Prawn Pulao

Hello, boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! March, every year, I give myself a birthday gift. In 2014,  I treated myself to an 8 day vacation in Spain and Portugal. 8 days of sangria, tapas, margaritas, paella, seafood and beer. I tell myself each trip is about experiencing a new place; a tick in the long list of countries to visit, another beer tried, another loo visited, another hotel bed crashed in, maybe even another turnstile jumped. But I think I kid myself sometimes. While these are all reasons why I love to travel, the most important is the food that the place has to offer. It doesn't even have to be food that is native to the country. It's the local spin on global food that makes it so great. Much like Indo-Chinese or a tandoori chicken pizza. Heck, I've even had a haggis burrito!

This trip in particular had a lot of food. You see, most days, breakfast is toast and eggs, lunch is a sandwich and dinner is a reasonably indulgent affair. But on vacation, every meal is huge! And that's not counting the little meals in between, and the gelatos, and the churros, and the hot dogs. This trip was (unsurprisingly) Spanish and Portuguese food along with some fantastic Mexican, some superb Chinese and excellent Italian worth writing home about!

The first night in Barcelona, after a big dinner of tapas, mussels, seafood paella and a bit too much sangria, found my friends and I on Catalunya square doing the 'Insanity' workout. As we powered through the power knees and twisted through the globe jumps, our slightly unfocused eyes were greeted (not for the first time) at 2 very blonde girls running towards us squealing as they asked us what we were doing and if they could try too. Not being the kind to turn down a polite request, we agreed and what ensued was 4 people promoting Shaun T at the head of the famous La Rambla! But I digress, today's recipe, although not Spanish, has fresh seafood and rice and enough heat to send you jetting off to find some sangria to put out the fire!

For Prawn Pulao, you will need the following:

Prawns	500 gms. (shelled and de-veined)
Rice	2 cups
Onions	2 medium
Tomatoes	1 medium
Green chillies	3
Cardamom pods	4
Cloves	4
Bayleaf	1
Coriander powder	2 tsp
Red chilli powder	3 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	2 tsp
Garam masala	1 tsp
Coconut milk	1 cup
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Lemon	2
Peppercorns	small handful
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Slice the onions.
2. Chop the chillies.
3. Chop the tomatoes.
4. Rinse the rice with cold water 3-4 times.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan/kadhai on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Float in the bayleaf.
6. Pop in the cardamom pods.
7. Drop in the cloves.
8. Bounce in the peppercorns.
9. Cook for a minute until the oil gets perfumed with the whole spices.
10. Slide in the onions.
11. Add in the chillies.
12. Cook until the onions are translucent.
13. Put in the ginger garlic paste.
14. Avoid the spatter as the wet paste hits the hot oil.
15. Cook until slightly brown.
16. Add in the coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder and garam masala.
17. Mix.
18. Cook for a couple of minutes.
19. Add in the tomatoes.
20. Cook until the oil separates from the tomatoes.
21. Scoop in the rice.
22. Add in 3 cups of water and a cup of coconut milk.
23. Squeeze in the juice from the lemon.
24. Plop in the prawns.
25. Add salt to taste.
26. Mix.
27. Drop the heat to low.
28. Pop a lid on.
29. Let it cook for about 20 mins until the water has all gone and the rice is cooked.
30. Turn the gas off.
31. Garnish with chopped coriander and mint leaves.
32. Serve with raita.
33. Stuff face.
34. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Fresh prawns > Frozen prawns

And remember, overeating is a myth. A full tummy is a happy tummy!