Prawns and Mango curry

This is a Trishur styled curry which can be made with vegetables like green banana too. Even fish can be prepared thus and one can substitute konkum( kudampuli) for mango.

Prawns and Mango Curry

Ingredients

1- Green Mango - 1/2 cup or more as per the sourness
2- Prawns - 250 gm or more if available
3- Ginger(sliced) - 1 tblspn
4- Onion big(thinly sliced) - 2 medium
5- Small onions (thinly sliced) - 10 numbers (if you prefer this you can add more and reduce big onions)
6- Turmeric powder - 3/4 tspn
7- Coriander pdr - 3 tspn
8- Chilly powder - 2 tspn
9- Green chilly - 4 nos sliced
10 - Vinegar - 1 tspn
11- Curry leaves - a bunch
12- Salt - as required
13- Coconut milk thin - 2 cup
14- Coconut milk thick - 1/2 cup

15 - Small onions + Mustard + curry leaves for tadka

Method

Take the vessel that you are going to use to cook this curry and place ingredients 3-12. Mix it well with your hands for sometime until the onions are soft. Now add the thin coconut milk and let the mixture boil. Once it boils, add the mangoes and prawn. Once both prawns and mangoes are cooked, reduce the flame and add the thick coconut milk. Switch off the flame before it boils. Now make the tadka and add it to the hot curry.

Enjoy with rice. It is a very tasty dish. You can omit the prawns and still have a great mango curry.

Pongal

Recently read an article which said that Keralites are now eating more carb than protein. I think one is consuming more quantity of rice and have almost discarded vegetable preparations like curry, thoran and mezhukkuparatty. Even the breakfast like puttu used to be more of kadala curry or payar thoran. Carbohydrates are essential but protein is needed too. This brings me to my recipe : Pongal. It is a late entrant to my kitchen and I am regretting the same since it is so easy to prepare this tasty and nutritious item. Though I have tasted pongal before it was only when my colleague prepared and shared it along with the recipe that I realized it is an easy and tasty one. Recently I had pongal from the Saravana outlet here in Kuwait and found that mine is not that bad! Think there are different ways to prepare pongal but this is a basic recipe.

Pongal

Ingredients

1.      Rice – ½ cup

2.      Split Moong Dal – ½ cup

3.      Water – 3 cups

4.      Jeera(whole or crushed) – 1 tspn

5.      Pepper (whole or crushed) – 1 tspn

6.      Curry leaves – a bunch

7.      Ghee or oil for frying (the more the better)

Cook rice and dal with enough salt in a pressure cooker for two whistles or boil until it is well cooked. Meanwhile take a pan and heat ghee. Add jeera, pepper and curry leaves. Fry them until the jeera is browned. (You can add green chilly and ginger like upuma, but am yet to try it) Add this to the cooked rice and dal and mix well. It is ready to eat!

You can also fry cashew nuts for the extra crunch.