Prawn Tempura

Hello all,

Hope you all are enjoying the festive time. It’s all about good food and catching up with friends for us this time. I have been looking forward to relax this holiday but bizarrely holidays are busier than usual and time is flying.

We spent our Christmas at G's place and it was an amazing one this year. I feel stuffed even when I think about it.  G did most of the cooking; in fact she cooked up a storm. The only thing I made was this prawn tempura and a banoffee pie.

It was during one of my skype conversation with mother in law that she mentioned about this cookery show she has been watching and about the tempura recipe she was impressed with. I was in luck when I searched for the programme in youtube and got the recipe here.  The tempura tasted great when served hot. Before I took them to the party I quickly took few pictures for the blog just to break the silence. I have many food pictures in my drafts and some of them are really keepers, perhaps my New Year resolution this year should be to update the blog as much as I can. More than anyone I think I refer back to my blog for recipes so it would really help me to save the time when trying to recreate the recipe!

Before I sign off let me wish you all a very Happy New Year!

Ingredients

Prawns (large) -20

For batter

Corn flour – 3 tbs

Plain flour – 5 tbsp

Egg white– from 1 egg

Salt

Pepper – ½ tsp

Water – as required

Bread crumbs to coat (optional)

Toothpicks (optional)

Oil  for deep frying

Method

1. Deshell the prawn leaving the tails and keep it aside.
2. Insert a toothpick inside the prawn ( this is to keep the prawns straight after  frying as prawns tends to curl when they cook)
3. Make the batter with the ingredients mentioned under batter and dip the prawns in it and coat them in bread crumbs.
4. Deep fry the prawns in a low flame for 3-4 minutes or until done.
5. Remove the toothpicks from the prawns and serve hot with some dipping sauce.

Enjoy !

Chemmen ullarthu / chemmen roast/ Kerala prawns roast

After a 2 weeks silence, I am back again with a simple post. During our last trip to India my sis in law made this yummy prawn’s ullarthu for us and ever since I was dying to make this at home. Getting hold of fresh/ raw prawns is an expensive affair here, so we always buy the prepared prawns (cooked and peeled) which doesn’t have any flavour like the ones  we get back home. Couple of weeks backs we found a good deal for raw prawns in an Asian market , so I picked one packet with this ullarthu in mind. Despite of having a hectic day I cooked the prawns same day as I didn’t want to freeze it and miss out that fresh flavour. The prawn’s tastes yumm after a long time, but it  still it missed the flavour I grew up eating, but nonetheless we all enjoyed it as it was a delicious preparation. 

Ingredients Prawns – 500 gm (cleaned) Shallots/ cheriya ulli (thinly sliced) 3/4 cup  or 2 medium onion  thinly sliced Ginger (minced) – 2 tsp. Garlic (minced) – 2 tsp. Curry leaves – few sprigs Red chilli powder – 2 tbs Turmeric powder – 2 tsp Salt Coconut oil Crushed red chilli flakes - 1 tsp Method Marinate the prawns with red chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt for 30 minutes . In a non stick pan  add coconut oil and fry the red chill flakes for few seconds,  add in the  sliced shallots and saute until soft. Add minced ginger – garlic, curry leaves and fry for a minute or so. Add marinated  prawns stir until prawns are coated in masala. Cover and cook for 5 minutes or until prawns are cooked. Remove the lid and cook for 2-3 minutes on high flame until prawns are well coated in the masala.