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Showing posts with label leftovers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label leftovers. Show all posts

Thursday, July 24, 2014

Schezuan-Style Prawns Fried Rice

Life is all about choices. What we wear, who are friends are, the career decisions that we make, these are some of the important decisions where we would like to have complete freedom of choosing. With too many things on our mind, we often forgo some of the smaller pleasures of life. Hardly a surprise since we are reminded day in and day out to focus on the big picture.

Food happens to be vital part of our lives and we all admit that we would love to eat a fresh and piping hot meal every single day. However with deadlines snapping at our heels, traffic snarls eating into our time and the overpowering need to spend quality time with our loved ones, cooking up a 'real' meal takes a backseat. And we find our choices limited to ordering pizza from the neighborhood joint or just heating up leftover. After all, when it involves slogging an extra hour or two over that all important presentation which is going to give you an edge over your peers, would you trade it for the delights of 'rajma-chawal'? This is a no-brainer.

But fret no more as our foodie-buddy is here. Yep, that is how I choose to refer to Foodpanda India, the leading food delivery website. 'Fuss-free, fast and definitely fun' is what they claim to be. And boy, they do live up to the word. 

Just log in to their page, choose city, locality and you are good to go. For example, click here to view the city page for Delhi. If you stay in some other city (and they do deliver at more than 20 cities for that matter), replace 'delhi' in the URL with the name of your city, hit 'enter' and voila, all the restaurant names appear on your screen. Details like cuisine type, minimum order amount and delivery time are also provided to help you narrow down a particular restaurant. 

And if you are one of those smartphone yielding types, here is where you can download their cool app. (scroll to the bottom of this post for the QR code)

Coming back to today's recipe, it is a simple schezuan style prawns fried rice. Most of you might have already guessed by my ramblings that I am in the mood for lazy one-pot meals these days. Fried rice happens to fit the bill perfectly. Some leftover rice thrown in with a bit of this and a bit of that, and a nice hot meal is ready. 

Read on for the easy breezy recipe - 





Preparation Time - 10-15 mins

Ingredients -

  • 1 cup cooked rice 
  • 1/3 cup tiny freshwater prawns (if you are using big ones, chop them up)
  • 1 1/2 tsp schezuan sauce ( I used Delmonte brand, it is quite good )
  • 1/2 tsp light soy sauce
  • 1 1/2 tsp tomato sauce
  • 1/2 tsp chilli flakes
  • 5-6 garlic flakes (finely chopped)
  • 2 tsp chopped spring onions ( whites only )
  • 1 small onion (optional)(finely sliced)
  • 3 tsp oil
  • salt to taste
  • few drops vinegar



Preparation - Wash the prawn and mariante with salt and vinegar.

Cooking - Heat 1 tsp oil in a wok. Add the prawns and fry till they are pink all over. Remove and keep aside.

Add the remaining oil to the same wok. Toss in the onion and garlic flakes. Fry till the garlic turns slightly golden.

Add the schezuan sauce, soy sauce, tomato sauce, chili flakes along with 2-3 tsp water. Cook for a minute before adding the rice.

Throw in the prawns, check for salt and toss everything on a high flame for 2-3 mins. Finally add the spring onions just before turning off the flame.

Serve hot.

Note - Check the illustration for ordering from Foodpanda -

















Scan the QR code shown below for downloading the Foodpanda App -


Saturday, September 7, 2013

Korua (milk solids ) Ladoo

I usually make ghee at home every month. After cooking the butter and draining off the golden colored liquid ( ghee ), one is left with these brown colored nutty flavored sediments/residue. They are quite nutritious and i almost always end up incorporating them in my meals/snacks/desserts. This time Ganesh Chaturthi being around the corner, i incorporated them into laddoos ( Ganeshji's favorite snack ). This is an easy breezy recipe. Read on:



















Preparation Time - 10-15 mins

Ingredients - Milk solids ( 2 cups ), whole wheat flour ( 3/4 - 1 cup ), powdered jaggery ( to taste ).

Preparation - If the milk solids are a little lumpy, freeze them. Take into a grinder cup, buzz for 20-30 seconds and turn into coarse powder.

Cooking - Heat a non-stick vessel on low flame ( i had reused the vessel in which i made the ghee ). Add the milk solids. Fry for 1 minute.

Sprinkle the flour, a little at a time and mix well. The contents of the vessel should look like one whole mass/lump and not powdery ( else the laddoo will not have binding ).

Fry for 5-6 minutes till the flour is roasted.

Add the powdered jaggery, mix thoroughly and cook for 2 minutes.

Remove from flame and allow to cool down till it is bearable to touch.

Take small amounts of the mixture into your palm and shape into balls/laddoos. If they are not binding or too powdery, add 1-2 tsp of melted warm ghee to the mixture.

These laddoos can be stored in the refrigerator for a month.




Friday, September 6, 2013

Khari pakoda

Khari biscuits are a favorite with almost everyone. They are light, airy and wonderfully crispy. I usually serve them to my guests with tea ( yeah i do try to resist them....loaded with butter...u know :) ) and they disapper in minutes. But at times some are left in the cupboard for too long or maybe hubby forgot to close the container properly and they lose their flavor ( no Tupperware/LocknLock works in this case ) . I had been putting those in the dustbin till last week.

But then i heard Ranbir Kapoor singing about 'Khari pakoday' with 'nukkad ki chai' in the promos of his latest flick 'Besharam'. Voila, and a new dish was born. Initially i tried making pakoras with the broken crumbs of khari biscuit and they are ok-ok types. But then i tried to take each biscuit, pull apart the layers and then dip them into the batter individually before frying. I must say these pakoras are wonderfully crisp and totally worth the effort.



















Preparation time - 15 mins

Ingredients - Khari biscuits, oil for frying.

For the batter - 4 tbs besan, 1 tsp cornflour, 1/3 tsp jeera-lanka ( cumin-chilli ) powder, 1/3 tsp coriander powder, 1 tsp coriander shoots finely chopped, 1 tsp green chilli finely chopped, salt to taste.

Preparation - Take all the ingredients for batter in a mixing bowl. Add water and make into a paste of medium consistency. Keep aside for 15-20 mins.

Cooking - Heat oil in a wok.

Take each khari biscuit and pull apart into 3-4 layers. Dip each piece into the batter and leave in the oil. Fry till light golden brown. Remove and keep on a tissue to drain excess oil.

Serve hot with tomato sauce and tea.






















Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Leftovers series: Tomato Rice

 



















Preparation Time: 5-10 mins

Ingredients: Cooked rice ( 1 cup), chopped tomato ( 1 medium ), green chilli ( 1-2 nos ), onion ( 1 large ), curry leaves ( 1 sprig ) , chana dal ( 2 tbs ), urad dal ( 2 tbs ), mustard seeds ( 1/2 tsp ), asafoetida ( 1/5 tsp), broken cashew pieces, salt , oil ( 2 tsp ), chopped coriander for garnish ( optional ).

Preparation: Chop the onion and tomato into small pieces.
Fry the cashew, urad dal and chana dal with very little oil and keep aside.

Cooking: Heat oil in a wok. When it starts smoking, add mustard seeds followed by the broken green chilli, curry leaves and asafoetida. Stir for 10-15 secs.
Add the chopped onions. Stir fry for 2 mins. Add the tomatoes along with some salt. cook till the tomatoes soften.
Add the rice and stir fry for a few minutes. Sprinkle more salt on top ( if required )and add the fried dal & cashews.Serve hot.

Note: If the rice is kept in the fridge, microwave on high for 1 minute. Else add to boiling water and drain off after 1-2 mins.
The fried dals and cashews are added at a later stage to retain their crunchiness.

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