Ginger & Shrimp Noodles In Oyster Sauce

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! Not long ago, I made a trip to Reykjavik, Iceland for the weekend with my roommate and one of my good friends from work (referred to from this point as my 'TWM'). Why Iceland you ask? Well, the primary reason was that I wanted to see the Northern Lights and the geysers (Geysir in Icelandic) and the secondary reason was I had a schengen visa and the cheapest flights out of Birmingham were to Reykjavik! So I roped in my roommate and used a little emotional blackmail on my TWM (You know, the whole, I'll be gone soon and we may never meet again story) and before you know it, flights booked, apartment booked, tours booked and off we went!

Now, Iceland is a pretty desolate place. The lava plains that cover most of the country are uninhabitable and most of the 323,000 people who live there, live around the Reykjavik area (about 120,000), so you can imagine even though the place is very beautiful there isn't a lot to do, which made our 2 day trip the perfect amount of time required to take in the sights and sounds. The first day we just walked around the city doing what tourists do; taking pictures, eating, checking out the shops. After we had explored the city we went to the breathtakingly beautiful Blue Lagoon Spa. I'm not a spa guy (at all) but believe me when I say that this place was unreal. Like from the pages of a fantasy novel. Pools of silica-rich, geo-thermal, azure water in the middle of nowhere. Just unreal. After our soak, we headed back to the city for our Northern Lights tour but as luck would have it, the weather Gods were not on our side and the tour was cancelled. Thankfully, we had been fortunate enough to see the Aurora Borealis from the plane on our way into Reykjavik so we were slighly less disappointed than we would have been otherwise. With the tour cancelled, we had several hours to spend and since it was getting dark, we decided to get some food. Some Icelandic food. I'm sure you've gathered by now that I'm fairly adventurous when it comes to food and rarely hesitate to try something at least once and this time was no different. I bravely ordered the Icelandic feast. Bravely because the appetizers consisted of hákarl which is rotten shark fermented in a hole in the sand, wind dried fish, roast puffin and whale tataki. After gagging on the shark and being pleasantly surprised by the tender whale, the rest of the meal was quite delightful; roast lamb and langoustine all washed down with a very nice white wine.

This recipe features the langoustine's smaller cousin, the prawn, in a not Icelandic but very quick and very tasty noodle dish. This is Ginger & Shrimp Noodles In Oyster Sauce.

For Ginger & Shrimp Noodles In Oyster Sauce, you will need the following:

Noodles                                300 gms
Prawns/Shrimp                     300 gms
Mushrooms                            4-5 large
Ginger                                  1" piece
Carrot                                   1 small
Green pepper                        1/2 of a medium
Spring Onions                        2 (just the green bits)
Soy Sauce                             couple of big splashes
Vinegar                                 splash
Oyster Sauce                         2 tbsp (available in all grocery stores)
Egg                                       1
Sesame seeds                        handful
Peanuts                                 handful
Salt                                      to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Peel and mince the ginger.
2. Chop up the green pepper.
3. Thinly slice the carrot.
4. Slice the mushrooms.
5. Chop up the spring onion greens.
6. Beat the egg. (Add some salt in.)
7. Toast the sesame seeds.
8. Grind the peanuts.
9. Boil the noodles. (Add salt and some oil in the water so the noodles don't stick.)
10. Drain the noodles.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a wok on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Toss in the ginger.
5. Breathe in the gorgeous aroma.
6. Slide in the mushrooms.
7. Pop in the carrot.
8. Drop in the green pepper.
9. Shake in the shrimp.
10. Cook for a minute.
11. Pour in the egg.
12. Mix until the egg is cooked.
13. Add in the oyster sauce.
14. Splash in the soy sauce.
15. Tip in the noodles.
16. Mix well until the noodles take on the colour of the soy sauce.
17. Sprinkle on the vinegar and more soy sauce if you want a darker colour.
18. Add salt to taste.
19. Toss the contents of the wok like a chef at a teppanyaki restaurant.
20. Cook for a few minutes.
21. Sprinkle on the spring onion greens.
22. Toss.
23. Turn the gas off.
24. Serve with a dash of the sesame seeds and ground peanuts.
25. Stuff face.
26. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: You can add more veggies if you want. Beans, sprouts, bok choy, whatever catches your fancy.

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

Mutton Curry

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! It's no secret that mums are excellent cooks but you know who is better? Grandmas. As Hagrid would say, 'Blimey, did you never wonder where yer parents learned it all?'.

Until a few years ago, when my Dadima (my Dad's mum) was around, she would cook the most amazing food. While all her cooking was nothing short of stellar, what she consistently knocked out of the park was her mutton curry and her biryani (despite having stopped eating meat for several years). Every time my folks and I went to Bombay to visit her, she'd know that I wanted rajma chawal and vadi aloo for lunch and mutton curry and biryani for dinner and as old and tired as she was, she'd always make it. So, as the clock hit 9 pm, we'd all crowd into the bedroom (because that's where the telly was) for dinner. We'd spread a newspaper on the bed, set the food trays on it and balance our collective butts on every available edge and commence the face stuffing as either HBO or Star Movies played on the idiot box. Now, in our house, dinner is generally accompanied by something fried or similar, like papads or fryums or fries and my absolute favourite, besan waale fries which are made by sprinkling some gram flour on regular cut potatoes and then frying them, but for some inexplicable reason regardless of the number of people Dadima would make what felt like 6 fries. At first we figured she'd just miscalculated but nothing changed in the years that rolled by so each time we got started on dinner we'd all be looking at each other smiling and Dadima would be completely oblivious to what was happening around her dinner 'table'.

This is the recipe to Dadima's most excellent mutton curry and I can't help but wonder if she would have liked it had she ever got the chance to taste it as I make it.

For my Mutton Curry, you will need the following:

Mutton/Lamb	500 gms (on the bone)
Onion	1 large
Tomato	1 large
Potato	2 medium
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	2 tsp
Red chilli powder	2-3 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	1/2 tsp
Garam masala	1 tsp
Kasoori methi (dried fenugreek)	big pinch
Cloves	2-3
Cinnamon	couple of pieces
Curd (yoghurt)	1 tbsp
Coriander leaves	for the garnish
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Thinly slice the onion.
2. Puree the tomato.
3. Peel and quarter the potatoes.
4. Roughly chop the coriander leaves.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pressure cooker on. (Yes. This needs a pressure cooker unless you want to cook it for hours.)
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Pop in the cloves and the cinnamon.
6. Toss in the onion and listen to it hiss and spit.
7. Cook until the onion is brown.
8. Plop in the mutton and cook until it turns brown.
9. Add in a tiny splash of water.
10. Slap the lid on and lock it.
11. Crank the gas up to high.
12. Wait for one whistle
13. Drop the heat to low for 2 minutes.
14. Turn the gas off.
15. Wait for the steam to leave the cooker. (Don't manually release it by lifting the weight.)
16. Open the lid.
17. Turn the gas back on.
18. Dry the water out. (At this point the onions should have dissolved.)
19. Add in the ginger garlic paste.
20. Cook for a few.
21. Sprinkle in the red chilli, dhaniya, jeera and garam masala powders.
22. Mix.
23. Add in the blitzed tomato.
24. Mix and cook till the oil separates from the tomato.
25. Stick in the curd and stir furiously.
26. Add salt to taste.
27. Drop in the potatoes.
28. Add in about a cup of water.
29. Mix and add in the kasoori meethi.
30. Slap the lid back on.
31. Crank the heat up to high.
32. One whistle.
33. Drop the heat to low for 2 minutes.
34. Turn the gas off. (Any longer and the potatoes will disintegrate.)
35. Wait until the steam goes bye bye.
36. Pop the lid open.
37. Put the gas on and adjust the thickness of the gravy. (Either dry the excess water or add more based on what you prefer.)
38. Turn the gas off.
39. Transfer the contents into a bowl.
40. Sprinkle on a pinch of garam masala and the coriander leaves.
41. Serve with garam rotis or rice.
42. Stuff face.
43. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

 

  

Tip: Let the curry sit for a few minutes after you've sprinkled on the garam masala. It adds to the flavour. Also, this tastes incredible with crusty bread!

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