Prawn Malai Curry

A quick prawn recipe, for shellfish lovers! I have used coconut milk in this recipe, but if you are not a huge coconut lover, or do not want that flavour, just substitute the coconut milk with single or double cream!!

Ingredients:

400g King Prawns, washed with turmeric and salt
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
Pinch fennel seeds
2 bay leaves
1 and 1/2 medium onions pureed
5 cloves garlic and 1/2 inch ginger, pureed
Salt to taste
3 tbsp chopped tomatoes
1 tbsp mustard sauce
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 can coconut milk
Drizzle of ghee
1/2 tsp garam masala
Chopped coriander and chillies (optional) to garnish

Firstly peel your prawns, then wash with a pinch of salt and turmeric.

In a karahi, take your oil and add your cumin seeds, fennel seeds and bay leaves and fry for 30 seconds. Add your pureed onions and stir fry for 3 - 4 minutes. Then add your garlic and ginger puree and fry for another 3 minutes until raw taste goes. Add salt to taste, then add your tomatoes and cook for a further 4 - 5 minutes until tomatoes soften and oil separates. Then add your mustard sauce, turmeric powder and chilli powder and a little water and stir well. Cook for a further 5 minutes until mix comes away from the sides of the pan.

Then add your washed prawns and mix and cook on low heat for about 5 - 7 minutes until almost fully cooked. Add your coconut milk and stir very well. Cook on high flame for further 2 - 3 minutes, then pour a drizzle of ghee to finish off, and a pinch of garam masala powder. Turn the heat off and garnish with coriander and chillies.

Serve with plain basmati rice!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz ❤

Aloo mattar shingara

For a chill and chat at my son's pre nursery, i thought i would take some nibbles. One of them is my chicken keema kebabs - so tasty and easy to make and another is an aloo mattar (peas) shingara, which is a cone style samosa with a nice pastry. Only way i can describe it! To make this, you need:

Aloo and mattar filling:

2 medium potatoes, cubed
2 tbsp. Oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 large onion, finely chopped
Salt to taste
3 green chillies, finely sliced
Handful chopped coriander
1 tsp. Turmeric powder
1 tsp. Kashmiri red chilli powder
1 tsp. Cumin powder
1 tsp. Coriander powder
1/4 tsp. Garam masala powder
1 cup frozen peas

Pastry:

1 cup plain flour
1 tbsp. Fine semolina
1/4 tsp. Salt
2 tbsp. Oil
1/3 cup lukewarm water (approximately)

Firstly take your cubed potatoes and put onto the boil.

In a frying pan, take your oil and fry your minced garlic. Once browned, add your onions, salt and green chillies and fry for about 10 minutes until soft and brown.

Once browned, add your chopped coriander and stir for 30 seconds. Then add your powdered spices and add a little water so spices do not burn. After about 5 minutes, add your frozen peas and cook for 5 minutes. Then add your drained potatoes and stir well. Cover and cook for 10 minutes on low heat until the mixture is well cooked and a little mashed. If not mashed, then mash a little using a spoon.

Take off heat and allow to cool slightly whilst you make your pastry.

In a bowl take all your pastry ingredients except for the oil and water. Mix dry ingredients well then add the oil. Mix well with your fingers, then slowly add the water to the dry ingredients until you have a very soft dough. You may not use all the water (i didn't). Once you have a soft dough, cover the dough ball with a wet kitchen towel, then rest for 15 minutes.

Adter 15 minutes, divide your dough into 12 equal sized balls.

Dip the ball into a little plain flour, and roll into an approximately 4 inch circle. Take a knife then cut the pastry in half. Dabbing your finger in a little water, apply to half of the straight edge, then fold in half rolling the semi circle pastry into a cone. Press the wet edge with the dry edge and pinch the point. Turn it over and hold cone with open edge at the top. Fill with your now warm filling, then using more water, apply to one edge of the open pastry and press both sides together making sure they stick and there are no holes.

That's it. Complete until you have finished all the shingara's, and you should get roughly 24 from this mixture. Fry and serve with a chutney, or freeze and serve when you have guests!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz 💙

Mango phirni

I've been making a few sweet dishes for my son's upcoming birthday party, dishes which can be kept in the fridge for a few days without going bad.

I tried this recipe out a few months ago, and it was a hit with my family, but i think with a few tweaks it would have been much better. So i have done it again today, and am very happy with my accomplishment.

Traditionally served at weddings, this is a very easy recipe sure to wow whoever you cook it for. It is the proper way phirni should be, with small, broken grains of rice, only with the addition of alphonso mango. Mmmmmm.

To make this, you need:

4 tbsp. Basmati rice, washed and soaked for at least an hour
1 litre full fat milk
1 cup sugar
Alphonso mango chunky puree (fresh if it's the season otherwise use tinned) - add to taste
Blanched cashews and pistachios for garnishing (optional)

Pre soaking your rice is very important as this will soften the grains enough to break them when you use a blender. In a blender, add your rice and enough water to cover and pulse until rice is broken, but not completely blended. You want to be able to still feel the texture of the broken rice between your fingers and not to completely break down.

In a non stick pan, heat up your milk until boiling, turn heat down and allow to simmer for 5 - 10 minutes, constantly stirring so the milk does not stick to the pan.

Once milk has thickened just slightly, mix your rice mixture to get rid of lumps, then add to your milk and constantly keep stirring so rice does not stick to the pan. Increase the heat to about medium now and you should slowly start to feel the milk and rice thickening.

Continue stirring, until you can see the rice grains grow in size and you can see the mixture coating your spoon. Keep watching the heat and adjust where needed. You do not want to burn this mixture. Once the rice is almost cooked (you will be able to tell by the texture), add your sugar and stir well.

Turn off the heat once the phirni texture is almost there (it will thicken more when it cools), and add your mango blend (i put 5 pieces of tinned mango and pulsed in a mixer so it wasn't a smooth puree but remained quite chunky) according to taste (dependent on how sweet you want it). Mix well and pour into your individual containers, or serve in bowls.

I found that my family preferred it cold as opposed to hot so i put mine in the fridge. It's completely up to you and your preferences!

Hope you enjoy!

Yaz 💙