Crab Manchurian

My schedule just got busier with enrollment into a new program..Kids summer vacation is going fab..sure it deserves more time of attention from parents..so that explains my absence for a few weeks on my space. Nevertheless here is another delectable Manchurian recipe which I churned out.

More than eating, kids love watching live crabs in the store or I have fun when I break open one frozen crab box and try to scare them with the claws..

When I lived in Chennai, there was this cute restaurant close to my place which served amazing Crab Manchurian made with dragon crabs..Ever since I wanted to duplicate it in my kitchen too..

Ingredients:
1 Box of Ceylon Crabs or Dragon variety (say around 2 lbs, cleaned)
To deep fry crabs:
2 tbsp Corn Flour
2 Tbsp cup All Purpose Flour (optional)
A pinch of black pepper
1 tsp each of ginger garlic powder or paste
Salt to taste
Enough oil to deep fry

Sauces:2 Tbsp Soya Sauce

2 Chilli Garlic Sauce

1 Tsp Worchester sauce
2 Tbsp Tomato sauce or ketchup

Others:1 Tbsp Oil
5 big Garlic pods chopped finely
1/2 cup Green Onions chopped
5 Green Chillies cut diagonally
1 Sweet Green Peppers

Procedure:Make a batter in a bowl with all the to fry list ingredients. Add crab pieces to it and mix well to coat them evenly.
Deep fry the crab in batches for 5-7 minutes and keep them aside.
Heat oil in a pan, add garlic, fry till slightly brown. Add green chillies and fry.
Add sweet peppers and stir fry till edges turn brown on high heat..
Remove the sweet peppers alone and keep aside.
Now add all the sauces, one by one and mix.
Add a little water to make a sauce gravy.

Add salt

Now add deep-fried grab, and carefully mix to coat the crab evenly with the Manchurian gravy sauce.
Cook for another 5 minutes till the gravy is sticking to the crab pieces, mix regularly.
Add water while stirring, if necessary.
Now add the stir fried green peppers and chopped green onions and mix again.
Remove from heat and serve with veg fried rice.(Will post the fried rice in my next post)

Curried Shark Scramble or Sura Puttu or Sorra Pidupu

India's version of Academy Awards is about to roll out its the red carpet here in Toronto. The stage is all set for the North American debut of the annual IIFA awards at the Rogers Centre.
With Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez hosting the Much Music Video Awards, Sunday last and the Bollywood much hyped IIFA this Saturday, its a star studded week here in the City.

My recipe this week is also a Signature Star Dish in Seafood mostly in my home state Andhra. Adherently cherished in my childhood days. In fact his was one of the best Seafood delicacy my mom(Amma) used to cook. The unusual way of preparing the seafood in this variety used to draw attention and a curious me was totally taken for a suprise the with the exceptional taste of this delightful recipe.

I completely duplicated her version here. We in Toronto Area are fortunate enough to get fresh shark in most of the Asian Stores. So once in a while I make this fish scramble curry, famously known as Sura puttu in Tamil and Sorra pittu in Telugu.
This is one main course dish to accompany with hot Andhra masoori rice and Sambar(Pappu pulusu). For those who follow low carb diet, skip the rice and make a milder version of this scramble to eat with steamed or stir fry veggies.

Ingredients :
1 lb Shark piece w/ or w/o skin
2 Tbsp oil
2 large Onions diced
6-8 hot Green Chillies
10 - 15 Curry leaves
2 Tbsp Ginger Garlic Paste
1 tsp Turmeric powder
Salt to taste
Freshly chopped coriander to garnish.


Procedure:
Bring 3/4 saucepan of water to boil and add the Shark Chunk along with half of the turmeric powder and some salt.
With closed lid, steam the fish till it is fully cooked.
Remove from water and take of skin if necessary.
Now scramble the fish log into small pieces. Reserve the bones too.
Keep aside.
Mean while, in a wide pan, heat oil and add onions, green chillies, curry leaves and saute' till the onions are translucent.
Now add ginger garlic paste and fry till rawness is gone.
Add turmeric powder and salt and fry.
Now add the scrambled fish and mix thoroughly till all the fish is coated with the masala.
Cover and let the spice flavours be induced into the fish, and the fishy smell gone and the delectable aroma of dish sets in.
Garnish with fresh coriander leaves and remove form heat.
Serve with rice and sambar.

Beerkaya Royyalu / Ridge Gourd Prawns Curry

Absolutely enjoying "Fall", specially when I jog my first grader to school in the morning. Trees with leaves changing colors, a blanket of fallen dried leaves on the ground, got to take the fullest of the season, before cold winter sets in.

Seasonal changes bring change in the way we cook food too. From outdoors BBQs to strict indoor dishes. Most of my indoor cooking is Desi style which requires preparation. Its not like you are hungry and you just sandwiched slices of buttered multi grain bread with a slice of ham, cheese with some lettuce. Your meal is ready to go. Indian cooking is all about intensity, flavour, spice, lots of ingredients and time to cook them up. But its worth the wait, because of the exceptional taste.

This is one Andhra preparation which puts all together with end result being irresistible. Its so strange that I have never tasted this dish whenever my mother cooked it growing up, in fact for some reason I was so averted towards it. but since its was known for its taste, after so many years I cooked it to see what comes of it..and honestly it lived up to its popularity. And this can just be eaten up with plain rice. But let me warn you for the temptation of over-eating here, which is why I don't cook this curry so often, it would disturb my diet of  keeping my serving of rice under one cup per day.

The ridge gourd (Beerakaya in Telugu) forms a creamy base for the curried shrimp. A real match that you are so tempted to call heavenly. Well, ridge gourd is such a versatile vegetable that it embraces any other ingredient, be it veg or non-veg to be subtle and yet give a wholesome lift to the dish. More delicacies of ridge gourd I would be blogging are with Kheema, mutton, Channa dhal..

Now lets is the making of Prawns with Ridge gourd.


Ingredients:
2 big - Beerakaya/ Ridge Gourd / Beerkankai (De-skinned and chopped into small cubes)
1 to 1.5 lb Prawns / Shrimp (De-shelled, De-veined)
2 tsp oil
2 medium Onions chopped
4-5 Green Chillies slit
A Few Curry leaves
1 Tbsp Ginger garlic paste
1/2 tsp Red chilly powder
A pinch of garam masala powder
Salt to taste
Finely chopped fresh coriander leaves to garnish

To marinate shrimp :
1 tsp red chilly powder
1/2 tsp each of cumin and coriander powder
1/2 tsp Turmeric
Little Salt
A splash of oil to put all together

Procedure :
Clean prawns and marinate with the marinade items..keep aside.

In a hot pan add oil and add the marinated prawns and stir fry them till all the water evaporates and a beautiful aroma comes out. Remove from pan and keep aside

In the same pan add some more oil, add chopped onions, slit green chillies, curry leaves, and cook till onions are translucent.

Add ginger garlic paste and cook till rawness is gone.

Add chopped ridge gourd pieces, salt mix together and cook covered, till ridge gourd is half done.

Then add the stir fried prawns, little water and cook covered till the gourd and prawns are fully done.

Add finely chopped coriander and remove from heat.

Serve it with plain cooked basmati, ponni or sona masoori rice.

Koduva meen kuzhambu/Sea Bass Fish Stew

This is one simple and easy to make fish gravy..off course again grandma's style. I was so impressed by this fresh Koduva(Sea Bass)fish on my visit to the supermarket, that I immediately picked it up a thick steak, got it cut into lumpy cubes and returned home and made this super gravy in no time. Koduva or Sea bass is one among the top fish varieties besides Vanjiram(King fish), Viraal(Murrel, Vavval(Pomfret), Sura(baby Shark), Sankara(Red Snipper), Mathi(Sardines) Nathili(Anchovies)that we get in South India. Luckily in Toronto we are able to get all of them except Viraal meen. I did post some of these fish gravies already. Hope to post rest of them in the future.

These fish cubes reminded me of my trip to the fish market with my granny in childhood days. Granny use to have a regular fish vendor lady..who use to keep the best king fish steak for her. She would cut it into symmetrical cubes once we purchased it. Then after coming home I use to watch granny wash these fish cubes by adding rock salt, then rinse it with water and then add cut onions, green chillies,curry leaves home made red chilly powder, salt, oil, tangy tamarind juice and mix it..then she use to give me some of that raw juice to taste..and trust me this juice was good in itself even before it boiled and became fish gravy. The washing of the fish in rock salt and adding all those masalas would really take off the raw fishy smell. And now it just takes another 10-15 minutes for the gravy to be ready to enjoy with hot rice. I missed these childhood precious moments when I was making gravy with these fish cubes. Though I used koduva(Tamil) fish, but it so much resembled king fish gravy that grandma made..Luv you granny!!!

Ingredients:
2 lbs Koduva/Sea Bass fish cubes
1 Tbsp - Rock Salt
1 Tbsp - oil
1 Medium - Onion sliced
4 Green Chillies
10 Curry leaves
2 tsp - Homemade Red Chilly powder
Soak Lemon size Tamarind/Puli/Chintapandu ball in 2 cups hot water
Salt to taste
Coriander leaves - a small bunch

Procedure:
Place the fish cubes in deep pot/saucepan, add rock salt and whisk fish with fingers to melt salt.
This procedure cleans the fish and takes off the raw smell.
Add water and wash the fish cubes and drain.
Now combine fish with green chillies, onions, curry leaves, red chilly powder, salt, oil and mix thoroughly with fingers not breaking the cubes.
Now squeeze the Tamarind/Puli juice from the soaked tamarind & water into this mixture.
Now mix this well and bring it boil, Once the gravy seems to attain a good consistency add the coriander leaves and remove from heat.
Serve with hot rice, dosas or idlies.

Spicy Crab Curry - South Indian Style

The only seafood I use to enjoy in my childhood days was fish and shrimp/prawns. Though rarely my mom used to cook crabs I never did dared to taste it..
Firstly because of their severe smell and next I couldn't understand how the heck we eat it...You have to keep cracking the shell of its legs and body to get to its flesh...It looked tedious to me and more over I thought who kicked me for such an adventure...until one day after I got married my husband made a crab curry that broke of the shell of me not trying them. That was the tastiest seafood I had tasted. I think I got more fascinated by the thick gravy that he prepared for the crabs...Ever since I started trying them...AND in these 10-11 years of marriage I would have eaten them 10-15 times...Mostly we cook them at home..but there use to be one Malayalee restaurant in Chennai, which use to have Crab Manchurian on their menu which use to be exceptionally great. One other place was the Nagapattam seashore, Tamil Nadu India...I should say one of best places to enjoy seafood..their fish and Nandu(crabs) are irresistible..accompanied with Kothuroti(mashed egg parota w/ choice of meat/chicken) and mutte dosa(thin egg dosa) with mild yet spicy fish gravy..

So Crab/Nandu(Tamil)/Peethalu(Telugu) is one seafood which comes with a reciting story in my life. I made it only a few times after I came to this part of the world. Guess I'm not so fortunate enough to get those live jumbo crabs. So have to rely on the small or medium size frozen box crabs...

This recipe is not the exact one that my hubby made the first time. Nevertheless it tastes good too.

Ingredients:
1 box Frozen crabs cleaned
3 Tbsp oil(canola/olive)
3 medium onions
6-8 green chillies
200 gms coconut
1 tbsp rice flour
200gms crushed tomato puree
2 Tbsp ginger garlic paste
3/4 tsp fennel seeds
10 - 12 curry leaves
a bunch of coriander leaves - finely chopped.
Spice powders:
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp chilly powder
1 tsp each cumin & coriander powders (optional)

Salt to taste

Procedure:
Defrost, clean and wash the crabs and keep them separate. You can add a Little turmeric, chilly and salt to marinate them as we are working on the gravy for them.
De skin onions and cut them into cubes, add the fennel seeds and grind them to a fine paste...keep aside
Add the slit green chillies to the crated coconut and make a smooth paste
Now in a wok or kadai, heat oil and then add the onion fennel paste. cook this for 3-5 mins till the rawness of the onion is gone. Now add ginger garlic paste and cook for 2 mins.
Add curry leaves and saute'
Add turmeric and fry for a min.
Add coconut and chilly paste and cook for 3-5 mins
Now add the tomato puree and cook for 5-6 mins or till the mixtures leaves the oils.
Now add all the malasa powders and some salt, mix well. cook for 2 mins till nice aroma is achieved.
Now add the crabs and the remaining salt and mix well till all the crabs are well coated with the gravy mixture.
Sprinkle 1/2 cup water and cook on medium heat till the crabs change color and appeared to be cooked, about 5-7 minutes.
Once the crabs are almost done, add the rice flour to thicken the gravy and make it stick to the crabs.
Add the chopped coriander leaves and remove for heat.
This is one richly flavoured and aromatic dish.
In my experience this crab preparation is best combo with Egg fired rice and a papad. The thick gravy that is dressing the crabs perfectly goes with the mild fried rice and scrambled papad.

Deep Fried Breaded Shrimp

There is'nt any of us who visit the Chinese buffet or restaurant and wouldn't serve or order for deep fried breaded prawns/shrimp. Cause I'm not a restaurant freak, always wanted to try these at home... and finally made it, and got it right the first time.

Ingredients:
1 lb Jumbo Shrimp,Deshelled,tailed
1 cup Flour,
1 Egg beaten
1 Cup Japanese Bread Crumbs, (Avialable in Asian Stores)
(Please do not use the regular bread crumbs or should I say Bread powder)
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 tsp Lemon Pepper (Optional)
Oil for deep frying.
Sauces (Optional)
1 Tbsp Soy Sause
1 Tbsp Oyster Sause
1 Tbsp Worcester Sause
1 Tbsp Teriyaki Sause

Procedure:
Make a marinade with the sauces if using. Keep aside
Add salt, Black pepper, Lemon Pepper (if using) to the shrimp to coat them well.
Now add shrimp to the marinade, keep aside for 10 minutes or so.



Heat oil in deep frying pan.
Now take each shrimp from the marinade, coat it first with Flour, then Egg, and finally with bread crumbs.
Deep fry in hot oil, for 5 minutes or so.
Drain from oil and serve with choice of your sauces.

What can be more comforting food than these breaded shrimps. Therefore I'm sending this to Meeta, who is hosting the Monthly Mingle - Comfort Foods.

This can be an Evening snack, Starter or even go with the main course with some seasoned rice. We enjoyed these with the Cabbage fried rice.

I'll post the Cabbage Fried Receipe next.

Curried Shrimp Noodles - for Click

This is one of most frequent method I follow to make noodles at home. It derived from the left over or kept aside curried shrimp. I don't like noodles if they retain there noodles smell(that raw vermicelli smell)in them. And those days when I didn't know to make any kind noodle dishes, the only way to take away the nooldes smell was to cook them with shrimp. So the aroma of shrimp would fill the dish and give it a real lift.

Infact I never ate noodles before I was married. Somehow I thought they don't taste good. Then came these days in India where very street was infested with the noodles fast food points. And my hubby who is a huge fan of noodles forced me one day to try them and I began to like them. But even now they have to be Indianized. The best style of noodles I enjoy is the "Indian Hakka style mixed noodles".

My recipe here is complete with seafood and vegies. A perfect meal by itself. Enjoyed by all at home. All the three boys at home like shrimp and noodles. So can't ask for anything better.

I usually add the shrimp which are curried alreadly. Check for the Curried Tomatoe Shrimp recipe by clicking the shrimp bowl down here.
Ingredients:
1 Packet Egg Noodles cooked
1 lb Shrimp Curry or even plain shrimp will do.
2 tsp oil
5 garlic pods
1 big onion cut into breath-wise thin slices
3-5 green chilles cut into thin strips
1 cup each thinly sliced carrots, beans, brocolli, peppers,( add more vegies if desried)
2 - tsp Soy sauce
2 tbp tomatoe ketchup
Salt to taste
Finely chopped coriander leaves - a few
Procecure:
Add the noodles in the boiling water to cook them and then stain the water and keep aside.
Heat oil in a kadai, add chopped garlic, saute, add green chillies saute a till and then add the onions.
Saute the onions to coat them with the oil and the flavour of garlic and chilly.
Before the onions loose their crunchiness add all the vegies and strir fry them adding required salt.
Now add the Tomatoe shrimp Curry and fry it well the vegies.
If you don't have the pre-cooked shrimp tomatoe curry, you can add the raw shrimp and add 3 tbps of tomatoe paste and 1/2 tsp of chilly powder to substitute.
Now add the cooked strained noodles, more salt for the noodles, soy souce, and mix well.
Add the tomatoe ketchup mix again and then garnish with finely chopped coriander before removing from heat.
Curried Shrimp Noodles is ready to be served hot.

This goes to Bee & Jai of Jugalbandi for the Event - Click Noodles.
Not to compete and win any badges but just to participate.

Hope you like my Shrimp round up.

Shrimp Tamatar Curry

This is my first NV dish after I started regular blogging. Though I posted some before this, I feel awkward to publish non-veg food posts that they may embrass my vegie foodies. But then I can't leave out my NV foodies too, right. Moreover these days most of the NV blogs have blogged about shrimp or prawns and its my turn now.

So here you go all my seafood lovers, especially who just drool for Shrimp, here is my version of Tamatar Shrimp Curry.
I really miss those fresh small prawns back home. Their flavour, taste absolutely adorable. Enough if I manage to buy fresh ones here they can't come upto that taste.

Its so amazing with shrimp/prawn or as a matter of fact any seafood, how the raw shrimpy/fishy smell turns into mind blowing oroma when they are cooked the right way.

Back home we pay these vendors to clean the shrimps. But here if we are not buying the cleaned frozen ones( they don't have the right texture for the curry recipe) we have to do it oursevles. Never in my life would I have dreamt of cleaning prawns. The look of them use to scare me before they are de-shelled. And here I'm all diligently cleaning them if I want to have a shrimp treat. Cause it takes patience to de-shell and more if we want to de-vein them. Although most of the time it is my D.Hubby filling this post for me. Cause he loves seafood, and not to mention "shrimp". So if he wants a treat this is part it.

Well this is what life is... we have to do things sometimes even though we don't like to do. And we eventually learn the lesson that is was not so difficult than we thought and also to receive we have to give.

Now coming to recipe, Shrimp can taste good even with the fewest spices added to them and just sauted. But this is one of the methods I use to make the taste excellent.
Ingredients:

1 lb deshelled shrimp/prawns (de-vein them if desired)
3 big - Tomatoes cut into small cubes
2 big - Onions finely cut
3 pods - Garlic finely chooped
4 medium - Green chilies Slit
1 reem - Curry leaves
1 tsp - Red chilly powder (increase if you want it spicy)
2 Tbp - Oil
Salt - to taste
Finely chopped - coriander leaves( keep the stem part seperate)

Procedure:
Heat up a kadai(pot) add oil, when oil is heated add garlic, saute and then add green chillies, saute and add the onions & curry leaves.
Fry the onions till translucent. Throw in the stems(cut into small) of the corainder leaves at this time.
This is my personal observation...Usually we put the Coriander leaves at the end, but in this recipe, if we add the stem part while frying the onions, it gives a very exotic oroma which is carried thru the finish of the dish. So this Shrimp carry is almost coriander flavoured along with tomatoes,
Now add the tomatoes and cook them well till they loose their shape and the mixture in the kadai almost looks like a paste.
Add in the red chilly powder and salt, mix well till all the masala goes into the mixture and the raw smell goes away.
Now add the cleaned shrimp and mix well to coat them evenly with the masala.
Add a bit of water if you want this dish to be on a gravy side.
Cover and cook for 7 - 10 minutes.
Once the shrimp is cooked and the gravy starts sticking to them, garnish with the coriander leaves and remove from heat.

Though this is a simple preparation, the taste is extremely commendable.

This goes good just with plain rice, or rice wiht rasam or sambar. The gravy is good to eat with Idilies, dosa or chapati, roti.

So this being such a versatile side dish, should be cherished for sure.