Saucy Shrimp Vindaloo

Last week in class, I had a spice lover, I mean a serious about my chilies kind of guy. So at his request I wanted to scope out a spicy recipe. When you tend to think spice in Indian food, what comes to my mind actually is the thought of vindaloo. A vindaloo, is a dish that is most popular in the western coastline of India and has Portuguese roots. I was looking for a recipe that was bold but not overwelmningly spicy since for a class setting, it is important to balance the flavors and the spice. So I went on a quest for a spice balanced recipe.

I did not have to go much further that my book shelf of my favorite cookbooks. I found a recipe in 660 curries that I adapted and a star was born. I used both red and green chilies in this recipe. Like so many other staples - the cumin, the garlic, the ginger and the cilantro I actually just tend to take the chilies in my life for granted. However, as I write I do realize my world would not be the same without these spicy creations. Chilies are actually very high in vitamin A and C and tend to be rich in anti-oxidants and even though I prefer the heat level in my food on the moderate (not mild side) my world would not be the same without chilies.

So back to the vindaloo, the recipe that I came up was saucy and had a nice amount of spice. The interest element in this recipe that I got from the original was the coconut milk.

We had it with the cracked wheat pilaf, that I told you about the other day.

So down to the recipe,

Shrimp Vindaloo - Spicy Shrimp in a tangy Coconut Sauce.

Prep Time: 30 minutes (includes soaking the spices)
Cook Time: 25-30 minutes
Serves 4

Ingredients

1/2 cup cider vinegar
4 pods of garlic
1 large (about 2 inch) piece of peeled ginger
2 green chilies
2 dried red chilies
1 tablespoon fresh powdered cumin
3 tablespoons oil
1 red onion, very finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup canned organic diced tomatoes or 3 fresh diced tomatoes
2 pounds of shelled De-veined shrimp

1 can of light coconut milk
Cilantro to garnish

Method of Preparation

1. Place the vinegar, garlic, ginger, green and red chilies in a bowl and soak for about 15 minutes.
2. Place in a grinder and blend until reasonably smooth.
3. Stir in the cumin.
4. Heat the oil and add the onion and cook slowly on low heat till the onion wilts and begins to turn softly golden.
5. Add in the salt and the vinegar spice paste and cook for 5 minutes, until the mixture thickens and begins to smell cooked.
6. Add in the tomatoes and bring to a simmer and add in the shrimp and stir well.
7. Add in the coconut milk and cook on high heat for about 7-8 minutes, do not overcook the shrimp.

8. Stir in the cilantro and enjoy.

Modak - Rice dumplings stuffed with coconut

I want to play too, I kept thinking everytime I saw the Indian Cooking Challenge I wanted to join however I was concerned about whether I would be able to do the posts on time. However at the end of the day, the temptation and inspiration to cook authentic traditional dishes got the better of me. I joined in a couple of weeks back, and decided to start with Modak.

I have often looked at the descriptions of these lovely rice flour dumplings stuffed with rich and gooey coconut but never been brave enough to try them. I made them following the recipe from mints on the website completely. This itself is a challenge for me not to try and improvise. I made this is with quite a bit of trepidation, but honestly this turned out very well. The first few modaks had slightly more covering that needed, but after shaping a couple I got the hang of this. As I see the other pictures, I shall get a better idea of how to shape them. The recipe is as follows.

Modak from Mints

Ingredients Needed

For the Stuffing -2 cups freshly grated coconut (she says you can use frozen unsweetened coconut - that is what I used)

1 cup jaggery (grated)

1 tbsp poppy seeds

1 tsp cardamom powder

one pinch nutmeg (optional)

2 tbsp water (her mom uses milk, I did that too)

For the outer layer or Cover -

1 cup rice flour

1.25 cup water

pinch of salt

1 tbsp oil

Method for preparing the Stuffing

Roast the poppy seeds in a small skillet and let it cool down. Grind it coarsely and keep it aside. In a heavy bottom pan, take add the grated jaggary, and the milk and melt. Add in the grated coconut. Keep stirring so that it does get burnt in the bottom.In about 5 -7 mins you will see the mixture getting solid, at this stage add the cardamom powder (I did not use nutmeg).

When you see the mixture turning yellowish, more like golden and sticking to the sides, you can turn off the flame add the poppy seeds powder, mix well and set it aside to cool down.

Method for preparing the outer cover

I used a pressure cooker container for this. Start boiling water and add the salt and oil.When water starts boiling, lower the heat and slowly add rice flour. The flour needs to be added gradually however the overall process is quite speedy. The end result here is a snowy smooth mixture.

Now close the lid and take the pot off the heat. Let the covered pot cool down for 15 minutes or so. At this point the dough needs to be further kneaded, I used my hands for this, but it is soft enough to use a mixing spoon. 1-2 tablespoons of flour can be added to make this more manageable, but actually the rice flour worked fine.

Making the Modak

For making the Modak divide the dough into 20 balls and the stuffing into equal size of 20 balls. These modaks need to be shaped closer to a garlic, my look like fat macaroons. You actually get moulds for these. Shape the rice flour mixture like a kachori, and place the coconut filling inside it. Cover and seal.

They get placed in a steamer and steamed for about 15 minutes. After that they are left to settle as is for 5-10 minutes. These are traditionally eaten with ghee. I was so curious to try them, I had them immediately.

Spicy Lamb with Apricots

My husband does not like costo, sams club, the entire discount club universe. He feels they are the root of most of the trash in the house and promote wastage. Well, sometimes, I do end up "trying" out something that no one else wants to have and then get stuck with a lot of something that I am not sure what to do with.

This was pretty much the case, when I recently got an entire clamshell of apricots, that I thought, my kids would love. Well, they refused to touch them. Here I was stuck with a crisper full of lovely tangy yellow fruit. I ended up making a jam with honey, and the remainder was used in the lamb dish. It was a lovely, spicy and dense pairing. The other ingredient that I used for these were they very spicy jamacan peppers. They are so spicy, it takes several washes to get the heat off the hands after working with them.

Spicy Lamb with Apricots

Serves 4

Ingredients

1/4 cup oil A large piece cinnamon 3-4 cardamoms 3-4 cloves 2 tsp cumin-coriander powder 1 large onion, finely chopped 2 tsp minced garlic 2 tsp grated ginger 1 lbs, boneless lamb cut into cubes 1 tsp turmeric 2 tsp salt 2 tomatoes, chopped 4 green chillies, chopped 4 fresh apricots, cut into chunks 2 tbsp fresh mint, chopped 1.5 tsp garam masala 1 tsp finely chopped cilantro

Method of Preparation

1. Heat the oil and add the cinamon, cardamom and cloves. 2. Add the onions, garlic and ginger and cook slowly till the onions begin to turn light brown. 3. Add the cumin-coriander powder, the lamb, the salt and turmeric and cook stirring slowly for about 10 minutes. 4. Add the tomatoes, mint, appricots and chillies and cook for another 5 minutes. 5. Add about 1/2 cup water and cook under pressure for about 15 minutes. 6. Remove the pressure, mix well and cook for another 5-7 minutes till the gravy is thick and fairly dry. 7. Add the garam masala and the cilantro, enjoy with rice or chappatis.

These are not good times, I don't think people need me to remind me of that. It is just simple things like my daily dose of Small bites, being off the air for a week in some token acknowledgement of cost savings, remind me this gloom and doom is not going away anytime soon.

Crisp Pan fried Halibut

It really is a challenge, on busy weeks to keep things in balance, the house, the two little one and put a good nutritious dinner on the table at the same time. Fish usually comes to my rescue on such days.
Fish cooked simply with some basic flavors usually can be done quickly and tastes just so wonderfully good. I made these halibut fillets coated with a crisp crust and served it with an interesting salad. I will write about the salad shortly.

The herb of the week is tested and true cilantro, aka coriander leaves aka chinese parsely. My kitchen home and cooking are just incomplete without this herb. Now for the fish... oh I forgot to mention the other device that I am lost without is a food processor, it truely is a very useful device for Indian cooking and beyond.

Crispy Pan-Fried Halibut.


Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 lb halibut steaks, cut into wedges
1 juicy lime or lemon
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp chaat masala
2 shallots or a small onion
1 small piece ginger
2-3 green chillies
1 tbsp curry powder
1/2 cup chopped cilantro
4 tbsp oil

For the coating

1/3 cup coarse cornmeal
1/3 cup peanuts
2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
3 tbsp flour

Method of Preparation

1. Squeeze the lime juice on the fish and rub with turmeric and chaat masala.
2. In a food processor finely all the remaining ingredients except the curry powder, oil and cilantro.
3. Add the paste to the fish, rub the curry powder and sprinkle with cilantro and set aside for half an hour, longer if possible.
4. In the meantime, powder the peanuts, and mix with the cornmeal and half the salt.
5. Make a batter with the milk, flour and remaining salt.
6. Dip the fish into this batter (try to keep the marinade on if possible), and coat with the cover mixture.
7. When all the fish is coated.
8. Heat the oil on a heavy non-stick skillet and place the coated fish on this.
9. On low heat cook each side for about 10 minutes till well browned and the fish is cooked. Cover and cook for five minutes if needed.

This post is for WHB, the event that encourages me to bring new herbs to my home or sometimes just do new things with old ones. This week the event is being hosted by A fridge full of food.