Prawn fry

Ingredients
10-15 medium sized prawns
1 tsp ginger paste
1 tsp garlic paste
1 tsp turmeri paste
1 tsp chilli powder
lemon concentrate
salt

1 potato sliced into rectangular pieces
1 onion cut into sqaure chunks
oil


Procedure
Marinate the prawns with the masala and salt and keep it aside for about 1/2 an hr.
Take oil in a tava and fry the marinated prawns in it.
Add onion once the prawns turn red and fry it more.
Add potatoes in the end and fry till they are cooked.
Do not add water at any instant.
Do not cover the tava while cooking.
The potato slices might get a bit burnt at the edges but that's how it is supposed to be.

Instant and wonderful prawns. The original recipe was with tiny shrimp called "karandi" and fried on an iron tava. Nothing can beat that!

Chicken Biryani

Thanks to Sharad for this wonderful authentic biryani

Ingredients

3 chicken legs

Marination
2 tbsp curd
1 tsp chicken masala
1 tbsp ginger garlic paste
1 tsp chilli powder
pinch of salt

Rice
2 cup rice (washed)
1 bay leaf
1 cinnamon stick
3 cloves
1 tsp ghee/oil

Masala
1 large onion cut lengthwise
1 tomato diced
2 cloves of garlic finely chopped
2 tsp coconut
cloves
cinnamon
bay leaves
pepper
coriander powder
cumin powder
chicken masala
chilli powder
turmeric powder

Procedure

1. Marination: Mix the ingredients for marination and coat the chicken pieces with the mixture. Keep it aside.
2. Rice: Heat oil/ghee in a deep pan. Fry the bay leaf, cloves, cinnamon stick in it. Put washed rice and fry it for a few minutes. The aim is to half cook it. Add double water as the rice to the pan, cover it and keep it on a low flame. Or else transfer the rice to a microwave bowl, add water and microwave it till half cooked.
3. Masala: A cooker is best suited for cooking biryani. Add oil; later add pepper, cloves, cinnamon, bay leaf and fry them. Add the onion and fry it till it completely loses its stiffness. Add garlic, fry some more and then add the tomato. Fry it till the tomato is cooked. Add the coconut and fry some more. Once done, let this mixture cool and then grind it to a paste in the mixer.
4. Take very little oil and add 2 tsp chicken masala, 1 tsp chilli powder, 1 tsp turmeric powder, 1/2 tsp coriander powder, 1/2 tsp cumin powder and some salt. Take care not to burn the masala. Once fried, add the ground paste to it and fry some more till it is mixed properly. Add the marinated chicken and fry it again... add some water if required.
   
5. Add the half cooked rice over the masala as a thick even layer. For shahi biryani types, put fried cashew pieces, deep fried onion, chopped coriander over the rice. Add 1 tsp of ghee and kevda essence around the edges.
6. Close the lid and let it cook at a low flame for 10 mins.

Voila! Biryani ready!!
I guess for the veggies the chicken can be substituted by vegetable chunks.

A few recipes

I never thought I'd do this... write a post about how to cook!!! But this is one post I hope mum reads (that is, if she knew my blog existed). I feel I learned more in cooking than in studies.. hehe! But few of the cliché statements in cooking are true.. it is definitely more fun when someone is there to share the food you cook rather than you eating it all alone. I'll start with capsicum dal, simple recipe.. which apparently everyone likes (no idea why!!!) Anyways here goes..

CAPSICUM DAL

Ingredients:
1 cup tur dal
1/2 teaspoon mustard seeds (rai)
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds (jeera)
2 green chillies
1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon chilli powder
3-4 teaspoon sambar masala
1/2 teaspoon tamarind concentrate
1 tablespoon garlic paste (or equivalent chopped garlic.. no mixer here :D )
1 chopped tomato (or 3-4 tablespoons diced tomatoes or puree)
1 finely chopped onion
1 capsicum, cut into medium sized cubes
3 tablespoons of oil (actually take how much ever you feel is necessary to fry dal)
Salt, to taste
Finely chopped coriander, for garnishing


Procedure:
Cook the dal in a cooker. The normal way one cooks plain dal. You can add salt, pinch of asafoetida and turmeric but these are not essential. Take oil in a fry pan, put mustard and cumin seeds, green chillies and wait till the mustard starts popping. Now add the chopped onions. If you are using chopped garlic, add it along with the chillies before the onions. If you are using the ready paste, add it after the onions to prevent getting burnt with the oil and making a mess of the gas stove (I was burnt the first time with oil spray :D and I will not mention the condition of the stove. It was lucky we cover the stove with aluminum foil).
Any ways, after the onion becomes all soft n golden, add the tomatoes. Fry it for a bit and then add all the rest of the masala. Then go the capsicum pieces. Keep doing timepass (pointless stirring) with it till the capsicum is almost cooked (or at least till the point where it stops looking raw). whew! Almost there now..
Add the cooked dal and again do some timepass (dont ask me why, the dal just seems to taste better after it). Then add water according to how thick you want the dal to be. Then the tamarind paste and 1 cube of jaggery (I guess I forgot to mention it in the ingredients... tells you always to get the complete picture before starting anything new) and salt to taste. Bring the dal to a boil. Garnish with coriander. Voila!! Its all done!!



Wow! I wrote a recipe!! Had I read this simple recipe 6 months ago, I would have been intimidated by it :D
Shows you how much life changes :)