Chilli Sesame Prawns

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! One of the first things that came to my mind when I was moving back home to India from the UK was, 'What do I do with all my cooking ingredients?'. Sure, I thought of how many suitcases I'd need to pack my things in and how much excess baggage I'd have to pay for, but neither of these worried me nearly as much as what I would do with the pressure cooker that served me faithfully for over 3 years! I mean, this little guy moved with me from India to Northern Ireland and then to England. I saw more of my pressure cooker than I did my family! In the end, I left it in the possession of my TWM who promised to love him and raise him like his own (and also attempt to cook dal in it). With my pressure cooker cared for, I was now faced with the problem of finishing off all the perishables in the fridge. I had chicken and fish and prawns and a bunch of veggies that would have to be chucked away if my roommate and I didn't finish them on time. The problem? With only a few days left to go, my roommate (Ms. Popularity herself) had dinner invites almost every day and even with my enviable appetite, finishing off all the food seemed a near impossible task. So I inquired about Ms. Popularity's availability and food preference as I chalked up a mental list of dishes to cook. She wanted chicken biryani, I wanted prawns. The only logical thing to do was cook the prawns as starters and the biryani as a main course. The upside (apart from getting to eat some of my favourite food) was using up twice as much stuff in one go. 

The biryani was the easy part. It takes time and effort to make but I have a preferred recipe so there wasn't a question around how I intended to make it. The prawns on the other hand, posed a dilemma. How do I cook these buggers? I love prawns. You could stick them in a curry, fry them, grill them, even toss them in a seafood stew and I'd eat them with relish. There are innumerable recipes with prawns as appetizers and to pick one is no easy task! That's when I remembered, when I was little, we'd frequent one of my favourite Chinese restaurants in Poona, a place called Chinese Room. It was here that I had chilli sesame prawns for the first time and every other time after that. The odd thing is, despite how much I loved them, it never occurred to me to actually cook them and I (almost always) opted instead to cook (the equally delicious) butter garlic prawns. With nothing to lose and ingredients to use, I decided to put my childhood memories on the line and cook chilli sesame prawns. If you're wondering why I would cook Chinese starters with an Indian main, I'm guessing you haven't ever been faced with the sorrow of bidding your kitchen goodbye and the overwhelming urge to cook as many new things as you possibly can in the short time you have left together. So I cooked them. I loved them, my roommate loved them even more and I added another recipe to my ever expanding repertoire.

If you are a prawn lover like I am, this is a dish you really must try out!

For my Chilli Sesame Prawns, you will need the following:

King prawns                    300 gms (De-shelled and de-veined.)
Dried red chillies             10
Ginger                             2" piece
Garlic                              6-8 cloves
Cayenne pepper              1 tsp (I use this for some extra bite. Not a deal breaker.)
Butter                              big knob
Oil                                   splash
Sesame seeds (white)      handful
Salt                                 to taste

Prep:

1. Cut the dried red chillies into 3 or 4 pieces each.
2. Julienne the ginger. (Basically just cut it into straws.)
3. Mince the garlic.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Pop in the butter.
5. Watch the butter melt into a golden pool and mix in with the oil.
6. Toss in the chopped chillies.
7. Pop in the garlic.
8. Slide in the ginger.
9. Mix and move around until the ginger and garlic are cooked. (Keep it moving or else your chillies will burn.)
10. Throw in the prawns.
11. Add salt to taste.
12. Sprinkle on the cayenne pepper.
13. Cook for 2 or 3 minutes until the prawns are done. (They'll go a nice pink. Do not overcook them; if you do they'll become hard and rubbery. If they roll into a tight ball, they're overdone.)
14. While the prawns are cooking, turn on another burner and bung a smaller pan on.
15. Bounce in the sesame seeds and toast them until they are a nice pleasant brown.
16. Turn both burners off.
17. Top the cooked prawns with the toasted sesame seeds.
18. Mix and serve.
19. Stuff face.
20. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: Prawns cook very quickly so keep an eye on them at all times. Channel your inner teppanyaki chef and toss the contents of your pan at regular intervals.

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

Chicken Koftas

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! Back in 2012, I visited my cousin in Geneva for the first time. Unfortunately, my visit was at a time when only my cousin and his daughter were around as his wife (my bhabhi) and my nephew were off visiting relatives in the UK. This was less than ideal for 2 reasons. First, the more obvious one of not seeing everyone, and the second, missing out on my bhabhi's sumptuous cooking. 

So I landed in Geneva in the morning, got picked up at the airport and headed to my cousin's place. After a quick shower and a bite of breakfast, we were ready to head out to explore the sights. Since it was only my first day there, my cousin decided to take me to places not too far away and so we set off for Vevey and Montreaux which were only a couple of hours from Geneva. After arriving at our destination, we walked around as I did touristy things like taking pictures, looking at the pretty girls, and picking the nose of Miles Davis' statue. My cousin then told me there was a life size statue of Charlie Chaplin in the vicinity but he couldn't remember where exactly so we started asking people for directions. As fate would have it, the people we asked were tourists too and didn't know either and after striking out a few times, my cousin, for kicks, started asking people in Hindi. He'd walk up to people with a confused expression on his face as go, 'Charlie kahaan hai?' (Where is Charlie?), only to find his expression mirrored on their faces as they mumbled apologies and quickly shuffled away. We never did find Charlie but we did have a lot of fun trying. After Vevey and Montreaux we headed to Saleve, high above where we were, a place that my cousin had never been able to successfully make his way to. About halfway there he noticed that his car was running very low on fuel (his dashboard had a display for the number of kms possible based on the fuel in the tank and the driving speed) and thus a new game was born! 'How far can we go without having to stop for fuel?' We varied our speed to conserve fuel and passed gas station after gas station until we reached the top. After taking in the breathtaking views we resumed our game on the way down and when the car was nearly empty, there wasn't a gas station in sight! Thankfully (because my niece was starting get mad with panic), we found a gas station shortly, filled up and started our return journey to Geneva. The drive back was uneventful except for a quick stop at an Ikea for some Swedish meatballs where we convinced my niece that the tartar(e) sauce sachets were free and asked her to get 4, and after she had got them, told her they weren't and called her a thief all the way home.

This recipe is also a meatballs recipe, albeit not Swedish, and the meat used is chicken. The first time I made it, I got rave reviews and I haven't stopped making it since.

For Chicken Koftas, you will need the following:

Chicken keema (mince)	500 gms
Onions	3 (1 small, 2 medium to large)
Tomatoes	2
Green chillies	4-5
Ginger garlic paste	2 tsp
Red chilli powder	3 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	4 tsp
Jeera (cumin) powder	2 tsp
Garam masala	1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) leaves	couple of handfuls
Cloves	3
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

For the meatballs - 

1. Chop the small onion.
2. Chop 2 green chillies.
3. Roughly chop a handful of the coriander leaves.
4. Plop the keema into a bowl.
5. Toss in the chopped onion.
6. Stick in the chopped chillies.
7. Add in 1 tsp of ginger garlic paste.
8. Sprinkle in 1 tsp of red chilli powder, 2 tsp of dhaniya powder, 1 tsp of jeera powder and 1/s tsp of garam masala.
9. Add salt to taste.
10. Toss in the chopped coriander.
11. Stick your hands in the bowl.
12. Mix well.
13. Roll into balls and keep aside. (You can stick the mixture in the fridge for an hour before you roll it into balls if you have the time.)

For the sauce/gravy - 

1. Grate the 2 larger onions.
2. Puree the tomatoes.
3. Chop the remaining chillies.
4. Roughly chop the remaining coriander leaves.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a little pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Pop in a kofta (meatball) and roll it around till is evenly white all round. (This is to seal it so it doesn't disintegrate in the gravy.)
6. Take the kofta out and stick it on a paper towel covered plate to absorb any excess oil.
7. Repeat until all the koftas are sealed.
8. Swap the little pan for a big pan.
9. Splash in some oil.
10. Count to 20.
11. Pop in the cloves.
12. Slide in the grated onions.
13. Wince at the spatter.
14. Roll in the chillies.
15. Cook until the onions are light brown.
16. Spoon in 1 tsp of the ginger garlic paste.
17. Mix and cook until the onions are brown.
18. Sprinkle in 2 tsp of red chilli powder, 2 tsp of dhaniya powder, 1 tsp of jeera powder and 1/2 tsp of garam masala.
19. Mix.
20. Add in the pureed tomatoes.
21. Cook until the oil separates from the masala.
22. Pop in the koftas and mix until they are all covered with the masala.
23. Pour in 2 cups of water and mix.
24. Add salt to taste.
25. Pop the lid on and let it cook for about 20 minutes.
26. Take the lid off.
27. Break into a kofta to see if it is cooked. (Let it cook for another 5 minutes if it isn't.)
28. Put the lid aside, do a taste test for salt.
29. Add water or dry off the excess for the desired amount of gravy.
30. Turn the gas off.
31. Sprinkle on the chopped coriander leaves.
32. Serve.
33. Stuff face.
34. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

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

Tip: You can use any minced meat you want. The flavour will vary based on the meat. Also, if you up the quantity of meat, up the masala. I've fallen prey to the dreaded 'too-many-koftas-not-enough-gravy' problem. It's not nice.

Palak Rice

Hello boys and girls!

Welcome to cooking with Varun! A few years ago when I was living in Northern Ireland, there was a girl in the office of the attractive variety. Very attractive. So my roommates and I did the usual walk past, sideways glance thing that boys do. Unfortunately, after a few days of this, we discovered that she was married, and to someone we knew from our limited conversions with to be a really nice guy. This brought the checking out to a screeching halt and we moved on from the 'checking out' stage to the 'friends' stage. What followed was several social gatherings and office events and the more we all hung out, the better friends we all became and soon she was no longer 'Hottie Hotterson', as she had been pegged (although I still call her that.. she knows!), but one of the gang.

Now, in all the time that I was in Northern Ireland, my roommates and I used to carry lunch to the office. What started off as a box of dal or curry and a box of rice, soon turned into a full-blown banquet with massive portions of food enough to feed an army (which we did, since a lot of our friends nicked food off us) and it became tradition to make lunch a pot luck with everyone contributing a dish. Some days it'd just be us 3 roommates and the Hottersons, on others we'd have a few of our Northern Irish friends braving the spicy food we'd set in front of them, and the pizza Fridays when we'd take the day off cooking and order in large pizzas and wolf them down as people sniffed the air in anticipation. Hottie was already a very good cook and I had been dabbling with cooking (thanks in no small amount to my roommates) so we would often discuss recipes and she would give me tips on how to make a perfect sambar. I remember in particular, she had this dish called 'methi chaman' that was absolutely gorgeous and like many of her dishes it was a something+rice dish.

Today's palak (spinach) rice dish is also a something+rice dish which I first made in an attempt to mirror Hottie's cooking style, and switched it around a little the more I made it.

For Palak Rice, you will need the following:

Spinach	300 gms
Rice	2 cups
Onion	1 large
Tomatoes	2 (tinned ones will work just fine)
Cinnamon	1" stick
Cloves	3-4
Jeera (cumin)	2 tsp
Peppercorns	small handful
Bayleaf	1
Green chillies	2
Ginger garlic paste	1 tsp
Dhaniya (coriander) powder	2 tsp
Jeera (cumin powder)	1 tsp
Garam masala	1/2 tsp
Red chilli powder	2 tsp
Biryani masala	2 tsp (optional.. but it does add flavour)
Salt	to taste
Oil

Prep:

1. Wash and roughly chop the spinach.
2. Pop the chopped spinach in a blender.
3. Whirl it around until it is coarsely chopped. (Do NOT puree it!)
4. Thinly slice the onion.
5. Chop the chillies.
6. Chop the tomatoes.
7. Rinse the rice out in cold water about 4 times.

Method:

1. Turn on the gas.
2. Bung a pan on.
3. Splash in some oil.
4. Count to 20.
5. Float in the bayleaf.
6. Drop in the cinnamon.
7. Pop in the cloves.
8. Bounce in the peppercorns.
9. Cook for a minute or so until you can smell the aroma from the cooking spices.
10. Add in the jeera.
11. Roll in the chillies.
12. Slide in the onions and listen to them sizzle and pop.
13. Cook until the onions go light brown.
14. Plop in the ginger garlic paste.
15. Mix well.
16. Cook until brown. (Not too dark.)
17. Sprinkle in the red chilli powder, dhaniya powder, jeera powder, biryani masala and the garam masala.
18. Mix well.
19. Pop in the tomatoes and move them around to help deglaze the pan.
20. Cook for a minute.
21. Chuck in the blitzed spinach.
22. Cook for a minute.
23. Tip in the washed rice.
24. Add 4 cups of water. (Twice as many cups as the rice. Same size cup!)
25. Add in salt to taste.
26. Mix well.
27. Drop the heat to little above low and pop the lid on.
28. Cook for about 15 minutes.
29. Take the lid off and mix to unstick any of the rice from the bottom of the pan.
30. Pop the lid back on and cook for 3 or 4 minutes until the water has dried and the rice has cooked.
31. Turn the gas off.
32. Serve with chilled boondi raita.
33. Stuff face.
34. Bask in the glory of your successfully executed dish.

Tip: If you're in a rush and couldn't be bothered making the whole masala, just toss everything in the pan higgledy-piggledy once you can smell the whole spices, mix well, stick the lid on and let it cook.

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

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!