Mango Cream Prawns

Prawns and mango make a great combination and the last time I did a series on raw mangoes, I somehow left out the prawns. Ever since I have been itching to do something with raw mangoes and prawn. Last evening I did just that. My brother is a huge football fan, a good player too and he was rather kicked last evening with  Real Madrid set to take on Bayern Munich in the Champions League semi finals scheduled for later in the evening. A good dish of prawns would only add to the mood, I thought. By the way we are Real Madrid fans. Of course, till then we had no idea we'll have a reason to celebrate too.

Besides, there was that carton of cream I had to finish. Yesterday was the deadline. So I whipped up this dish which had prawns in a light and subtly flavoured mango and cream muddle. It is a great dish for the summers when you do not want to eat food that's too spicy. And it is by far one of the simplest recipes I have come up with.My Dad loved it and hope you will too. Only a few ingredients and one light and delicious dish coming up!

Ingredients

Prawns (heads removed) - 600 g
Ginger-garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Fresh Cream - 3/4 cup
Raw mango - 1
Green chilies - 5-6
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Mustard oil

Method 

Grate the raw mango. In a grinder grind the grated raw mango with a  couple of green chilies in a smooth paste. Add the cream and give it a quick whirl. Remove in a bowl and keep.

Heat mustard oil in a pan. Add the ginger-garlic paste and fry for a couple of minutes. Add the prawns and cook for a few minutes. Once the prawns releases it juices and turn opaque add the mango cream, rest of the green chilies finely chopped, salt and sugar. Reduce heat and let it simmer for a few minutes.

Remove and serve with plain rice.

Eggstravaganza: Eggs and peppers in a mustard cream sauce

The other day one of my school friends came over for lunch. We had grown rather close in the last couple of years in school and have been in touch ever since, sporadically though. I met only twice in these nine years since we finished school. Nine Years? Woah! Anyway, so I was rather excited. I had promised to cook for her and I had planned out a rather extensive menu. Guess what I ended up serving just three dishes of which one doesn't count as a dish proper. No I was not lazy, only she had picked the hottest day of the year up till now at least, to visit. The kitchen was nothing less than an inferno and I was almost nauseous. So I decided a light pulao and a chicken I make was all I was making. Besides, my friend is a small eater and she had already warned me against too much to eat. I slipped in a typical mango chutney we Bengalis swear by.
     Now this particular chicken dish requires fresh cream. Not much, about two tablespoons for the quantity I was making. Half way through the dish I realised I had no cream in the fridge. So I sent one of our helps to get a pack of Amul cream. He returned an hour and a half later, panting and sweating, with no cream. I had turned off the stove and was in a panic mode by then. Now that he had returned without the cream I was hysterical. He said he had tried 7 different shops but couldn't find cream, there was apparently no supply. So there I was pacing about the dining room, stomping about actually, cursing my stars etc when my Mum said that there was perhaps one place where cream would be available. New Market. Yeah right, that place, that heaven of a market is 15 km from my place and considering the weekday traffic it wouldn't take less than an hour and a half to get cream for there, cream I would need 2 tablespoons of. But hello, we are talking about a school friend coming over for lunch here, so New Market it was.
     So Shambhu Da, God bless him, took a metro to New Market and got me the cream. But he had brought a whole litre of it. My chicken was saved but I was left with a litre of cream. Now the shopkeeper had said it could be stored for a whole month even after it was opened. My mother said, "nonsense", three days at the most or it goes to the bin. Then she turned around to add, "Better not waste it."
So now I am finding all sorts of ways to use the cream. I trumped up this dish, this evening (day 2) with no intention to share it here but it turned out great and I though I might as well  share it. Some onions, capsicum and eggs in a mustard and cream sauce. And let me tell you I was eggstatic with the result.

Ingredients 

Hard Boiled eggs - 5
Garlic paste - 1 tsp
Ginger paste - 1 tsp
Onions - 2
Plum tomatoes (whole)-
Capsicum - 2
Chopped Parsley - 4 tbsp
Curd - 2 tbsp
Cream - 175 ml
Kasundi (mustard relish) - 3 tbsp
Chili flakes - 1/2 tsp
Salt to taste
Sugar to taste
Butter - 4 tbsp

Method

Cut the onions and capsicum in rings. 

In a bowl beat the curd, cream, sugar, chili flakes and kasundi together. 

Heat butter in an pan. Add the garlic and ginger paste and fry for a minutes. Add the onion and capsicum rings and the whole tomatoes. Sprinkle some salt and stir fry for a few minutes until the capsicum and onion rings soften but retain the crunch.

Add the eggs and give a good toss. Reduce heat and add the cream and mustard mixture and add half the chopped parsley. Adjust seasoning. Let is simmer for a few minutes on low heat. 

Remove from heat, garnish with chopped parsley and serve hot...or cold.  

Flourless chocolate torte: Another first time

I have been craving a simple chocolate torte for a few weeks now. Yesterday I got down to making one for myself. Of course, I didn't get more than a thin sliver, but that's another story.

Well a torte is a dense and rich cake, usually multilayered with fillings that could be anything ranging from butter cream and jams to ganache and mousses. Once cooled, the decadent cake is finished off with a fine glaze. Drool worthy I tell you. However, there are a few European versions are without layers too and since I was trying to make a torte for the first time I preferred to keep it simple. So I fished out a recipe that is so simple to make that you do a little jig just to celebrate its simplicity.

Now I always feel that it's best that you shop for your own kitchen. In fact, in recent times I have begun to enjoy shopping for ingredients, even the stench of the fish market excites me. But yesterday, I was feeling rather lazy. Besides, the very thought of stepping out in this heat and jostling my way through throngs of enthused shoppers while sweating like a little piggy didn't appeal to me much. I do not usually buy my ingredients from air conditioned malls, I have specific shops at specific old fashioned bazaars that I head to in times of need. So I bullied someone else to do that for me. Well, I didn't exactly bully him, he was headed that way anyway.

And though I will be grateful to him for getting me the ingredients, I was a tad disappointed because he got me chocolate compound instead of dark chocolate. Now like a friend, a former chef and now a professor of culinary sciences, said -- the difference between pure chocolate (for cooking) and chocolate compound is that in chocolate compound the chocolate liqueur and cocoa butter is substituted with vegetable oil and cocoa powder. However he pointed out that working with compound chocolate is easier than handling chocolate. And he said the difference isn't much either, unless you're a persnickety gastronome. To me though the difference in taste is hardly recognizable, there is a distinct textural difference, which I believe comes from the difference in the fat used, vegetable oil as opposed to cocoa butter.

However, to me the real problem was the sugar content in the compound, it was higher of course. So I had to work around that. Coming back to my recipe...Now tortes are usually made with lots of eggs and very little flour, the recipe I found had no flour at all. And it was a torte with no layers, just a dusting of cocoa powder to finish it off. I was not in the mood for jams or jellies, was a little too lazy to trump up a mousse or ganache and I am not a huge fan of butter cream. So I decided to keep it simple.

The method is pretty simple really. Melt the chocolate and butter together. Beat the eggs and sugar. Fold the chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and bake. And you have a rich, dense, gooey torte ready. But I had the sugar level to deal with. The recipe comprised usual white sugar. Now I substituted the sugar with Demerara sugar (less sweet) and a little less than the quantity suggested. Later instead of just the cocoa powder, I finished it off with a dusting of both cocoa powder and icing sugar. The effect was nice indeed.

By the way, about torte,  it seems the Sachertorte, a classic layered torte with a layer of apricot jam and a coating of chocolate icing that originated in Austria, (invented by Austrian Franz Sacher in 1832 for Prince Wenzel Von Metternich) is a royalty of sorts among tortes. Did you know that in Austria December 5 is celebrated as National Sachertorte Day? Ah I was just reading about it here. Well, the next time I make a torte, Sachertorte it is going to be.

Ingredients
Unsalted butter - 175 g  + more for greasing the pan
Large eggs - 6
Chocolate Compound - 340 g
Demerara sugar - 5 - 6 tbsp
Pinch of salt
Unsweetened cocoa powder ad icing sugar for dusting

Method 

Preheat oven at 175 degree centigrade. Grease a 9 inch spring form  pan and keep. Chop up the chocolate and in a heatproof bowl combine the chocolate and the butter. Place the bowl on another bowl half-filled with oiling water. The bottom of the bowl containing the chocolate shouldn't touch the water. Set aside to let the chocolate and butter melt. Then stir to combine the melted butter and chocolate together, remove from bowl of boiling water and cool a bit.

In another bowl combine eggs, sugar and salt and beat until thick and pale.

Now fold in the chocolate mixture with the eggs mix, first half and once combines the rest. Pour into the greased springform and bake at 175 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until the top is almost set, barely wiggles and a toothpick inserted into the centre of the cake comes out with only a few crumb. Remove on to a rack and cool.

Finally finish it off with a dusting of cocoa powder and icing sugar. I would prefer to serve it cold.

Note that the above recipe is an adaptation of the original one. For the original recipe see here. 

Rustic chicken stew tart:Confessions of a first time tart baker:

I am not much of a baker. I have never baked regularly. Only once in a while. And I have quite a few disasters to my credit. As a child I loved watching my mother bake that cake occasionally, some times I would beg her to let me cream the butter and sugar and she would, but only for a few seconds. When mum baked cakes we didn't have fancy blender or electronic whisks and she would do it all manually. It meant real hard work. Probably one reason why I always avoided baking, though I loved the idea of it.

The other reason is I often felt intimidated by it, especially considering Ma's categorical insistence on adhering to measurement. Now I am a restless person, mostly I like to follow my whim and throw things in and around according to my crazy moods. I have found following recipes rather tedious, a little boring too. But then of late I have felt this tremendous urge to bake. Now my mum has not baked in a long time and she has over time given away most of her baking supplies to friends, neighbours, relatives, etc. So right now I am in the process of building my own inventory. And every time I buy a new item I feel an indomitable urge to make something with it right away.

So when my newest Tart Mold Tray arrived by courier last evening I couldn't wait to bake the first tart of my life. I couldn't wait till this morning, I was itching to do something. So I prepped for the filling, marinated the chicken and put it in the fridge last night. Oh I wanted to make a savoury tart with chicken but something light considering the heat. So I came up with the idea of making a filling inspired by a simple, creamy chicken stew is a light tart shell. The inspiration behind my filling was the kind one of the most popular bakeries in Calcutta has in their chicken envelopes. It was a trial and error method but I am almost there at the first go. I like my version enough to keep it just like this. So I woke up at 6 this morning, usually that's midnight for me. And before I brushed my teeth I was making tart dough (I had washed my hands though). The next few hours are all a haze in my mind. The sweltering heat, beads of sweat, the flours between my fingers, the struggle with lining the tart tin, my brother stealing away big spoons full of the filling which naturally fell short...what chaos. I realised lining a tart tin is not art it is war, at least it was for me. May be things will cool down the next time. By the way the patches pf butter is the dough is a good things, that how we want to roll baby. I had started to panic when Mum shared her wisdom.

By the way I in my dreams last night I was deep frying pizza slices and tossing them into the dustbin, one after another, non stop. Talking of pizza, and this is uncanny, I got to know this morning that Pizza Hut will be serving Biryani now!!! No offense meant, but I feel pretty offended by the stuff they serve as pizza, at least here in Calcutta, and now Biryani? Ummmmm

Like I said, it was my first time baking a tart so I looked up for recipes for tart shells online, settled for the simplest, dared to tweak it a little bit here and there....teeny weeny little. The filling is my own little baby though.

Recipe for tart shell dough: 
Ingredients
All purpose flour - 370 g
Cold unsalted butter cut in cubes - 125 g
Salt- 1/2 tsp
Sugar- 1 tsp
Ice water- 4-5 tbsp

Method
Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and stir around for a bit to aerate it.

Now add the butter to the flour and mix it, cutting the butter into the flow. You will have a gravelly mix of flower and butter.

Now add the ice water and gently bring the dough together. Do not over work the dough.

Keep the dough on a sheet of parchment and roll it out so that its big enough to fit your tin. You will see patches of butter in your dough which is a good thing. Cover with another sheet of parchment paper and keep it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Recipe courtesy www.chow.com

Rustic Chicken Stew Tart

Ingredients
Tart shell dough (as directed above)
Boneless chicken diced - 1 kg
Diced Capsicum - 2 cups
Diced Onions - 2 cups
Garlic paste - 1 tbsp
Salt to taste
Fresh coarsely ground pepper - 1 tbsp (heaped) or to taste
Nutmeg powder - 1/2 tsp
Milk - 1/2 cup
Sugar- 1/2 tsp
Butter - 30 g

Method.

Prepare the tart crust: Preheat oven at 200 degree centigrade. After the tart crust dough has rested in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes, bring it out and line your tart dish with the dough, fill it with dried beans or pie weights and bake for 10-12 minutes. Take out of the oven and leave it to rest.

Prepare the chicken stew filling: In a bowl mix the chicken, capsicum and onions together. Add garlic paste, salt and fresh, coarsely ground pepper. Leave the chicken in its marinade for at least 3 hours. I left it in the fridge, covered over night.

Heat butter in a pan. Add  nutmeg powder and add the chicken. Stir fry the chicken for about 5 minutes on high heat, reduce heat, cover and cook for another 15 minutes approximately.

Remove cover, adjust seasoning, add a little sugar and cook on medium heat to let the juices reduce. When the chicken is almost tender, and most the juice has reduces, add the milk and bring to a simmer. Sprinkle the flour and mix well. Give it a minute or two and remove.



Getting it together: Preheat oven at 200 degree centigrade. Carefully pour the chicken stew filling into the pre baked pie crust and bake it for 30-35 minutes. Serve hot or cold.

PS. The filling is yum on its own or on toast or as a filling for puff pastry!

Chocolate Fruit and Nut cookies and a slice of my imagination

I stayed awake all night, last night. And all the while I watched back-to-back episodes of Most Haunted, a very popular Paranormal Investigation Series in the UK and one of my major pastimes during my university days. The show takes you to the many purportedly haunted locations in Great Britain -- medieval castles, opulent mansions, dilapidated churches, abandoned theatres -- where the team conducts an over night investigation equipped with various ghost detecting gadgets and a couple of psychics and mediums. The show isn't scary, in fact it is funny mostly and at times annoying. OK a few episodes do send that chill down your spine but what I love is to to hear about the legends, local lores and stories associated with these sites of immense historical value. 

Since I share bits and pieces of my life with you here I thought I'll share this with you too. I am sucker for stories about the paranormal. No I am not fearless. I am in fact, very very scared of ghosts. Should I ever have the good fortune of an otherworldly encounter, I ll perhaps not come out of it sane. And yet spending a night at a haunted house is among the top things on my 100 Things to Do before I die list. Yes I have that list too. Yeah, go ahead...call me a clown. 

Anyway so I love horror films and stories about spirits and astral beings lingering in the shadows of the night, apparitions vanishing into nothingness, vengeful wraiths and disembodied cries piercing the still of the night. Like I said, during my university days I have spent hours watching Most Haunted. What made it even more exciting then was the fact that I was in England at the time, and I could visit these places if I wanted. Actually I did. 

I went to the University of Sussex in Brighton, a charming beach resort in the south of England. And in Brighton was this stately manor house, the Preston Manor. On a cool spring afternoon, after I had returned from my classes and got on with my daily routine of watching videos on YouTube I happened to chance upon an episode of the Most Haunted featuring Preston Manner and I decided I had to check the place out. 

The stately manor house with its ornate gardens, is surrounded by the lush expanse of the Preston Park. The fascinating history of the manor goes back to the late 16th century and the house has passed through many hands in its time. And with it have passed down tales of unearthly noises, mysterious apparitions and disembodied voices. According to one legend a nun had been murdered on the grounds of the house and her body unceremoniously buried under one of the ground floor balconies. Her remains were found hundreds of years later in 1896 or 97. The story seems probable because, adjacent to the manor is an 11th century church with a graveyard around, reportedly haunted as well. Read more about the manor here 

Now we (I had dragged three of my friends along) went to Preston Manor on a March afternoon and while we were thrilled and almost hoping to have a brush with the other world, the Edwardian interiors of the house with its opulent setting betrayed nothing. No eerie feeling, no cold spots, no disembodied whispers and definitely not a full blown apparition. We ventured underground to check out the kitchen and servants' quarters where the bells seems to ring on their own though they are no longer connected to electricity and a feeling of foreboding overcomes visitors. Blah...NOTHING. I was rather disappointed. 

So I went ahead and asked one of the men at the reception. An older man, of about 60. He seemed rather amused but confirmed the news of the haunting. In fact, he called his colleague who had experienced something in the house. Supposedly she was locking up one evening, when she heard footsteps on the floor above and heard people talking. She thought it was perhaps a colleague and went up to check. Of course there was no one. But no, the ghosts of Preston Manor didn't say a hi to us. However, all of us were overcome with this unsettling feeling when we visited the church grounds. I couldn't wait to leave. Later no one confessed, but we were all pretty uncomfortable there. Could it be? 

However, while we were taking the final batch of photographs in front of the house, we saw a scary face against the ground floor glass window.The SCREAM kind a face. We were a little startled but oh it was the good old man with a this skeleton mask he had pulled out from somewhere. And what a laugh he had. 

Then he called me to the window and told me "Young lady remember this, these are times when you ought to be more scared of the living, than the DEAD." 

And where do these gorgeous chocolate cookies crammed full with almonds, cranberries, cashews and raisins feature in the scheme of things? Well after my nightly rendezvous with the paranormal of course I couldn't sleep. I was imagining things despite willing myself to think happy thoughts. And so I baked some cookies at 4 AM. I had made a lot of cookie dough so I baked another batch this afternoon. And let me tell you, these are delicious. I started my day with some cookies, a glass of chilled milk and my favourite author. And it has been a happy day so far. 

 

Ingredients 

Plain flour - 200 g

Butter - 180 g

Cocoa Powder- 30 g 

Castor Sugar - 90 g 

Vanilla essence - 1/2 tsp 

Chopped almonds - 75 g

Chopped cranberries - 50 g

Chopped raisins - 30 g 

Halved cashews - 22 

Method 

Cream the butter and sugar together until sugar almost dissolves. 

Add the vanilla and cocoa powder and mix well. 

Add the chopped nuts and dried fruits. Mix well. 

Finally add the flour and mix to form a soft, mushy dough. Use your hands at this stage. 

Divide the dough in two or thee parts, shape into a log, wrap in aluminium foil or cling film and keep it in the freezer for about 1/2 hour - 45 minutes. 

Pre heat oven at 180 degree centigrade. 

Line a tray with parchment paper or aluminium foil. Grease it little with a little melted butter. 

Now take out the dough logs from the freezer, cut into 1 cm roundels and line of the baking tray. Do not crowd the cookies in, give them enough space to expand. 

Bake in the over for 12-15 minutes at 180 degree centigrade. 

Once out of the oven, let it cool completely before removing them from the tray. 

Store in air tight jars

PS I am sharing a piece of fiction I wrote here. It was published by the American Speculative Fiction E-zine Fiction Vortex. If you have time read it and leave a comment here. Good, bad , whatever. Would mean a lot to me.