Grilled Masala Prawns With Pineapple-Mint Raita

You love pineapples? I sure do... especially the sweet varieties and living in Tropical climate sure do have the best advantages to savour such juicy delicacies. It's one of my country’s oldest agro-based export-oriented industries and so popular that there is a Pineapple Muzeum to honor this humble fruit! You can view some footage of the Pineapple Muzeum (Muzium Nanas, loated in Pontian, Johor) and in Hawaii, a footage of how the pineapples are grown, harvest and processed :-)

For more information about pineapple, you can read them in my country's local Pineapple industry (look for the Pineapple Info/History on the right column) with with some recipes and the origin of Pineapple/Ananas.

Lately, I was craving for sweet pineapples and bought a large Josephine Pineapple from a local farmer's market. I used it up for cooking Pineapple Fish Curry and left with a quarter portion. As we all knew, pineapples not just great on its own but when pairing with seafood, meat, BBQ and even in curries, the tastes are heavenly! Besides adding sweetness to the food, it also adds tanginess and tenderized tough meat! Oh... beware if you try to use the juice as toner for face, it's very 'sharp' and may cause dryness and tightness on skin surface :-) I remembered once I was scolded by my mom because the pineapple juice dropped on the wooden flooring and left opaque blotches! :-P

So, here's a recipe of how I used up the last portion of Josephine Pineapple :-D Enjoy!

Grilled Masala Prawns With Pineapple-Mint Raita
Serves 2-4

20 Large Fresh Prawns

Red or Green Capsicums-seeded & cut to bite size wedges

OR
Green Chillies to taste
3-4 Tbl Oil

For Mustard Masala:

1 Tbl Ground Mustard Seeds ( I used freshly grounded Black Mustard Seeds)
1 Tbl Pounded Ginger
1 Tbl Pounded Garlic2 tsp Honey
1 tsp Salt

¾ tsp Ground Cumin
¾ tsp Ground Tumeric

For Pineapple-Mint Raita:

200 g Plain Natural Yoghurt-unsweetened

100 g Finely diced ripe Pineapple

2-3 Tbl finely chopped fresh Mint leaves

¼ tsp Ground Black Pepper

Small pinch of salt

Garnish:

Extra Mint

Method:

1. Remove heads and shells from prawns but leave the tails on. Devein the prawns.

2. Mix all the Masala ingredients together n a large bowl. Add prawns, stir and rub to coat prawns with the mix..Cover and allow to marinade in the fridge for 30 minutes.

3. Make raita just before serving: combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.

4. Thread the prawns onto the satay sticks, alternating them with capsicum wedges or Green chillies. Brush lightly with oil and grill until cooked through and lightly charred at the edges. Cook about 2-3 minutes each side, turning once.

5. Serve prawns hot, garnished with mint leaves and with raita on the side.

Note:

You can use ready grounded Mustard Seeds powder sold at Indian grocers or make your own by slow toasting mustard seeds until its fragrant and pops up. Let the grains cool down before grounding. Used according to the recipe and keep the rest in air tight container for next usage.

If you can't find black or yellow Mustard Seeds, you can use prepared bottled Wholegrain Mustard but adjust accordingly to your taste.

Prawns With Broccoli and Pine Nuts

For the last few months, I'd been eating quite a lot of seafood even when I travelled, I never missed tasting seafood specials of the regions. Of course, prices are hefty compared to my hometown - well, no fret I'll be back and ready to have seafood spree -actually the fishmongers are happy to see me, you know :-D They even remembered when was the last time I patronised their stalls :-P

I think there will be more meat and vegetables recipes coming (seafood is 'errhmmm' in Europe you know...) There's one scene I wanted to tell... any country I went, my first visit would be their fresh markets. I love the hustle and bustle of the local life, far away from tourists (except me of course :-D ) and sometimes, you may find odd food or specialty of the season amongst the vans, trucks and carts. The scene, I mentioned earlier was the first time I'm in Europe, I was shocked to see pre-cooked crabs and crevettes grises on display in baskets, trays and crates :-D I'm used to see 'live' crabs in tanks or ponds ready for selection and cook to your specifications. Well, except Flower Crabs and Blue Swimmers, other crabs are kept alive until further notice! What I can say is, today I'm a huge fan of Crevettes Grises! They are yummylicious and I always reserved the peeled shells and heads as stock for soups, stir-fries, steamed seafood, noodles... etc.

Looks like my next seafood tryout is going to be the cooked crabs but judging by the size and weight, it's going to pinch my purse soon :-D Anyway, I'm not doing fish... yet but here's a yummy recipe that may take sometime to cook but I love the results. It's like eating 2 flavours in one dish! Most important thing... mise en place... ingredients within reach, very hot wok or pan and fast stir-frying. Lots of handwork involved but all of us can do it! Serve this dish hot with steamed rice or made extra gravy, ladle on top yellow noodles. ramen or egg noodles as a delicious side dish to your main meal!

Prawns with Broccoli and Pine Nuts

Serves 2

25 g Pine Nuts

150 g Broccoli

150 g Prawns

1/2 pc Carrot

2 slices Ginger

1 Tbl Ginger wine

Some boiling water for scalding the vegetables

Marinade for Prawns:

1/8 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cornflour

1 tsp Oil

Seasoning for Broccoli:

1/4 tsp Salt

1/2 cup Chicken Stock

3 Tbl Water

3/4 tsp Cornflour

Sauce (Gravy) Mix:

3 Tbl Water

1/8 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Sugar

1/2 tsp Sesame Oil

1/2 tsp Cornflour

Method:

1. Rub the pine nuts with clean damp cloth. Let them dry and toast the nuts until fragrant and golden. Set aside. It's important to stir the pine nuts constantly to avoid burnt. You can also bake the nuts in oven at 120 ºC for 10 to 12 minutes until golden. I used fan to have even roasting.

2. Wash and cut the broccoli into small florets. Slice the carrot into rounds or any shapes you fancy (for this recipe, I shaped the carrots into flower and sliced them about 2mm thick, to maintain the shape of the design). Set aside.

3. In a small pot/pan, heat some water to a rolling boil. Scald the broccoli florets and carrot for about 1 minute. Drain immediately and set aside.

4. Shelled and devein the prawns. Rinse and pat dry. Marinate for about 5 minutes.

5. Heat some oil in a wok or deep pan. When it's really hot, add in the broccoli and stir-fry for while. Sizzle with ginger wine, the seasoning and mix well. Dish out in a serving plate. (Keep it warm with another plate on top if you prefer).

6. Wash your pan or wok with some water and heat it up again to high heat (to evaporate the water before adding oil to avoid splattering).

7. When the wok or pan is dry, add in some oil. When oil is hot and smoky, add in sliced ginger and stir-fry until fragrant. Add the marinated prawns and stir-fry quickly for few seconds. Add in the sliced carrots and the sauce/gravy mixture.

8. Mix well until the gravy thickens. Dish out on top of the cooked broccoli. Sprinkle some toasted pine nuts and serve.

Note:

If you can't find ready made Ginger Wine in your local Asian shops, you can try to make your own.

15 g old ginger - bruised or sliced into pieces

60 ml Rice Wine or Sake (please choose quality rice wine)

Add them together in a air tight jar and leave it to soak overnight before using. Strain the liquid as needed. This quantity will keep for several weeks, depends on how frequent you use in your cooking :-)

♪ ♥ Enjoy ♥♬

Spicy Chilli-Garlic Prawns

It's been more than 5 months, I had a part-time assistant or helper to do some chores at home. What amazed me was she managed to get very good (and cheaper too) some of my favourites from the local fresh market. I bet she's very good at haggling the prices! Frankly, I used to spend a lot buying food from supermarkets, which has little or no choice at all except imported produces which doubled the price (sometimes ridiculously) and such items had short shelf-life by the time they reached their destinations. Since I employed her, my expenditure for food reduced :-) but I still spend some hefty sums for quality wine or cheeses :-(

Few days ago she bought for me some fresh medium Tiger Prawns for only 3.10 € which made me grinned and thinking of ways how to eat these prawns. Btw, that price is for 1 kg and varies from day to day. Sometimes, when it's heavy rain, seafood are slightly more expensive. When the price is good, she would buy some for me to freeze, so that I could cook on other days when she's not working for me. No wonder, some of my neighbors seek her help to buy vegetables and particularly seafood! :-D

For this dish, it's important to know that a very high heat is used to avoid over cooking of seafood yet maintain its succulent and firm shape. Some foodies called it as springy, bouncy or 'QQ' texture that when you bite into these prawns, you can taste the bursting sweetness of fresh prawns and the marinades. You need to practice 'mise en place' if you're going to cook this stir-fry method which worth the effort. Now, let's wok away with this recipe...

Spicy Chilli-Garlic Prawns

Serves 2-3

500 g Large Prawns (like King Prawn or Tiger Prawn)

For the Sauce/Gravy:

50 ml Soy Sauce

30 ml Rice Vinegar

2 tsp Sesame Oil

30 g Tomato Ketchup

2 tsp Raw Sugar

1 tsp Cornflour

Some Water

2 Tbl Cooking Oil (like Corn, Peanut, Palm or Canola)

2 cloves Garlic - minced

1 Tbl Fresh Ginger - minced

1 nos Fresh Red Chilli seeded and minced (you can also use Jalapeño or Bird's Eye Chilli)

1 stalk Spring Onion - sliced thinly

Method:

1. For the Sauce: Mix all the ingredients in a small bowl and stir until sugar and cornflour dissolve.

2. Heat a pan or wok over high heat until you see some smoke coming out. Add 1 Tbl of the cooking oil. Add in the prawns and sear until browned on both sides (about 1 minute or so on both sides). Remove the prawns from the pan. Set aside.

3. With the same pan, turn up the heat on high and add in the rest of the cooking oil. Add in the garlic, ginger, chilli and half of the sliced spring onion. Stir for awhile until fragrant.

4. Add in the sauce mixture and give a quick stir until it starts to bubble.

5. Add the seared prawns and continue to stir-fry until cooked and the sauce thickens slightly. Dish out into a platter and garnish with the remaining sliced spring onion. Serve with hot steamed rice!

Tip: Before start cooking, prepare the other stir-fry ingredients mise en place because you will cook in very high heat and fast. The ingredients for stir-fry have to be within your reach so that the dish not only cooks fast but not over done. This method ensures your seafood stays firm and succulent. If using vegetables, stays crunchy and maintain its color and taste.

Enjoy!

Stir-fried Mixed Colored Long Bean With Prawns and Cashew Nuts

After a nice lunch celebrating my birthday (yep, am getting wiser another year! LOL) in a Japanese Restaurant, my family decided to get some grocery at this mall. It's Sunday and this place was crowded as usual. Judging by the hot weather, I bet lots of people were enjoying the 'free' air-conditioning in such malls besides bringing their families for shopping. Yours truly, preferred to be near the freezers LOL!

What a coincidence, someone we knew participated in a local Model Search held at this mall and we're glad that he was in the final. Later on, I learnt that he didn't won anything because the main awards and other sub-titles (is this the correct term?) were won by the sponsor's own models! OK, the 14 Finalists got something like RM 400 worth of Prizes (Vouchers? Toilettries ... worth € 84.70/ USD 111.08?) I found it strange... First, they advertised for Model Search which was opened to the public. If they voted their own models (which obviously already searched and founded) as winners, what's the contest for? I suspected it's part of their gimmick to promote their agency but what a biased and unprofessional etiquette! Could it be such practice is confined locally or the same as any model agencies through out the world? Is there any models or agencies that can shed some light in this matter? Yes, I felt it's not fair that my friend didn't win a single thing but I also pitied the other hopefuls I saw that day. They should get a fair judgement and votes! I remembered I saw a petite model about 5 ft 2 in who wore a 5 inch tall high heels... blessed her feet!

Ok, now back to this recipe I wanted to share :-D I found an interesting item (also rare) among the shelves of multi colored hues of vegetables! I read about it before but never thought I saw it with my own eyes this long garnet colored long beans! This is the end product... :-D

Here's the stars fo the dish... the Red or Purple Long Bean or Yard Long Beans (Vigna unguiculata)! I pictured it with some left over, common Green Long Bean variety. There's definitely differences between these 2 species; not only it's color but taste and texture. Which one is my favourite? Any guesses?

Let's get to dish! I mixed the two types of Long Beans with some prawns and nuts. The taste came out nicely balanced with the extra creamy, cruncy cashew nuts. I admitted, I was worried that the Red/Purple Long beans may lose their color and turned mushy, just like their green cousin. I decided to give it a good stir with high heat like I usually did with vegetables - the way I preferred. Voila! Here's the result... The dark color still there and guessed what? It tasted crunchy and not mushy at all compared to Green Long Beans which is still crunchy but slightly softer even though I tossed them into the pan the same time after I mixed them up first in a colander.

Stir-fried Mixed Colored Long Beans With Prawns & Cashew Nuts

Serves 2-3

100 g Green Long Beans

100 g Red/Purple Long Beans

100 g Prawns - cleaned and deveined

50 g Cashew Nuts - toasted without oil

4 pips Garlic - minced

½ cube Chicken Stock or ½ cup homemade stock

Oil for frying

Garnishes of your choice

Method:

1. Wash the long beans and trim into 3-4 cm lengths. Set aside.

2. In a deep pan or wok, heat some oil until it's hot.

3. Add in the minced garlic and stir-fried until it's slightly brown and fragrant.

4. Add in the toasted Cashew Nuts and stir.

5. Add in prawns and stir quickly (it would curl slightly; do not over cook the prawns or any seafood too long. The texture would be hard or rubbery).

6. Quickly, add in the trimmed long beans and stir to mix thoroughly. By now, the prawns already cook properly with the long beans.

7. Dish it out and serve with your choice of garnishing.

Enjoy!