Pepper Garlic Prawns

There are times when I get tired of planning the day’s meal everyday. Thinking up three meals a day gets so boring. So at times when hubby dear is away for a day or two I feel a sense of relief. Sonny boy and I can do with shortcuts. He will be ever too happy to have Maggi the whole day. But then that is a big no-no in the house. No fast food, no ramen noodles. The quickest thing to cook is a fish. Takes very less time to prepare it.
So today again hubby is having lunch outside. And i am making this hot pepper garlic prawns to be accompanied by steaming rice. That is it. Prawns, for me, is soul food. On a recent trip to Goa we hogged on prawns. You visit a coastal region and have chicken...that is blasphemy!! And for  a Bengali fish is fruit of the sea. And you can have as much fruit as you want.
This recipe is ridiculously simple. Just a handful of ingredients and a total cooking time of 10 minutes. And you are done!


Ingredients

10-12 prawns
4 tbsp chopped garlic
2 green chillies, chopped
1 tbsp butter
½ tsp pepper powder
Salt to taste
1 tsp chicken masala
1 tsp kashmiri chilli powder

Apply some salt an turmeric powder to the prawns and keep aside for some time.
Heat the butter. Add the chopped garlic and chilli. Add the prawns, pepper powder, salt, kashmiri chilli powder and chicken masala. Sauté for a few minutes. Cover and cook for 5-6 minutes. Your prawns are done.

Peshawari Chicken Kabab

Sitting in -20 degrees in Leh gets to be a bit boring at times. You can not go out much because of the bone chilling cold.

You are stuck within the four walls and there is just so much television you can watch and just so many books you can read. The best way to ward off the boredom is to keep yourself busy. I do so by cooking.

In extreme winters all the mountain passes get blocked basically cutting off all supply from the flatlands. People here have to survive on dry rations. The locals start stocking up on dried turnips, apricots, carrots, etc from the month of November. What we do have in ample is chicken. The aircrafts bring in loads of frozen chicken and that is what sustains us for these four months.

So it is the time to experiment everyday with new dishes. Many are major flops and few turn out really well!!

Ingredients

600 gms chicken mince

1 tbsp ginger, coarsely pounded

1 tbsp garlic, coarsely pounded

2 large onions, chopped fine

2 large tomatoes, chopped fine

4 green chillies, chopped fine

1 egg

1 tsp black pepper, pounded

1 tbsp roasted cumin, pounded

1 tbsp roasted coriander, pounded

2 dry red chillies, pounded

4-5 tbsp besan, for binding

Green coriander, chopped

Salt to taste

½ tsp amchur/chat masala

Keep the chopped tomatoes aside. Mix the rest of the ingredients. We have not included the tomatoes now because it will release water and the mixture will become soupy.

Keep aside for 2-3 hours. You have to add the tomatoes just prior to frying the kababs. Add the tomatoes and mix well. Make small, round patties. Shallow fry.