Daily Food Post #7: Not Shrimp Vindaloo

I wanted a change of color. That's what drove me into making this beautiful dish. I came up with this recipe myself, no googling involved, whatsoever! Now am not sure I can claim sole proprietor rights to this recipe because, well, I have found that recipes are pretty universal, and somebody in some other part of the world would have made something similar. But just to humor myself, I'll say that this is indeed my innovation. About me wanting a change of color- well, Indian curries that I make, often end up being red and/brown because of the use of ingredients such as tomatoes, tamarind, and/or garam masala. I decided not to use any of these.

Shrimp simmered in a poppy seed, ginger, coconut, and mustard sauce, with a hint of flowery cardamom, spicy cinnamon, and a little bit of pleasurable heat from thai chilies:

YUMMY! 

Ingredients: 

Shrimp 1 lb (can use raw or pre-cooked)  

Poppy Seeds 2 tbs

Cardamom 4-6 pods

Cloves 4-6

*Toast the poppy seeds, cardamom, and cloves for a couple minutes to enhance flavors

Coconut- grated, 2-3 tbs

Ginger 1.5 inch, chopped

Garlic 2 cloves (garlic powder okay)

Green chilis (thai) 4-6 or up to your preferred heat level

Cinnamon powder a pinch

Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp

Cooking oil 4-5 tsp

Water 1/2-1 cup (adjust according to your liking)

Salt to taste

Freshly ground pepper 1/2 tsp

Poppy seeds, cardamom, cloves

The sauce base

Method: 

1. Coarsely grind toasted poppy seeds, cardamom, cloves, coconut, ginger, garlic, and green chilis in a food processor. Can use a little bit of water to aid in the grinding process.

Coarsely ground poppy seed- coconut- ginger- garlic- chili- cardamom-clove 

2. In a pot, with some oil, splutter mustard seeds, and transfer the above ground masala into it, quickly fry for about 3-5 minutes. Add 1/2-1 cup of water. Bring to boil.

3. Then fold in the shrimp into this. Add a pinch of cinnamon powder, salt to taste, and some freshly ground pepper. If using pre-cooked shrimp, lower flame, and simmer for 5 minutes, to marry all the flavors. If using fresh shrimp, well, that'll take ~5 minutes to cook, and then simmer to marry all the flavors. :)

Shrimp in beautiful sauce 

And it's ready! It's a lovely gingery-coconutty-flowery-mildly hot and spicy curry, perfect for these winter nights. Serve with hot basmati infused with saffron- YUM!

You don't always have to cook shrimp vindaloo, you know! ;)

Quick Recipe 2: Shrimp, Basil, Tomato Fettuccine

For this week's quick fix, here's a lovely fettuccine with shrimp recipe that uses very few ingredients, and is ready in under 15 minutes. Yeah!

Ingredients: 

Fettuccine of your choice- 1 packet

Shrimp- 7-8 (or more!) shrimp per person 

Garlic, the more, the better- smashed and almost minced

Basil- a good handful

Tomato- 1 chopped

Cooking oil- 2-3 tsp

Italian seasoning- a pinch (for extra flavor)

Salt to taste

Method: 

1. Follow the instructions on the fettuccine packet and cook. It usually takes 3 minutes. Then drain off water. I like to rinse the cooked fettuccine under cold running water to stop it from cooking any further (you want it al dente).

2. In a pan with 2-3 tsp of oil, get the heat going. Add a pinch of Italian seasoning, followed by smashed, minced garlic. Quickly stir a little bit and add the shrimp. Within no time the shrimp will turn pink, which means it is cooked. Turn the heat down, throw in the chopped tomato.

3. Then fold in the cooked fettuccine into the pan. Tear up some fresh basil leaves into this. Add salt to taste. Mix it all up.

Zing it up with some lemon juice and freshly ground pepper and enjoy!  

Yummy!

Fun Fact: I noticed a recipe on the back of the empty fettuccine packet that I was about to discard into the trash can. So I thought I'd check it out. It turned out to be the exact same recipe! And here I was, thinking how brilliantly original I was.....!! 

Shrimp Balchao

My brother made this really, as in REALLY, spicy HOT shrimp dish, called Shrimp Balchao, and believe you me, my tongue was on fire! And yet, since I am this crazy hot & spicy fanatic, I thoroughly thoroughly (yes, I had to say that twice) enjoyed it.

Traditionally, Balchao (pronounced Baal-Chow) is a form of cooking meat, usually pork, or sea food in a hot-sour-sweet sauce, that incorporates vinegar, red chilies, sugar, and tomato paste. It is almost like pickling, and the dish, or the pickle, really, can be easily stored for a few days. 

Here's my take on Shrimp Balchao, taking inspiration from my brother: 

The Balchao part: 

Ingredients: 

1 Onion

10 cloves of garlic (oh yeah!) 

1 inch (or more) ginger

I use 4-5 habanero chilies (My brother used 12-15 thai chilies!) 

Note on habanero: 

Like any other hot chili, don't touch your face after you have handled the habanero! I can assure you that you will be in trouble!! 

Habanero

1 tablespoon vinegar (rice vinegar) for the tang

1 tomato 

A couple teaspoons of sugar

Method: 

I take all the above ingredients, and blend them all together in my food processor. Easy! Don't be tricked by the color- that paste is fiery! 

Balchao Masala

The Shrimp:

I marinate the shrimp with salt, garlic powder, and pepper for 30 minutes or so (or overnight, if it needs to be thawed in the fridge). 

Shrimp marinating

When it is time to cook, I sauté the shrimp in a little bit of oil. You know that the shrimp is done when it turns pink, and curls up. Takes max 2-3 minutes! 

Cooked Shrimp 

Final Steps (I have underlined the extra ingredients you need):

1. I take a pot/pan/kadhai and pour in a few teaspoons of oil, and get the heat going. 

2. Splutter a teaspoon of mustard seeds, followed by some curry leaves (optional), a pinch of turmeric powder, and then throw in the Balchao paste. And start frying it all. 

Frying the Balchao paste

3. Fry it until the paste has gotten rid of the water, and oil has separated from the rest of the paste. At this point, I add salt to taste, as well as a teaspoon of garam masala. Fry it again for a couple minutes. 

4. I add about a cup to a cup and a half of water- based on how much shrimp I'm using (it is all about estimating!). And then, just for more color, I mix in a couple teaspoons of concentrated tomato paste. I give this a boil, and then simmer for 10 minutes. 

5. In the end, I fold in the cooked shrimp, and simmer for another 5 minutes. I don't like to simmer too long, else the shrimp gets overdone. 

Folding in the shrimp 

*My daughter doesn't like shrimp, and so for her, I add a couple potatoes. I first cook the potatoes in the balchao gravy, and then in the end, throw the shrimp in. 

Shrimp Balchao

Eat it with steaming hot, plain rice, and get ready to set your tongue on fire!! Don't forget to cool off with a nice, cold cup of buttermilk! 

Set your tongue on FIRE!! 

Appi's Jambalaya

Jambalaya Vs Khichdi: Jambalaya to me is basically "Khichdi."  Khichdi in India is a one-pot comfort food made with rice and lentils, simply seasoned with salt, turmeric, cumin seeds and pepper. It is typically yellow in color because of the turmeric. Vegetables may be added to this for some color, my personal favorites being peas and carrots. While living in England, I learned about "Kedgeree" from one episode of Jamie Oliver's show. He made that kedgeree with haddock and hard boiled eggs. I realized that Kedgeree was basically Khichdi! I soon learned that pretty much every culture has its own version of khichdi--- that one-pot-wonder comfort food. Therefore the inference that Jambalaya is Khichdi too!

So the other day I decided to make jambalaya with tilapia and prawns. I did not have that special jambalaya spice mix (Zatarain's or otherwise) and so decided to just make my own spice mix and go with that. It is quite simple, actually. I mixed up some onion powder, garlic powder, red cayene pepper powder, italian seasoning (I know, I know, that sounds a bit off--- but believe me, it works!) and took a couple cubes of veggie bouillon.

Ingredients:

1. 2 cups of rice (I used basmati that day), washed and ready to go.
2. 2 cubes of veggie bouillon (this is really your choice- you could use fish or chicken or beef......)
3. Jambalaya or Gumbo spice mix OR make your own spice mix (see earlier para)
4. Tilapia (or any fish of your choice) cut into bite sized pieces, prawns (tail-on or off). You could even add sausage and chicken if you'd like.
5. A medium sized onion, chopped up
6. 1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped up
7. 1 tablespoon tomato paste
8. Salt, pepper
9. 4-5 teaspoons of oil
10. Don't forget water to cook the rice in! (Veggie bouillon+water= broth)

Method:

1. Pour in 4-5 teaspoons of oil into a pot and get the heat going. Throw in the chopped onion, saute a bit, followed by the red bell pepper. (Now one can use celery too- but we are not big fans of celery and so I don't typically use celery in my cooking).

2. Add the washed rice into this and stir it all up. Then add water (or broth) (2 cups of water for 1 cup of rice). For this dish, you gotta add extra water as the desired consistency in the end is a risotto-like consistency. So what I do is that towards the end of the entire preparation, depending on the need, I add extra liquid to get that nice not-too-wet-not-too-dry consistency.


3. Add the jambalaya spice-mix, veggie bouillon, pepper and a tablespoon of tomato paste and give it all a good stir, bring to a boil, reduce heat and cover the pot and leave it to cook for 20 minutes.

4. While that is going, prep the fish and the prawns by sprinkling some salt and pepper on them, so as to not have them too bland.

5. At the end of 20 minutes, check to make sure that the rice is done. At this point, gently fold in the tilapia and the prawns. If the consistency is on the drier side, pour in some extra water or broth. Cover the pot again and leave it for another 10 minutes. That will allow the fish and the prawns to cook.

6. That's it! Jambalaya is ready to be served!

Jambalaya ready to be served

Finishing Touch:

Before serving, I sprinkle some of that awesome spice-mix over the jambalaya for a great flavor blast.

Appi's Jambalaya- deeeelicious!

My family loves this jambalaya. Well, my daughter is not too crazy about prawns, and so she just skips them, or if she does happen to end up with a couple prawns that might have sneaked in, she just gives them to her brother, who is crazy about prawns!

Next time you want some comfort food, think along the lines of a one-pot-wonder dish. Think Jambalaya!