Bottle gourd shrimp curry

 I was looking for something new for dinner and I stumbled upon this Bengali recipe with some gourd and shrimp and it looked super delicious and I improvised it with bottle gourd and it turned out to be spectacular. So here you go

Bottle gourd shrimp curry (Spicy curry with bottle gourd and shrimp)

Bottle gourd shrimp curry

Ingredients:

1. 1 medium to large bottle gourd peeled, cored and cut into quarters length wise and sliced into 1/2 inch thick 1-1.5 inch ling strips (quarter circles)
2. 12-16 oz medium small shrimp peeled and deveined
3. 1 medium small onion sliced
4. 1 teaspoon ginger garlic paste
5. 1 tablespoon oil
6. 1 teaspoon of salt divided
7. 1 teaspoon each of chilli powder, coriander powder, onion seeds (kalonji)
8. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
9. Cilantro for garnishing

Clean the shrimp and add 1/4 teaspoon salt and turmeric, mix and set aside for 10 minutes

In a pan heat the oil and fry the drained shrimp for 1 minute. Drain and set aside. In the same pan add the onion seeds (add 1/2 tablespoon more oil if needed) and fry for a minute. Add the onions and fry till they start becoming dark brown. Add ginger garlic paste and try and fry for a minute. Add the bottle gourd pieces and add salt and cover and cook for 10 minutes. Add 1/2 cup water and cover and cook for 10 more minutes. Add all the spices and cook on medium high flame for 5-7 minutes until the curry is semi dry. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with white rice and dal

Green beans and Shrimp Fry With Palak Dal

French Green beans are called "Fansi" in one of the Indian languages and I am scared of searching for any recipes with "Fansi" in it. Because is "death by hanging". Pretty gruesome and I do not want to see any un-intentional pictures.

Anyway, I have few recipes with green beans and shrimp which are curries with gravy, but I wanted to make something different. SO here is my dry Green bean curry with shrimp

Green beans and Shrimp Fry

Shrimp with Green beans

Ingredients

1. 12 oz shrimp pealed and deveined
2. 1/2 lb fresh green beans chopped into 1 cm pieces
3. 1 medium small onion about 1/2 cup chopped into small pieces
4. 1 tablespoon oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, urad dal, salt, chilly powder, turmeric, finely grated ginger, finely grated garlic
6. 1 teaspoon each of coriander powder
7. 2 dried red chillies broken
8. few curry leaves
9. coriander for garnish

In a pan heat the oil and add cumin, urad dal, mustard seeds, dried red chillies and curry leaves and fry till they start to splutter. Add green beans and onions and fry for 7-10 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a minute. Add shrimp and all the spices and mix well. Cook till the shrimp are all cooked through. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy with hot rice and Palak Masoor dal or Spinach Toor dal

Palak Toor Dal (Spinach with Split Pigeon peas)

Ingredients:

1. 1/2 cup split pigeon peas or toor dal
2. 1 cup canned spinach squeezed well or a bunch of fresh spinach washed and chopped roughly
3. 2 cups juice from a lime sized tamarind
4. 2 teaspoons oil
5. 1/2 teaspoon each of cumin, mustard seeds, turmeric, hing, finely chopped garlic
6. few dried red chillies
7. few curry leaves

Pressure cook the dal with spinach for 5-6 whistles with 2 cups of water and turmeric. Let the steam escape and mash the dal and spinach mixture. Add the tamarind juice. In another pan heat the oil fry the cumin, mustard seeds, dried chillies and curry leaves. Fry till they start to splutter. Add garlic and fry for 30 seconds and add hings and fry 30 more seconds. Add this to the dal and boil it for 10 minutes. Enjoy with hot rice

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.

fried rice and shrimp baby corn

Feb 22nd Mockington Post: There is something about the greasiness of the items from Panda express that half of the people find disgusting and the other half irresistible. In my household I am the only one from the first half of the people.

But none-the-less for the sake of the people from the other group I tried mocking...sorry making a mock version of the Panda express's egg fried rice and yes, to be mocking it, I liked it...probably because it was not so very greasy. But the taste came out pretty close.

Mock Panda Express Fried rice

Panda express Egg Fried rice

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups cooked rice, cooled
2. 2 eggs beaten
3. 1 large or 2 small carrots cubed small
4. 1 cup cabbage sliced
5. 1/4 cup white onions diced
6. 2 tablespoons oil divided
7. 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, white pepper
8. 1 tablespoon each of low sodium soy sauce, sesame oil
9. 1 large or 2 small garlic grated
10. 1/2 cup green peas

In a pan heat 1 tablespoon oil and scramble the eggs. Drain and set aside. Heat the rest of the oil and add the vegetables and garlic and fry for 5 minutes covered. Add rice and eggs and all other ingredients and stir to combine. Cover and simmer for 5-7 minutes stirring occasionally. Garnish with green onions and cilantro and serve hot 

Sesame glazed Shrimp with baby Corn

Sesame glazed shrimp with baby corn

Ingredients:

1. 12 oz medium shrimp tails off, and deviened
2. 2 tablespoons oil
3. 1 can baby corn drained, halved length wise
4. 2 teaspoons each of hoisin suace, soy sauce, corn starch
5. 1 teaspoon each of corn starch, white vinegar, grated ginger, grated garlic, toasted sesame
6. 1/2 cup sliced scallions
7. 1 small-medium red or yellow bell pepper
8. salt and pepper to taste

Mix the baby corn with 1 teaspoon corn starch. Heat 1 tablespoon oil and fry the corn for 5 minutes or until they become crispy. Drain and set aside. Mix all the sauce ingredients and corn starch with 1/2 cup water and said aside.

Heat the remaining oil and fry the shrimp till they become pink. Drain and set aside. Add some more oil and add scallions and bell pepper and ginger and garlic and fry for 5 minutes. Add shrimp and baby corn back and salt and pepper and the sauce and stir well. Simmer for 5-7 minutes. add sesame seeds and cilantro and serve hot with steamed rice or fried rice

Maharastrian shrimp curry

So after a long gap I am back on the blogspot and today I made a yummy shrimp curry from the central part of India, specifically from Maharastra. Maharastra has a coast line on the west bordered by the Arabian Sea. This is a curry with a coconut and tomato based spicy gravy. I made Maharastrian rice to serve my curry with Maharastrian rice with my own twist on it
The actual curry is from the IndiaWest website

Maharastrian shrimp curry( shrimp in a tomato and coconut gravy)
Ingredients

1 pound shrimp/ prawns peeled

1 large onion chopped

2 medium tomatoes chopped

1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste

1 teaspoon red chilli powder

1 teaspoon turmeric powder

1 teaspoon tamarind paste

salt to taste

chopped coriander leaves for garnishing

half cup coconut milk

Combine the shrimp, ginger-garlic paste, red chillie powder, turmeric powder, tamarind paste, salt and allow it to marinate for 20 - 30 minutes. In a shallow bottom non - stick pan, heat oil. Once hot, add two crushed garlic cloves. Wait for a minute until it becomes fragrant. Next, add the onions and saute until the onions becomes transluscent. Add the tomatoes, stir for approximately 5 minutes. At this point add the marinated prawns and stir until they lose the grey color and turn pink. Add 1 cup water and let the curry come to boil. Then, add half cup coconut milk and the chopped coriander leaves. Taste and add salt if necessary. Cook further for a couple of minutes. Serve hot with Maharastrian Rice

Maharastrian Style Rice (Rice cooked with Potato and eggplants)

Maharastrian Potato Eggplant rice

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups basmati rice washed 
2. 2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed small
3. 3 medium small Indian eggplants washed and cubed
4. 1/2 cup onions chopped
5. 1 serrano chilli chopped
6. 1 teaspoon ginger-garlic paste
7. 1 tablespoon oil
8. 3/4 teaspoon salt
9. 1/2 teaspoon turmeric

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till they start changing colors. Add the ginger garlic paste and fry for 30 seconds. Add the chillies, potato and eggplant and fry for 5-7 minutes. Add salt and turmeric and mix well. Add 4 cups water and bring it to boil. Add rice and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until rice is done. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy hot hot

Pudina chutney with Turai Jhinga Tamatar wala

The other day I went shopping I found the freshest bunch of mint and coriander and I had to take it. The auroma was hypnotizing. I love the smell of fresh coriander and mint. After I got it I had to make something out of it else the fresh mint will just get dark and wilted and spoil away. So I made Pudina Pacchadi.
            Ofcourse, Pudina Pacchadi is just a side so I had to make something else with it and I made Ridge gourd with shrimp and Tomato

Cilantro

Mint Chutney

Mint

Pudina Chutney (Ground mint accompainment)

 


Ingredients:

1. About 4 cups of mint leaves
2. 2 cups of coriander leaves
3. Tamarind the size of a small lemon, soaked in about 2-3 tablespoons of warm water
4. 1 teaspoon salt
5. 2 garlic cloves
6. 1 tablespoons sesame seed oil (or any other oil
7. 1/2 teaspoon cumin
8. 2 dried red chillies
9. 1 green chilly (optional-use if you like the chutney spicy)

Wash and dry the mint and coriander on kitchen towels. In a pan heat the oil and fry the cumin for a couple of minutes. Add red chillies, green chilly pieces and garlic and fry for 3-4 minutes. Add the leaves and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 3 minutes. Add salt and tamarind pulp and cook for 5 more minutes. Let it cook and grind to a paste and enjoy with rice or Idli, Dosa etc

Turai Jhinga Tamatar Wala (Ridge gourd curry with Shrimp and Tomato)

Turai Jhinga Tamatar

Ingredients:

1. 2 large ridge gourd peeled and cut into quarters and sliced 1/4 cm
2. 1 large tomato chopped
3. 1 medium red onion chopped
4. 1/2 ln shrimp shelled and deviened
5. 1/2 teaspoon each of turmeric, chilly powder, home made ginger-garlic paste
6. 1 teaspoon salt divided
7. 1 large or 2 small green chillies chopped
8. 2 tablespoons oil

Sprinkle half teaspoon salt on the ridge gourd and set it aside. Use the peel to make Ridge gourd Peel Chutney

In a pan heat the oil and fry the onions till tender. Add green chilly pieces and ginger-garlic paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Add tomato and cook covered for 5 minutes. Add salt, chilly powder and turmeric and stir to combine. Squeeze as much as possible, the ridge gourd pieces to remove water and add them to the pan and stir to combine. Cover and cook for 5 minutes. Add shrimp and cook covered for 10 minutes. Remove the lid and let the excess water escape. Garnish with cilantro and enjoy

Also try

 Aalu Turai