Something new something fresh–part 4

Yes its Thursday,(But Iam still thinking of it as late late Wednesday night so I can tell myself I made the Wednesday blog post).Iam putting together "Something New Something fresh part-4" at this unearthly hour ,that's how much I love this weekly feature. Incase you are wondering why I didn't feature this on Wednesday, here's my excuse ..Iam still celebrating my bday which mostly turns out to be week long, thats how lucky Iam :))(Read more here.)



And today Iam very happy to introduce you to my friend Ishita. This Leo Lawyer was born on August 15th(fantastic coincidence)and is a wonderful girl.If you read my blog ,you would know that she's the one who's baby shower we celebrated in March.(Read more here.)We have known each other a while and we are close now,close enough for me to think of her like a younger sister:)She's smart,spirited and knows how to speak her mind and I really like that about her.In June, she's going to be mommy to a baby Marisha:) Can't wait to see the little rock star.


Ishita and Me

This Bengali lioness loves Seafood and cooks it really well.So I pestered her to give me this recipe and she was sweet enough to give it to me right away. Thanks Ishi!Its called Bhapa Chingri (steam cooked prawns in Mustard sauce)and its delicious. I don't need to say anything because the picture from Chef Ishita says all:)

You need:
10-15 Prawns(depending on the size)- shelled, washed and deveined
1-1.5 tbsp - Mustard seeds
4-6 - green chillies
2 tbsp of coconut powder
2 tbsp of coconut milk (Ishita uses both as the coconut milk adds flavor and the powder adds to the texture of the sauce)
mustard oil(it is important to use mustard oil as it adds to the pungent taste which is the speciality of the dish)
turmeric powder
salt to taste

This is how you make it
After the prawns have been cleaned and washed, marinate it with salt and turmeric powder and keep aside. In a spice/coffee grinder, take the mustard seeds and grind it dry till it forms a fine paste. For the last few seconds put in 2-3 green chillies in the same grinder and grind it together with the mustard seeds. Take out the mixture and soak it in enough water to form a paste & keep aside.
Now, in a small to medium size stainless steel air tight box, coat the bottom slightly with mustard oil. now add the prawns, coconut powder, coconut milk mustard paste, salt to taste and turmeric to the box. Add a little water but not too much. Before shutting the lid, add a little extra mustard oil to the dish along with the rest of the green chillies slit vertically.
Place the tightly shut box on a bed of water in a large skillet and put it on medium high heat. as the water boils, it will heat up the box and cook the shrimps. Ensure that the skillet does not run out of water. Cook for 10-13 minutes(shrimp takes very little time to cook) and then take the box out of the water. leave the lid on till the box cools down and then open.

Enjoy the shrimp in mustard sauce with plain white/brown rice.

Bhapa Chingri

When it rains it pours

Pun Intended :)) I fell sick for about 10 days and then was recovering and then before I got in any kind of shape to post, my laptop gave up on me .I am working from a loaner right now and don't have access to a lot of my food pictures and thats why you saw hardly any posts from me this past week so I do have a lot of recipes to share...SOB! SOB!

But I have been well, alive and definitely kicking. Today is my birthday and Iam blessed to have a wonderful husband, family and friends who have things planned for me through the week. I look forward to returning with lots of pics from this week, eating at different restaurants and sharing those stories with you all :)


Cheers :))

I also wanted to thank Priya for giving me the "I love your blog" award. Priya thanks so being such a sweetheart and honoring me.I also ,really like your blog.You can follow Priya's blog here.



Will return with a ton of pictures and stories next week. Till then, watch this space for my "cooking with friends" section tomorrow, where I feature another wonderful friend and her recipe

Something new something fresh–part 3

Dear friends,I am stoked at your comments and words of encouragement on this series. It has galvanized me and I hope to feature more and more of my friends every Wednesday. It was such a bummer that I missed last week’s entry but you all know why that was:) I am just very glad to be back and posting again. Check out part 1 here.and part 2 here from the Something new something fresh series.



So without further ado, let’s just jump right in and I’ll introduce you to today’s Chef. She is..... Aparna.Will you believe me if I tell you, that we have never met...even once.Yet, I feel like we have known each other for many years!!She lives thousands of miles across the world and we are connected only through the world wide web and yet we’ve been friends for 4 yrs now.I look at that as an achievement in itself. Wouldn't you:)?

We met on a social networking site,decided to take a chance on each other and look how that chance paid off ..because today I consider her a really good friend (we have talked about all things under the sun). She recently got married to the love of her life V,who’s a great guy and also a very good cook.Needless to say, Iam very happy for this creative and artistic woman. All the very best on the exciting new chapter in your life, my friend :))


Aparna on her engagement day, Feb 09

Aparna's recipe has a fabulous name.It's called Ali Nazik and is a Turkish dish. (Aparna had this dish at a friend's place and loved the taste so decided to make it herself. She customized it’s a bit to suit her taste buds and it turned out well despite apprehensions). The dish is served in 2 layers on a serving dish. First comes the vegetarian part of it, and the beef part is layered on top of that. This sounds so yummy that I have to try it soon.Let’s get cooking

You need:
For the beef preparation:
260gm ground beef (you could use ground lamb if you don't have beef).
1 medium onion, chopped.
2 medium tomatoes, diced.

For the vegetarian preparation:
3 medium sized egg plants.
5 green capsicums.
6 cloves of garlic, chopped.
200gm yogurt (you could reduce or increase this as per your liking).

Spices and garnish:
(The measurements for garnish and spices vary according to personal liking.)
A bunch of parsley, chopped.
5 to 6 green chillies - sliced.
1 teaspoon of black pepper.
2 teaspoons of chilli powder.
1 teaspoon of coriander powder (a spice that i added on my own).
Salt (as per taste).
Around 4 tablespoons of olive oil.


This is how you make it
The Vegetables
Broil the eggplants and capsicums in the oven. (If you like her, don't have an oven, you could roast them over open flame, something that's done for making baingan-bharta, but without the oil).
After the vegetables have cooled down, peel off the burnt layers. Rinse in water.
Dice the capsicums and the egg plant pulp and mix them up together.

(Note: Usually, the capsicum-eggplant mix is not cooked over flame. Rather, olive oil, chopped garlic, chilli powder is mixed into the mix. She wasn't sure, how well she would have taken to the 'raw' taste of the mixture, hence this variant.)

In a deep pan, add 2 tablespoons of olive oil over medium flame.
Add the chopped garlic and saute (don't let the garlic bits burn).
Add in the eggplant capsicum mix into this, stir will. Add in salt as per your taste and chilli powder. Stir and mix everything well.
Take the mixture off the flame. Add in yogurt (as mentioned before, you can reduce or increase the amount of yogurt; depends on your personal liking). Make sure that the yogurt is not watery. The mix that you get by adding the yogurt should be of a nice and thick consistency.
Transfer this mix to the serving dish.

The Beef
Saute the chopped onion in 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a deep pan over medium heat.
Add in the diced tomatoes.
Add salt (as per taste), coriander powder, black pepper powder.
Keep stirring for a while so that the spices mix well with the onion and tomatoes.
Add in the ground beef and keep stirring until cooked.(Note: Its okay to add in some water in between, just make sure that the beef preparation is not 'watery' in the end).
After the beef is done, layer this beef mixture over the eggplant-capsicum mixture that you had put into the serving dish.
Garnish with chopped parsley and sliced green chillies.ENJOY


AliNazik

Back (with a Bang I hope)

One terrible week and Iam back as promised. This flu was quite persistent ,just didn't want to leave me the heck alone:) After losing my voice and trying to eat food that mostly tasted like cardboard ..I am raring to go to the kitchen and conjure the spiciest thing I can think of, but Iam still recovering and my system is not yet ready for that spicy jolt so I'll take it easy and graduate to some interesting food soon:))

Good to be back and THANKS so so much for your love, support and good wishes .Means the world to me and I REALLY appreciate it. Recipes coming soon:)