Shrimp Fry with Green Tomatoes

I lost my Grandfather few days back and I pray that he rests in peace. When you lose one of your loved ones, it changes your whole perspective. It makes you sort the priorities. End of the day, nothing is in our hands, we just have to make the best of it and take life as it comes. 

I have such wonderful memories of my Grandfather. He loved cooking anything related to meat or seafood. He would cook our cherished family recipes like Fish pulusu(curry), Lamb curry and Prawns fry. Of course my Grandma was like a sous chef to him, doing all prep activities, getting all the ingredients ready next to the stove.

This Shrimp recipe is in loving memory of my Grandfather. I slightly changed our family's classic Shrimp fry recipe with addition of tangy green tomatoes. I am still enjoying the green tomatoes from our harvest last year in frozen form.

What you need:

1 cup fine chopped green tomatoes

1 cup fine chopped onions

1/4 cup fresh methi leaves

2 cups washed salad shrimp

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 tbsp ginger & garlic paste

2 tsp red chilli powder (change according to your spice threshold)

1/2 tsp coriander powder

2 tbsp oil

salt to taste

cilantro to garnish

Whole Spices:

1/2 inch cinnamon stick

1/4 tsp shahjeera

1/2 tsp jeera

1 bay leaf

2 cloves

Steps to follow:

1. Heat oil in a saute pan
2. Add whole spices one after another and fry for 30 sec
3. Then add methi leaves and onions. Saute until onions turn translucent
4. Now add ginger & garlic paste and keep stirring for a minute, the onions will start turning golden brown
5. Add turmeric, salt & red chilli powder
6. Add shrimp to the onion mixture and saute until shrimp is cooked (water released from shrimp should be all gone)
7. Finally add coriander powder and turn off the heat.
8. Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve with hot rice or roti

Working Lunch

Here is a simple but delicious Spinach & Mung bean sprouts salad made for me by dear friend Usha. Will blog about the recipe soon.

Green Peas

The Pea seedlings I planted in early spring are ready to harvest. They did not grow as big as I thought they would but started flowering few days back followed by these beautiful green pods. I didn't get a chance to cook the peas, we just ate them raw as soon as they were picked. This was the first time I ever tasted peas fresh from the vine. They were tender and sweet.

Green peas are going to be a regular in my garden from now on every year. They are so easy maintenance. Just water them alternate day. I think they tolerate some shade but I can see that the ones in full sun giving more yield. 

Happy Mother's Day

Pull Apart Bread Rolls

My hubby is a big fan of bread. Soft buttery rolls are his weakness J so I baked fresh pull apart rolls for him recently. I just followed the recipe from King Arthur flour website. They came out perfect and look adorable. These soft rolls are good just as they are, but would taste great with a pat of butter. Another great combination is Nutella, cut the roll into half, slather with Nutella and I guarantee you the taste will be delectable. Next time I will probably add more sugar and an egg to the dough to get that Hawaiian sweet roll flavor.

Don't really need bread machine or stand mixer, just use the muscle power to knead the dough. The buttery aroma fills the whole house while these are baking, getting your appetite ready. Just grab the soft pillow-y goodness warm out of the oven and enjoy while they last.  I used the same dough to make stuffed rolls with potato & peas filling but we finished them all before I could take a picture. Will blog about those some other time.