The Pizzazzy

Sometimes we hate them, sometimes we love them but we do have them. I am talking about left over food. As Indians we always respect food and value them primarily because food was never in adundance or cheap. Infact it is believed that if food is wasted, we may not have enough to eat in the next life.

Interestingly even the Chinese believe the same and once me and my Chinese house agent were sitting for hours to finish the hopeless tasting KFC crisps.

As kids we were always taught to respect food and never to refuse any food items. So even though we had our favorites we ate everything from bitter gourd to brinjals. I hated pumpkins but never refused them.

So with all that respect for food the leftovers never went to waste and were repolished in the next meal. Its a great skill to manage the kitchen and specifically manage the left over food. The next great skill is to create something out of these left overs. In Indian kitchens one can always find some left over food nicely stored away in the fridge till the next meal. There are many recipes in Indian cuisines for turning the left over into something really tasty and mouth watering. Paav-Bhaji one such delicious dish made out of left over bhajis and curries, khichdi (a preparation of rice and left over dal) is another one, then we have phodni bhaat (Indian version of fried rice made out of left over rice), even left over chappatis can be efficiently turned into delicious sweet dish by grinding the chappatis with pure ghee and sugar.

Sometimes the left over curries taste better the next day. The taste and the flavour develops better with a night’s rest. Infact mom sometimes kept a part of the fish curries away for the next day deliberately. In Manipur where the climate is colder compared to other parts of the country, the fish curry allowed to stand overnight is a delicacy. With the colder climate the curries settles down into thick curries and the taste.. oohhh mouth watering. Mom recreates the magic using the refridgerator and we all simply love it.

A few times I have wasted food as I forget whats in my fridge. Especially if we have eaten out the previous night. And guiltily I let them go to the waste bin and everytime make a resolution to not repeat this and manage my kitchen in a more efficient way to get more mileage out of it. Its a long way to new year but my resolutions list has already found an item.

Finally I mustered the courage to buy the prawns. Actually a few months back I went to buy prawns and it was such a shock for me when I came to know that I wouldn’t get it cleaned. And I would have to do it on my own. It’s such a messy and time consuming task to de-scale and de-vein the prawns.
This weekend after getting the prawns home I took about an hour to clean it up and another to prepare it. And when the prawms masala was ready and we hogged it up in about 15 minutes, I was wondering where all the prawns went.

Here’s the recipe:
Ingredients:
500 gms medium sized prawns
2 medium sized onions, finely chopped
1 cup grated fresh coconut
4 tbsp cooking oil
salt to taste.

Marinade:
7-8 garlic cloves
1.5 inches ginger
2 tsp turmeric powder
2 tsp chili powder
2 tbsp whole coriander seeds
7-8 green chilies
1/5 cup roughly chopped coriander
2-3 cardamom
1 star anise
1 black cardamom
4-5 cloves
8-10 black whole pepper
1 piece of cinnamon
salt to taste.

1. Wash the de-scaled and de-veined prawns gently under running water. Keep aside to drain water.
2. Make a thick paste of the ingredients for the marinade, by adding around 1/4 cup water.
3. Evenly cover the prawns with the marinade by gently mixing them together.
4. Keep in the chiller for about 30 minutes to marinate.
5. Make a thick paste of the freshly grated coconut by adding water.
6. Heat the oil in a wok.
7. Fry the onions in the oil till transparent and brown.
8. Add the marinated prawns and cook for about 10 minutes on meduim flame till oil starts separating.
9. Add the coconut paste and add about half a cup water. Add salt to taste.
10. Let the prwans cook till it is dry and cooked.
11. Garnish with fresh coriander and serve hot with rice or Indian Bread.

This also can be used as the masala for prawns pulao. Mix gently to cooked basmati rice and steam for about 7-8 minutes on low flame. I know many of you are going to try it straight away. Tell me how it turns out and send me the snap.

Singapore is famous for many things, and one of them is the local food here. You can find lots of different cuisines here like Chinese, Singaporean, Malaysian, Indian, western, Mediterranean, Thai, Japanese, Korean and so on. Being a pukka foodie me and my husband love to explore the food courts here. Our initial stay here was completely filled with both of us trying out the multi-cuisine here. From stall hopping we have gathered the local taste and now understand what makes Singapore so hot and popular when it comes to food.One of our favorite is the Chicken rice. Its simply delicious and mouth-watering and healthy too. I would suggest to anyone visiting Singapore to dig their teeth into this exquisite dish of Chicken and Rice.

Chicken rice originating from China and originally known as Hainanese Chicken rice is very popularly associated with Singaporean or Malaysian cuisine. It’s a boneless chicken dish which is steamed and then treated with ice cold water. Every food court in Singapore would have a stall of Chicken rice. One can typically locate a Chicken rice stall by the whole chickens hanging from rods both steamed and roasted.

To taste the perfect chicken rice you must visit the Food republic at the Suntec City at City Hall. It’s the second stall on your right from the convention center end. And ask for Sergeant’s special set meal. This set meal comes with a portion of Steamed boneless chicken, I usually like it roasted so I make it a point to go for roasted one, a portion of rice, a bowl of vegetable soup, a portion of veggies which is pak choy in oyster sauce. I have eaten the simpler version of chicken rice at my office food court and other food courts but it’s best in food republic. And almost all weekends you can find us here.

How I like my chicken rice: I like to add a spoonful of fried onions on the soup and Pak Choy. As the rice is also cooked in chicken stock and some garlic and ginger it is very delicious on its own. I like to mix some spoonful of soups (we Indians have got something with the curries, so I make it more watery) and add a generous portion of pounded ginger sauce and the chili paste (again the Indian tongue for spicy food). And every mouthful is a juicy bite of the rice and a piece of chicken or the veggie.

For all those who want to give this a try at home here’s a very simple recipe picked from uniquely Singapore site.

Ingredients
1 (2-pound) chicken
1 young green onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
4 slices fresh, peeled ginger
6 tbsp vegetable oil or chicken oil rendered from chicken fat
6 to 8 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 cups long-grain uncooked rice, washed and drained
1 tsp fine salt

Mix together for Chilli Sauce
2 to 3 tbsp freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice, 5 tbsp finely chopped fresh red chilies, 5 cloves garlic, chopped, 3 tbsp finely chopped ginger, 1 tsp fine salt, 1/2 cup boiling hot chicken soup

Method
Boil a large pot of water. Stuff the cavity of the chicken with onion and ginger. Add chicken to boiling water, breast side-down. Lower the heat to a simmer just under boiling point and cook, covered until just cooked through, about 40 minutes. Bathe the chicken in an ice water bath till chicken is cold to create a tender, springy texture. Heat oil in a rice cooker, add garlic, stir fry till fragrant. Add uncooked rice, stir fry for two minutes, add salt and enough chicken soup to cover 1/2 inch above the top of the rice. Boil on high heat, lower heat when steam holes form, cover and steam for 30 minutes till rice is cooked. Chop chicken and serve with steaming hot rice and chilli sauce. Dark soya sauce is the ideal accompaniment.