Since my arrival in KL, I have had an amazing food journey. This city is a melting pot of culture & thanks to that I have experienced not just Malay but Korean, Thai, Taiwanese, Indonesian, Cantonese, Singaporean & many more such cuisines. So mostly when the husband & I go out on weekends for dinner, we end up gorging on these. Someday I really wish to learn how to cook authentic Indonesian cuisine. I am so much in love with it because of its resemblance with Indian food, especially in the use of spices. Every dish bursting with flavours & there is a generous use of peanuts, cumin, chillis, coriander seeds, coconut, lime, shallots & peppers. See I told you! We Indians use all these ingredients for our daily meals.
Prawn Satay is one of my favourites. I have always had a weakness for prawns & this dish is exceptional but if you want to get the authentic taste then you must try it at some local joint instead of a fancy restaurant. I promise to share an authentic recipe of this dish soon.
So yes why am I telling you all this is because today I’ll be sharing a brilliant prawn recipe. An authentic dish from Bengal, India. I love how my ma or my mashi (mom’s sister) makes it & I am simply going to recreate it without making any changes. I guess few things are better left untouched to preserve tradition & nostalgia in my case 🙂
So Shorshe Chingri it is! This is a quintessential dish which every bengali worth his salt will have on the menu on any special occasion. The tartness of the mustard sauce will make your tastebuds dance 🙂 The word ‘shorshe’ means mustard & ‘bhape’ means steamed in English. So this dish is originally prepared in a steamer but I made it in a microwave & it tasted equally good.
Ingredients:
- 15 medium to big sized prawns
- 2 tbsp black mustard seeds
- 4-5 green chillis
- 4 tbsp mustard oil
- 1/2 tsp turmeric powder
- Salt to taste
For this recipe its very important to use fresh prawns. Avoid frozen ones if possible.
Such beauties 😉
Now wash the prawns & remove their shells. Carefully de-vein them. This step should be done without fail to avoid any allergic reaction.
Now for the mustard paste- take 2 tbsp of mustard seeds in a bowl. Add 1 green chilli, some salt and a little warm water and keep aside for about 30 mins. Grind them into a smooth paste. You can add some more water if the mustard is too pungent for you. These days, mustard powder is readily available in the market & you just need to add some water to make a paste and use it.
Now in a microwave safe bowl, add the prawns, salt, turmeric powder, slit green chillis, mustard paste and mustard oil. Mix well and keep aside for 30 mins.
Now cover the bowl with a lid and cook for about 4-5 mins on high power. Take it out, give it a good stir & again cook for another 4 mins. Don’t overcook as the prawns will become hard.
Just before serving, drizzle some mustard oil for that extra kick. Serve hot with rice.
I quickly flipped through the pages of my recipe diary, hoping to find at least one cake recipe baked in a cooker/ pan & voila!! I had actually noted down a very simple sponge cake recipe by celebrity Indian chef Rakesh Sethi long back & it came to my rescue today 🙂 He baked it in a cooker but I baked mine in a deep bottomed pan. My cooker wasn’t wide enough to place the cake tin inside. Worked perfectly fine, just that took double the time. One thing I can assure you that there couldn’t possibly be any simpler sponge cake recipe that is fantastic to taste as well. Do try it at your home. I slightly modified the recipe to suit my taste & diet needs 😉
the bruised frypan 