
8. 2 green chillies slit
9. Few curry leaves (optional)

In a pan heat the oil and fry the cloves and cinnamon and curry leaves with using and fry for a couple of minutes. Add cumin and fry for 3 more minutes. Add onion paste and fry till it starts to become dark brown. Add ginger-garlic paste and green chillies and fry for a couple of minutes. Add all the other ingredients and stir to combine. Fry till the shrimp are cooked through 5-10 minutes. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice or pulao

Jhinga Curry (Shrimp curry Indian style)
Ingredients

1. 1 lb medium shrimp peeled and deviened
2. 3-4 tablespoons oil
3. 1 medium red onion sliced thin
4. 2 cloves and 1 inch cinnamon stick broken
5. 1/2-3/4 teaspoon salt
6. 1/2 teaspoon chilly powder, turmeric, coriander powder, cumin
7. 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
8. 2 green chillies slit

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add cinnamon and cloves and green chillies and ginger-garlic paste and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add shrimp and fry for 5 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and simmer till the gravy thickens. garnish with cilantro and serve with rice, roti or Pulao or Zeera Rice

Shrimp Biryani (Rice and shrimp)

Jhinga Biryani

Ingredients

1. 2 cups rice cooked till they are half done
2. Shrimp curry cooked above
3. 1 medium onion sliced and deep fried till golden brown
4. 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
5. 2 tablespoons chopped mint, fresh squeezed lemon juice

In a oven safe dish, add rice topped with shrimp curry, topped with mint and cilantro and fried onions and lemon juice. Repeat the layers. Cover and bake in the oven at 300 degrees for 30-40 minutes. Enjoy

Amazing Shrimp fry

Another of my popular recipes. This is actually not mine or my mom's recipe. This recipe if by one of the cook's who used to work for my dad. So here's the recipe

Amazing Shrimp fry (Shrimp fry curry)

Ingredients:

1. 3/4-1 lb big shrimp peeled and deveined, washed and dried on a paper towel
2. 1 big onion peeled and ground to paste
3. 1/2 teaspoon each of ginger-garlic paste, salt, chilly powder, cumin, coriander powder
4. 1/4 teaspoon turmeric, garam masala powder
5. 1 teaspoon sesame seeds
6. 2 green chillies slit
7. 3 tablespoons oil

In a non-stick pan heat the oil and add the cumin and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the onion paste and fry till it starts changing color. Now add ginger-garlic paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the shrimp and stir to combine. Add the rest of the ingredients and fry till it becomes dark brown. Take care not to burn it. Garnish with cilantro and serve with hot rice and Khatti dal