Quick Indian Cooking

Today, I felt the desperate need for good sushi at lunchtime.

Armed with a oversized brolley coordinated with my monochrome outfit, I braved a 15-minute walk in the midst of a thunderstorm to locate my nearest sushi takeout.

It was worth it.

I don’t normally feel the same love for cabbage. But my mother, armed with a certain diligence and innate ability, always manages to purchase the nation’s least favourite vegetables for our weekday meals.

As we cooked a simple and delicious prawn and cabbage stir fry, known by Bengalis as bandha kopir thorkari, I thought about how under appreciated cabbage really is. Koreans love kim chi and Germans their version. Surely, Indian style cabbage is what will eventually win hearts and minds?

It sure got my vote. The dish was moist, subtle and absolutely delicious. We ate some for dinner and the rest straight out of the fridge the next day. Pair it with some ready rotis for a simple and healthy weekday meal.

This recipe serves 4:

1 medium cabbage, sliced into 1 cm wide strips

1 packet of ready-cooked shelled prawns

1 cup of shelled fresh or frozen peas

1 tbsp grated ginger

3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

1 tsp cumin powder

1 tsp coriander powder

Half tsp turmeric powder

Half tsp chilli powder

1 large bay leaf

1 tsp whole cumin

25 gm fresh coriander, chopped roughly

2 whole slim green chillies

1.5 tsp sunflower oil

Salt to taste

Wash the cabbage thoroughly in cold water. In a large pot, heat the oil over a high flame.

When the oil is hot, add the bay leaf and cumin seeds. As they start sizzling, chuck in the shredded cabbage.

Stir fry the cabbage for two minutes and then add the turmeric, chilli, cumin and coriander powders. Fry for another two minutes on the high flame until the cabbage is well-coated with the masalas.

Now lower the flame to a medium heat, add the ginger and garlic, cover the pot and simmer until the cabbage is cooked. You don’t need to add any water.

The cabbage will take a good 20 minutes to soften. within 10 minutes of cooking, stir in the peas, prawns and green chillies.

When the cabbage is moist but without gravy and soft, take the lid off and mix in the fresh coriander.

Add salt to taste and enjoy hot or cold.

My husband is soon to leave London for a three-week stay in Peru. This is a problem.

It’s been a while since I changed lightbulbs, used the hoover or fixed the fuse. I am also prone to leaving the iron on, back door open, forgetting my flat keys and/or mobile.

But the BIGGEST worry is that he’s taking the super cool, super professional digital camera with him. I lose my Chief Operating Officer, Chief Creative Consultant and the mean machine for what will be the longest three weeks ever.

After a brief fit and sulk, I agreed to be taught how to make the snappy snap digital camera function as its more techy counterpart for three weeks.

The model is question was prawn patia – a popular hot and sour Parsi prawn curry. My new colleague at work mentioned how much she loved this dish and I thought I would post the recipe for her. I served it with some khichdi – a simple lentil and rice dish.

Taking the photo was a bit tricky, but not as bad as I thought. The prawns were yummy though – isn’t that all that matters?

This recipe serves 2-3:

250gm large prawns (I used cooked frozen ones, thawed)

2 large tomatoes, chopped

2 medium onions, chopped

3 fat cloves of garlic, chopped

Half tsp turmeric

1 tsp coriander powder

1 tsp cumin powder

Half tsp chilli powder (more if you can handle it)

Half a cup of fresh coriander, chopped fine

1 tbsp vinegar

1 tsp sugar

2 tbsp oil

Salt to taste

Heat the oil and when hot, fry the onions until translucent. Add the garlic and continue to fry until pale brown.

Add all the spices, the vinegar, the tomatoes and fry until the pungent smell goes and the onions start disintegrating. You may need to keep adding a little add hot water to the pan to prevent the spices from sticking to the bottom and burning.

Add about half a cup of water to the mixture, stir in the coriander and simmer for about 15 minutes until the oil reappears through little pores in the mixture.

Now add in the prawns and salt to taste. Give them a good stir to ensure they are well coated and remove from the flame. This dish should not have too much gravy.

Back to recipes after three Indian cooking lessons and I was a bit stuck for ideas. A bit of archive rekke to decide what to cook next revealed an abyssmal absence of fish dishes in my repertoire.

No suprise there considering I was virtually tortured with Bengali fish curry as a child.

See, I developed terrible eyesight at the tender age of nine. The local quack eye shrink recommended I eat a lot of fish.

Bengalis are famous for their fish curries. Except they cook fish with skin, bones, heads and tails. They cook vegetables with fish and dal with fish.

Suddently, not only was fish everywhere, every day, but I also had to eat it.

Enough to put me off it for the next 20 years!

As a (near) grown woman, I have decided to test the fishy waters once again. I looked around for fish recipes and came across this one by Sra.

I was drawn to its simplicity and, of course, speed. The results were delicious and even our house guest, who hates Indian food, was left licking his fingers. Use a meaty fish to prevent it from falling apart.

The only change I made to Sra’s recipe, was to fry the onion. garlic and ginger first to get rid of the raw smell, before adding the masalas, fish and coconut milk.

This recipe serves 2-3:

500 gm meaty white fish (I used Marlin)
1 cup coconut milk
3 small onions, chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes or two red chillies ground
2″ cinnamon
10 curry leaves
Quarter tsp turmeric
Quarter tsp fenugreek leaves
Juice of half a lime
2 tbsp oil
Salt to taste

Fry the onion, ginger and garlic until they turn pale brown. Add all the spices, curry leaves and fry on a high for about five minutes.

Add the coconut milk, lower the flame and simmer for about 10 minutes until the raw smell of the spice go.

Finally, cube the fish and add it to the pan. Wait until the fish cooks through, no more than a couple of minutes, and then serve, drizzled with the lime juice.

The first recipe back has to start with prawns. I overdosed on prawns in India. We ate them grilled on the tandoor, curried and even cooked in dhal!

My recipe is for prawns cooked the Goan way. Goa needs no introduction for ravers, beach lovers and sun seekers. But for food lovers everywhere Goan grub is the fiesty cousin of an everyday curry.

It is home to the original pork vindaloo and a variety of seafood dishes cooked in high chilli, vinegar and a medley of spices. NOT for the faint hearted!

I have toned my recipe down slightly to meet everyone’s taste buds. From my two previous visits to Goa I know that usually little shrimps are used for this dish rather than the king prawn variety.

250-350gms prawns
2 tsp whole cumin
1 tsp turmeric powder
2 whole dry red chillies
4 cloves
1″ cinnamon
1″ ginger
1 large onion finely sliced
2 tbsp oil
3 tbsp white vinegar

Make a paste of all the ingredients, except the oil, prawns and onion. Heat the oil and when hot, fry the onions.

When the onions are brown, add the masala paste and fry on a high heat until the oil leaves the masala.

The pungent smell, as always, will go when the masala is cooked. Now add the prawns. Stir until the prawns are cooked. Add salt to taste.