Guava Stew

A delicious desert which I really really enjoy. A recipe which I picked up from my better half.

Ingredients :

1 Kg unripe or semi ripe guavas. Can be apples or peers too.
150 gms sugar or more if you wish it to be really sweet.
7 or 8 Cloves
2" piece of Cinamon broken up into smaller pieces
9 or 10 black pepper corns
A pinch of salt.
1 cup water.
Few drops of food coloring if desired.
Fresh cream to serve with.

Wash and cut the guavas into big pieces. Put them in a pressure cooker. Add all the other ingredients except the fresh cream and pressure cook for 7 whistles. Release the pressure immediately and cook opened until the sauce thickens. Serve in serving bowls with a generous topping of fresh cream. I am sure you will love this yummy treat.

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Praws in Green Coriander Gravy

For those who love prawns, here is a lovely recipe. Prawns in green coriander gravy.  Takes only a few minutes to cook yet so delicious. The green color of coriander gives the green to the gravy and makes the dish look so colorful and the aroma of coriander leaves and spices definitely makes one go hungry immediately. 

Ingredients :

250 gms. Prawns shelled.
200 gms Coriander leaves
1 tsp Mustard seeds
2 tsp Fish masala
1 tsp Turmeric powder
2 tsp Red chili powder
2 Bay leaves torn
1 tbs Ginger garlic paste
1 big Onion diced.
2 tbs Oil.
Salt to taste.

Method :

Wash the prawns and keep aside. Grind the green coriander leaves to a paste along with a half a cup of water and keep aside. In a pan heat 2 tbs of oil and add the torn bay leaves. Once it leaves it's aroma in the oil, take them out and discard. Add the mustard seeds and once it begins to sputter, put in the ginger garlic pastes and stir so as the sputtering seeds gets mixed up with the paste and does not escape out of the pan. The diced onions goes in next. Keep stirring for about a minute. Then add the fish masala, turmeric, red chili powder and the salt. Keep stirring until a nice aroma of the cooked masala comes. Now add the coriander leaves paste and mix  well with the masala. Add 1 cup of water to it. Raise the heat and cook covered. Bring it to boil and on medium heat cook for about 4 minutes until the gravy gets cooked. Finally the prawns go in the gravy. Stir and then keep cooking for another 4 minutes or more until you get the right consistency of the gravy. Your delicious and lovely prawn curry is ready to be savored with rice or bread or roti. I prefer to enjoy it with plain rice. How about you?  Don't forget to leave a comment here after you try this recipe.

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Mango Pickle - Heinou Achar

The season of mangoes is here and now is the time to enjoy the taste of mangoes in every possible way. Raw mangoes, semi ripe mangoes, ripe mangoes….. I enjoy taking them inside my kitchen and  transforming them into delicacies which  pleases my palate. I love ripe mangoes in my fruit salad, my milk shake, my yoghurt. I use the semi ripe ones for sweet sour chutney. Mango pickle is a must for me when raw mangoes are available in plenty. My wait for the time to lay my hands on raw mangoes begins the day when mango trees begin to flower. The fruit laden tree looks so beautiful that I prefer to leave the lovely green mangoes on the tree until they ripen and as for my pickle, the market is there where I can chose the perfect ones. From my bought stock 2 or 3 of them usually 

end up getting scraped or grated and lightly mashed with salt, red chili powder, finely chopped green chilies and a few mint leaves. ‘Heinou singju’ or 'Heinou Metpa' (mango mash) is relished by most people in this part of the world. Now back to my main task…the task of pickling green mangoes. Just a couple of hours of labor and my pickle would be ready to be stocked or eaten from day one. As eveyone knows, normally it takes about a month for the pickle to be perfect but mango pickles are too tempting and I always start enjoying it the moment I finish making it. So here it is…My instant mango pickle.

Ingredients :

2 kg  raw mangoes sliced or diced into big cubes.

300 gm. Mustard oil                      
2 Tbs Salt

2 tsp Turmeric

100 gm Cumin powder

100 gm Coriander powder

50 gm Ajwain(Bishop's weed) powder

20 gm Fenugreek whole

10 gm Black pepper powder

1 Tbs Red chili powder

100 gm Mustard powder

2 tsp Fennel whole

2 tsp Nigella seeds.

Method :

Mix all the spices together and keep aside.

Heat the oil in a pan until it smokes and then put off the fire. In it add the spices and stir. Then add the sliced or diced mangoes and stir well until all the mangoes pieces are properly coated with the oil and spices. Let it cool down and then put the spiced mangoes inside a glass or a pet jar. Pour mustard oil in the container until all the spiced mangoes are submerged in oil. Tightly cover and put the jar out in the sun as much as possible for about 15 to 20 days. The pickle would be perfect in about a month's time and the longer you keep it, the tastier it will become but I am sure you will be tempted to start eating it the moment it is being pickled. Enjoy your pickle with rice, roti, paratha, puri etc.





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