(FISH) Malaysian Style Crab Roll

This recipe is entirely created by me.

Ingredients:

- Tin of lump crab meat.
- 3 tbs mayonnaise.
- 3 tbs coconut milk.
- 1 tbs madras curry paste.
- 2 Kaffir lime leaves (minced).
- Fresh lime juice of half lemon.
- 2 tbs small cubed unsalted butter.
- Salt.
- 1 tbs chopped green onion.
- 1 tsp shrimp paste.
- 1 tbs chopped fresh garlic.

Pour the crab meat from the tin into a bowl - making sure there are no shells in it. Mix lemon juice with it.
Except for the salt and the crab mix all the ingredients and keep it aside. Taste and adjust the salt.
Meanwhile heat the oven 400F.

To prepare the roll ingredients needed:
- 10 slices of fresh white bread with their sides cut off.
- Crab meat marinated in lemon juice.
- Prepared mayonnaise mixture.
- 1 egg beaten.

Take a slice of bread and roll it out. Put some crab meat along one end of the slice, not too much.
With a spoon put a little mayonnaise spread over the crab meat.
Holding the two ends of the slice, start rolling, and while doing so, keep brushing the beaten egg so that it acts as glue.
Arrange the rolls on a baking sheet and brush oil on each of them. Put the baking sheet in the center rack and bake it until it turns golden brown.
Take them out, allow to cool down, then with a serrated knife cut each roll at an angle and serve it with some hot sauce and salad.

(VEG) Sweet Basil Pesto and Glazed Carrots

How to prepare Basil Pesto:

Ingredients:

- Bunch of fresh basil leaves.
- 2 cloves of fresh garlic.
- Salt and pepper to taste.
- Dash of Balsamic vinegar (about 2 tbs).
- A handful of pine nuts.
- About 1/2 cup good extra virgin olive oil.

Except for the oil, put everything in a food processor and grind together. Then slowly drizzle the oil while the machine is on until the mixture thickens. Taste to see if the salt is OK and it should taste creamy.
Pour it in a bowl, and drizzle a little oil on the pesto, which helps to retain its green color.


Glazed Carrots - how to prepare:

For ingredients:
- 1 bunch of fresh baby carrots (washed, heads cut off).
- 1 tsp sugar.
- Salt to taste.
- 1 tsp garlic powder or fresh clove of garlic chopped (optional).
- 1 tsp butter.
In a skillet put 1/2 cup of water and the carrots on a medium high heat. Put some salt and sugar, allow it to simmer until the carrots are tender and the water has evaporated. Put it in a serving dish and mix the butter with it. Serve hot.

(FISH) New Orleans BBQ Shrimp

I loved this dish, ate it in New Orleans and I made sure I tried it out at home. Of course it is not the exact version - I cooked with all the ingredients I had at home and it tasted equally good!

Ingredients: Cooking time about 20 mins under broiler or grill in the oven.
- 1 lb fresh water shrimps with heads attached.
- 4 tbs Worchestershire sauce.
- 2 tbs Soya sauce.
- 2 tbs vinegar.
- Cracked black pepper.
- 1 tsp minced ginger.
- 2 tbs minced white onion.
- 1 tsp allspice powder.
- 1 tbs hot sauce.
- 1 tsp cayenne powder.
- 1/4 cup veg.oil.

To prepare:

- Mix all the ingredients listed above and marinate the shrimps in a bowl, cover it, refrigerate for an hour and then cook.

How to cook:

- You need 6 cloves of garlic, sliced.
- Also 4 tbs unsalted room temp.butter.
- In an oven proof skillet, melt the butter over low heat .
- Put the sliced garlic in the butter, making sure either of the ingredients does not get brown.
- Take the skillet off the heat and pour the marinated shrimp and the marinade over the heated butter.
- Then put the skillet below a broiler or a grill on high until the shrimps tend to turn lightly brown and the marinade begins to sizzle.
- Take it out from the oven and pour it in a serving dish. Sprinkle some dried thyme or rosemary.
- Serve it with warm garlic bread.

(FISH) OR (VEG) Mixed Veg. and Shrimps in Coconut sauce (check this recipe)

(Vegetarians: please see below for how to make a vegetarian version of this dish).

I was amazed to find how vegetables like raw banana, red pumpkin and white radish can taste so good in coconut milk.
Well I had some of these leftover fresh vegetables which I did not know what to do. I thought I will just saute them together and serve. Then as I began sauteing them, I thought of the Kaffir lime leaves in my fridge. I immediately took leaves out, cut them into strips, julienned some fresh ginger and put a tsp of garlic powder with the vegetables. Then I poured a little coconut milk, salt, one small green chilli chopped, and frozen shrimps. Then I covered it and let it simmer until the vegetables were tender and the sauce thickened.
I served it with sprinkled green onion and cilantro on cooked Basmati rice. I was surprised, it tasted really good!!!
Vegetarians - you can omit the shrimps it will taste equally good! You can use any leftover uncooked veg.

Tip: if you do not have the lime leaves you can grate the outer green layer of a green lime, making sure the white layer is not scraped. The white layer of the lime will give a bitter taste.

(MEAT) Asparagus-Pork in Ginger Garlic sauce

For the recipe we need:

- Fresh Asparagus 1 bunch.
- Pork tenderloin cut into strips (2 cups)
- 1 1/2 tsp cornflour.
- 1 tbs oyster sauce.
- 1 tbs hoisin sauce.
- 1 tbs soya sauce.
- 2 tbs chopped fresh ginger-garlic.
- Ground fresh pepper.

To prepare:

- Marinate the pork with half of fresh chopped ginger-garlic, little oil, pepper, cornflour and all the sauces mentioned above.
- Wash the asparagus and only the tender parts cut into 1 inch in size.
- Heat oil in a wok or a pan over high heat and saute the Asparagus and quickly take it out making sure it does not lose the green color.
- In the same wok or pan put some oil and immediately put the rest of the ginger-garlic. Stir it in the hot oil but do not burn. Then immediately put in the marinated pork and saute it over high heat.
- The sauce should look sticky and brown in color. The meat should be tender and white. Turn the heat off and mix the asparagus. Immediately serve with some steamed rice.

(VEG) Vegetable Drumsticks and fried Paneer cooked in Mustard sauce

Drumsticks (called 'sarakwa' in Hindi and 'danta' in Bengali) look like long,thin green colored sticks. The outer layer is a little tough and should be scraped off with a knife. You can also buy them frozen which saves the trouble of cleaning. You can get them in any Indian grocery store.

How to prepare:

I used the frozen sticks - this allowed me to cook the amount I wanted.
- 1 cup of fried paneer cubes (you can buy paneer from any Indian grocery store. It is sold in small blocks.
Cut the block into tiny cubes and pan fry as much much you want - refrigerate the rest.
- 3 tbs white poppy seeds.
- 3 tbs yellow mustard seeds.
- 1 tsp "Panch phoron" seeds (mixture of 5 seeds: fennel, cumin, fenugreek, Kalonji and black mustard). If you do not have Panch phoron just use little fennel seeds.
- 3 whole green chillies.
- 1 tbs mustard oil or half tsp ghee (optional).
- Quarter cup coriander leaves chopped.
- Pinch of turmeric powder.
- Oil for cooking.
- Small can of coconut milk.
- Salt to taste.

How to cook:

Dry grind the poppy seeds and mustard seeds in a coffee grinder. Then in a blender wet grind
the ground poppy and mustard seeds together with 2 green chillies and turmeric powder, turning it into paste.

Heat about 2 tbs veg. oil in a pan, put in the Panch phoron (or the fennel seeds) and as it sputters, put in the drumsticks and the fried paneer, and stir them for some time. Put salt and the paste and mix well with the vegetables, pour in a cup of water, lower the heat and cover. Allow it to simmer until the sauce thickens. Pour quarter cup of coconut milk and let it cook for few seconds. Turn off the heat and drizzle the ghee or the mustard oil over the cooked vegetable.
Pour it in a serving dish, sprinkle the chopped coriander leaves and slitted green chilly and serve it with hot steamed rice.

(VEG) Bengali Green Peas Kachori (Puri stuffed with green peas)

I make the stuffing with frozen green peas .

For ingredients we need:

- 1 small packet frozen green peas, defrosted.
- 1 tbs garam masala powder (cumin seeds,coriander seed, clove, cinnamon and cardamom, lightly roasted and ground)
- 1 tsp ghee or clarified butter.
- 2 green chilli and 1 inch fresh ginger, ground together into paste.
- Salt to taste.
- 1 tsp red chilli powder (optional).

How to prepare:

- Grind the defrosted peas in a food processor. Don't add water while grinding, and make sure the peas are not turned into fine paste.

- Heat 2 tbs veg. oil in a frying pan on a medium hot stove. Nonstick pan is "welcome". Put the ground green peas in the oil and continuously stir them until they are dry and do not stick to the pan. Add salt, garam masala, ghee, and the ginger-chilli paste, and make sure they are mixed well with the peas. Take it off the heat and allow it to cool thoroughly. If the stuffing is too pasty add some chick peas powder or all purpose flour - this dries out the stuffing and prevents it from oozing out while frying the puris.

- To prepare the dough for the puris, I have the recipe written in another post - check out how to make puris (luchis) by clicking here. Once you prepare the dough and divide it into small balls, take each ball, flatten it against your palm and put a little stuffing in the center of the dough. Then roll it into a ball.

- Once you finish stuffing the peas into the dough, heat vegetable oil (not olive oil) in a deep pot or a small wok. Allow it to heat properly on a medium heat stove. In the meantime roll out the dough on a wooden surface. (Dusting a little all purpose flour on the surface while rolling it helps the dough to not stick to the board). Do not roll the dough too thin or put pressure while rolling as those would allow the stuffing to ooze out from the side. (Should it still happen, just dab some flour over it and continue to roll).

-Take each rolled out puri, one at a time and put it in the hot oil, slightly pressing the center with a slotted spoon. That helps the puri to puff up. Once the lower side is lightly done turn it over, not allowing it to lose the green color. Take it out and drain the excess oil on a paper towel. Serve it with curried potatoes ('Aloo Dum'). The cauliflower recipe which I have in another post (click here) will go well with it.