Potato Shrimp Masala with Malvan Style Flavor

This Potato Shrimp Masala I cooked during my recent stay in Mumbai. My kitchen was not well equipped, few times I managed to cook with available ingredients. I had one cup cleaned small shrimps and two potatoes, few spices which I had brought to enrich my spice rack in USA. I decided to add few unique spices - Tirphal, Dagad phool and Nagkesar and addition of some finely ground coconut paste influenced this curry with Malvan/Goan style flavor and aroma.

Ingredients:-

• 1 cup small size shrimps cleaned and deveined - Marinate with salt and turmeric.
• 2 medium size potatoes diced in 1/2- inch cubes.(3 cups full).
• 1 Tb.spoon oil.
• 1 medium size onion - finely chopped.
• 1 cup fresh grated coconut - Grind to fine paste by adding 1 cup water.
• 1 T.spoon red chili powder.
• 1 inch piece ginger - finely minced.
• 3-4 cloves of garlic - finely minced.
• 1 cup fresh chopped cilantro.

Special Spice Blend:-

• 1 Tb.spoon Cumin seeds
• 4-5 pieces of Dagad phool
• 1 inch piece of cinnamon
  
• 3 whole Tirphal - (pound them well before grinding)
  
• 4 whole Nagkesar
• 1 Bay leaf 2 inch long

Slightly toast all the above spices and make fine powder.


Method Of Cooking:-

1. Take medium size heavy bottom pan and heat 1 Tb.spoon oil. Maintain medium heat. Add finely chopped onions. Saute them till they turn soft.
2. Add finely minced ginger and garlic - Mix and saute with onions for about 1 minute.
3. Mix finely ground powder of spice blend and stir-fry for one minute.
4. Add 6-7 shrimps and saute for a minute.
5. Add all cubed potatoes, little salt, 1 T.spoon red chili powder. Mix all well and stir-fry for two minutes on high heat. Add 1 Cup water and reduce flames to medium and let it cook for 6-7 minutes with closed lid. Stir at regular intervals.
6. Add half ground paste of coconut and marinated shrimps. Mix all together. Add little chopped cilantro and let it cook on medium flame with closed lid for 7-8 minutes. Adjust final salt level. Stir at regular intervals.
   
7. Add remaining ground coconut paste and adjust thickness of gravy as per your taste. Check if potatoes are rightly cooked. Let it cook for another 3-4 minutes without lid.
8. Add remaining chopped cilantro and serve with rice and roti.
   

Note :-

• In absence of those unique spices you may use 1 Tb.spoon ready made Garam Masala, it will still bring flavorful taste to this curry.
• Remove seed from Tirphal spice and pound it very hard before grinding into powder. You may avoid grinding but in that case use 6-7 whole Tirphal.
• If you have bigger size shrimp then use 15-20. I used very small shrimps which were 30-40 in count.

Long Beans and Green beans Stir-fry

This is one of the simplest combination beans stir-fry for everyday cooking. Very few ingredients and fresh beans brings true bean flavors and makes this stir-fry very tasty and nutritious.

Ingredients :

• 1 1/2 Cup cut Long beans - duly cut into 1 Cm long pieces (slightly cut off both the ends)
  
• 2 Cup cut green beans - duly cut into 1 Cm long pieces (slightly cut off both the ends)
• 1 small size onion duly chopped.
  
• 3 green chilies chopped.
• 10-15 curry leaves.
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro.
• 1 Tb.spoon oil.

Method Of cooking:

1. Heat 1 Tb.spoon oil in medium size pan.
2. Add 7-8 curry leaves as they sizzle wait for 15 seconds and add chopped onions. Stir-fry for 5-6 minutes on medium flames.
3. Add 1 1/2 cups cut long green beans and little salt. Stir and mix with onions and curry leaves. Increase flames to high and stirrfry for 3-4 minutes by constantly stirring.
4. Add 1/2 cup water. Reduce flames to medium and let it cook with closed lid for 3-4 minutes.
5. Now add two cups cut green beans, chopped green chilies, remaining curry leaves and add little more salt. Stir all well and let it cook for 6-7 minutes on medium flames.
6. Make sure that all water gets evaporated. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro and serve with rice and roti.
   

Kadhai Paneer

Kadhai Paneer is most popular rich subzi dish on the menu of Indian restaurants. I always wondered why there has to be Capsicum when they call it Kadhai Paneer. I googled it and found that no recipe is without addition of capsicum. Here is my version of Kadhai Paneer. I cooked with almost no gravy to bring more taste of Paneer and Capsicum in each bite.

Ingredients :

• 250 gm paneer - 2 Cups griddle fried cubes
• 2 medium sized capsicum cut into 1/2 inch pieces
• 2 large onion - cut lengthwise
• 6 Roma tomatoes diced in cubes
• 2 Tb.spoon oil ( some extra for frying paneer and capsicum)
• 2 Tb.spoon heavy cream
• 1/2 cup Chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 T.spoon red chili powder
• 5 Garlic cloves finely minced
• 1 inch piece of ginger finely minced

Spice Blend

• 5 Cloves.
  
• 2 Cardamom.
  
• 1 T.spoon shahajira.
• 1 Tb.spoon Fennel seeds.
• 1 Small Bay leaf.
• 1 inch piece of cinnamon.
• 5-6 strands of Saffron.

Except saffron finely powder all spices.

Griddle Fried Capsicum and Paneer Cubes

Method Of Preparation :-

A) Preparing Paneer cubes :

Cut paneer slab in half inch strips. Heat griddle to medium and pour some oil. Place all strips on the griddle and reduce heat to low. It will take approximate 10 minutes to fry them to golden brown color. At interval turn them to all sides. Check the picture. Do not over fry them. Paneer quickly gets burnt so keep flames on very low temperature. After all sides are fried to golden brown color remove from griddle and let them cool. Make half inch cubes with sharp knife.

B) Stir-frying Capsicum :

In the same griddle pour some more oil and add capsicum. Increase flames to high heat and stir-fry them by continuous stirring. It will take three - four minutes to cook capsicum. Remove from griddle and set on paper towel sprinkle some salt and toss.

C) Cooking Kadhai Paneer :

1. Take a big Kadhai or any heavy bottom pan. I cooked in anodized saute pan. Heat 2 Tb.spoon oil and add onions. Saute them for 4-5 minutes on high heat till they turn soft and transparent.
2. Add minced ginger and garlic and saute all for one minutes.
3. Add powdered spices and strands of saffron saute for two minutes.
4. Add half quantity of chopped tomatoes and stir-fry for 4-5 minutes on medium heat.
5. Add Fried cubed paneer and capsicum. Add red chilli powder and salt as per taste. Mix all well and let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
6. Add 1/2 cup water and remaining tomatoes. Cook for 4-5 minutes. At this stage you can adjust gravy. Add little more water if you need more gravy. I cooked in dry manner, almost no gravy, just let paneer and capsicum to get coated with onion, spices, tomatoes.
7. Add 2 Tb.spoon heavy cream. Mix all well and add fresh cilantro. Stir-fry on high heat for two minutes. Shut off gas. Cover with lid and let it stay for some time before serving with roti or rice.

Kesar Pista Flavored Shrikhand.

Shrikhand is a creamy and delicious healthy dessert from Maharashtra/Gujrat. I made this Kesar and Pista flavored Shrikhand for Dussehra.

Ingredients :-

• 32 Ounce (2 pound) Yogurt.
• 1 Cup confectioners sugar (adjust as per taste).
  
• 3 pinches of Saffron strands (Soak in 1Tb.spoon hot milk for 2 hours).
  
• 8-10 cardamom - make fine powder.
• 1/4 Cup Pistachio - Pick only bright green colored pistachio and remove skin. Make 1Tb. spoon fine powder and finely slice remaining pistachios.
• 1 piece cheese cloth or muslin cloth ( For cheese cloth make three layers).

Preparation Method:-

1. Take one medium deep bowl and place cloth over bowl, spread edges of cloth equally over bowl. Slowly add 32 Oz. yogurt into the bowl. Hold all four edges of cloth and merge together and make tight knot. Tightly secure all yogurt. Don't leave any gaps while making knot. Hang this over sink or any other suitable place in kitchen. Use same bowl to collect dipping liquid from yogurt. Give at least 15-20 hours to drain out all liquid. You may reduce hanging time by gently pressing yogurt at regular intervals and speed up the process of extracting liquid from yogurt. After 15 hours open the knot and take out strained yogurt ball (Chakka). Scrap all yogurt from cloth.
   
2. Take 2-3 quart glass or steel bowl and place strained yogurt ball (Chakka). Add 1 cup confectioners sugar, saffron milk and half soaked saffron strands, powdered cardamom, powdered pistachio and half the quantity of sliced pistachio. Mix all with spatula. You may use hand blender and give one quick swirl to mix all ingredients in the bowl. Do not over run hand blender. Adjust level of sugar as per taste.
3. Add remaining soaked saffron strands and sliced pistachio. Mix all well with spatula and refrigerate for at least two hours before serving.
4. Serve with puri, chapati or enjoy in bowl.

Note :- You may add some sour cream for more creamy and rich taste also this will help to increase the quantity. 32 Oz. Yogurt gives you one full cup of Chakka and 1 1/2 cup of strained liquid (Whey).

Tofu and Onion Bhajia - (Onion Tofu Fritters)

Kanda Bhajia is very popular Indian appetizer and tea time snack, one of the highly craved snack during wet and cold weather. I made little variation to regular onion bhajia by adding tofu cubes and served them with green chutney made with sweet relish, fresh cilantro and green chilies.

Ingredients :-

• 2 cup Besan.
• 1/2 cup Water.
• 2 large size Onion cut lengthwise.
• 1 cup chopped fresh Cilantro.
• 9-10 chopped Green chilies.
• 2 cups cubed Tofu- 1/2 inch size - Gently squeeze out water and lightly marinate with salt.
• 1 T.spoon Ajwain (carom seeds)
• Salt as per taste.
• Canola oil for frying.
  

Method Of Preparation :-

1. Take 3-4 quart glass or stainless steel bowl. Add 2 cups besan, salt, Ajwain, chopped chillies and cilantro. Mix all well.
2. Add lengthwise cut onions and coat them well with besan mixture. Add half cup water and stir well. Leave mixture in bowl for 10 minutes.
3. As mixture turns more moist add Tofu cubes and gently mix all batter.
4. Heat oil in Kadhai/Wok. Once oil get hot maintain medium hot temperature. For checking right temperature add little batter through small spoon in Kadhai. Fritter should quickly float on top with lots of bubbles around. It should not quickly turn dark brown.
5. For dropping fritters in oil you can either use spoon, small serving tong or hands. I find it comfortable to use hands. Merge all five finger tips together and dip in batter. Collect walnut size batter and gently drop into Kadhai. You need to be quick and cautious in this step. Make sure you grab onion pieces and tofu pieces in each pick.
6. For each batch drop 8-12 fritters into Kadhai and fry them turning to both sides for at least 2-3 minutes. Be watchful on flames. Always maintain medium heat and in between you may rise temperature little higher but quickly get back to medium heat.
7. Once you see all fritters turn golden brown and appear crisp in texture, remove them from oil and place it on open large plate layered with paper napkins.
8. You will be able to make at least 40 fritters with this quantity.
9. Serve them hot with following Green Hot-Sweet-Sour Chutney or ketchup.

Chutney :-

• 4 Tb.spoon Sweet Relish.
  
• 1/2 Cup chopped fresh Cilantro.
• 6-10 Green chillies. (Adjust as per heat desired)
• 1/2 T.spoon chat masala ( optional)
• Sanchar (rock salt)

How to prepare Green chutney :-

1. Take small jar of blender and add 4 Tb.spoon sweet relish, chopped corriader, green chilies.
2. Blend it to fine paste. Add 1/2 T.spoon chat masala and little rock salt.
3. You may add very little water to have your desired consistency for chutney.

Sweet relish gives sweet and sour taste also it helps to retain green color for longer time.