Stir Fried Lamb with Honey and Soy sauce

I was not a big fan of honey and meat in a single preparation but when I had the Soy Honey Stir Fried Lamb, I was not only impressed with it but hung up on trying it at home. It is effortless to make but has loads of flavours to tingle your taste buds. I am also hooked on to adding sesame seeds in all stir fried dishes. They go very well with dry garlic.

Ingredients:

½ kilo stir fry lamb

1 tablespoon of soy sauce

2 tablespoon of honey

2 red chillies chopped

1 teaspoon of dry garlic

1 teaspoon of sesame seeds

½ cup of broccoli

½ cup of baby corn

sesame Oil

salt to taste

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

Add some sesame oil to the wok and add the stir fry lamb. Cook the lamb in batches until it is tender and set aside. Mix the soy sauce and honey in a mixing bowl until they are homogeneous and set aside.

In the same wok add the rest of the sesame oil and fry the dry garlic, red chillies and sesame seeds. Toss for 30 seconds and add the broccoli and baby corn. Cook on high for 1 minute while constantly tossing the mixture.

Return the lamb to the wok and add the soy and honey mixture. Add some salt to taste and cook for further 2 minutes on high heat.

Serve with white rice.

 

Fried Prawns

This is a quick and easy starter if you are having friends over. The fried prawns will go very well with beer or chilled white wine.

Ingredients:

1 Kilo raw peeled prawns

½ teaspoon red chilli powder

½ teaspoon turmeric

½ teaspoon cracked black pepper

2 tablespoon rice flour

1 egg

salt to taste

oil to shallow fry

Preparation time: 10 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Mix the rice flour, red chilli powder, black pepper and turmeric in a plate. Add some salt to taste.

Beat 1 egg and set aside.

Heat enough oil in a pan to shallow fry the prawns

Dip the prawns one by one in the egg first and then in the rice flour mixture and shallow fry until pink. Squeeze some lemon juice on the prawns and serve hot with some sweet chilli sauce.

Tambda Rassa

Sukka Mutton and Tambda Rassa are twins so to speak. One can not exist without the other. It is essentially a soup from the stock of cooked goat or lamb. It uses the same spice blend and ingredients as the sukka mutton.

Ingredients:

Bone goat curry pieces

1 cups of grated coconut

1 medium brown onions sliced

½ teaspoon of poppy seeds

½ tablespoon of Kanda Lasun Masala or red chilli powder

1 tablespoon of garam masala

4-5 cloves of garlic

½ inch ginger

½ cup fresh coriander leaves

3 tablespoon of cooking oil

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Pressure cook the goat pieces for 15 minutes.

In a pan roast the grated coconut until golden brown and set aside. In the same pan add ½ teaspoon of oil and roast the sliced brown onion until golden brown.

In a blender blend the coconut, roasted brown onion, fresh coriander, ginger, garlic, garam masala, kanada lasun masala and poppy seeds into a fine paste.

In a pan add cooking oil and add the blended paste and saute for 4-5 minutes on medium heat.

Add the curry goat pieces and the stock. Add some salt to taste and bring it to boil.

This dish is best served with Bhakri/roti, sukka mutton and rice.  

 

Sukka Mutton

I would like to introduce to you the Gem of Kolhapuri cuisine, “Sukka Mutton”. This is one of my favourite meat preparations. There are plenty of restaurants in Kolhapur where you get a Kolhapuri Thali which serves sukka mutton. My favourite place is Shetkari dhaba at Phulewadi, Kolhapur. Sukka mutton or Stir fry goat has to be accompanied by “Tambda Rassa” (Goat Soup). But I will feature that in another post of mine.

Ingredients:

1 Kilo Goat curry pieces or lamb pieces

2 cups of grated coconut

2 medium brown onions sliced

1 teaspoon of poppy seeds

1 tablespoon of Kanda Lasun Masala or red chilli powder

1 ½ tablespoon of garam masala

2 bay leaves

7-8 cloves of garlic

1 inch ginger

½ cup fresh coriander leaves

3 tablespoon of cooking oil

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Pressure cook the goat or lamb for 15 minutes and separate the stock from the curry pieces. Store the stock for Tambda Rassa/Goat soup.

In a pan roast the grated coconut until golden brown and set aside. In the same pan add ½ teaspoon of oil and roast 1 sliced brown onion until golden brown.

In a blender blend the coconut, roasted brown onion, fresh coriander, ginger, garlic, garam masala, kanada lasun masala and poppy seeds into a fine paste.

In a pan add cooking oil and once hot add the sliced onion and bay leaves. Saute for 2-3 minutes or until the onion is golden brown. Add the blended paste and saute for 4-5 minutes on medium heat.

Add the curry goat pieces and coat them well with the blended paste. Cover and cook for 4-5 minutes. If you are not pressure cooking them cover and cook on a low flame for 40-50 minutes. Usually this has to be served dry but if you are not cooking the goat or the lamb in a pressure cooker keep adding the separated stock in small amount until the meat cooks and then let the water evaporate to make it dry. Add some meat tenderiser if necessary to make it tender.

This dish is best served with Bhakri but can also be served with hot Rotis.

 

 

 

Kolhapuri Kat Vada

My home town Kolhapur is most famous for 3 things. Kolhapuri Chappal, Sukka Mutton and chamchamit Misal. Until recently there were very few fast food joints in the city for the simple fact that if people were hungry, they would go and eat Misal any hour of the day. If it is lunch or dinner you have sukka mutton and bhakri as the preferred choice. While I will feature Kolhapuri sukka mutton and tambda rassa in a different article, I will show you how to make the “Kat” for the misal. This Kat can also be used with “Batata vada” to make “Kat- vada”.

Ingredients:

1 brown onion

½ cup freshly grated coconut

4 cloves of garlic

½ inch ginger

¼ cup coriander leaves

4 pods of cardamom

½ teaspoon of fennel seeds

2 sticks of cinnamon

½ teaspoon of coriander seeds

½ teaspoon of cumin seeds

¼ teaspoon of black pepper

2 star anises

½ cup of milk

2 tablespoon of kanda lasun masala

½ teaspoon of turmeric

salt

600 ml of water

5 tablespoon cooking oil

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 15 mins

In a pan roast the cardamom, fennel seeds, coriander seeds, cumin seeds and black pepper and set aside. In the same pan roast the coconut until golder brown and set aside.

Add little bit of oil to the pan and saute the chopped onion until golden brown.

In a blender add the roasted spices, turmeric, star anise, roasted coconut, onion, coriander leaves, garlic and ginger and blend to make a fine paste.

In a pan add the remaining oil and add the kanda lasun masala to the oil and saute for ½ minute'

Adding the kanda-lasun masal at this stage ensure that you get the “tavanga” for the misal. If you do not have the kanda lasun masala substitute it with red chilli powder however add the red chilli powder while blending all the masala.

Saute the masala until oil starts separating and add the milk. Adding the milk was a tip, I picked up from my mother in law. Although milk seemed out of place in the recipe the first time I heard of it, it tapered down the spices a fair bit leaving the tavanga and the colour as it is. Let it simmer for 2-3 minutes and then add the water. Let the “Kat” boil for about 4-5 minutes and add some salt to taste.

For making Kat vada, halve the batata Vada in bowl and pour the cut over the vada. Garnish with chopped onion and juice of lemon.

 

 

 

Pad Thai

Pad thai is a wonderful preparation and is Thailand's national dish. It is a street food in Thailand and very popular here in Australia. It combines the tangy tamarind, spicy chilli and crushed peanuts. It is one of those dishes that you want to keep on eating.

Ingredients:

½ cup tamarind extract

1 tablespoon fish sauce

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 tablespoon palm sugar

1 tablespoon cooking oil

3 red chillies

½ teaspoon of chopped garlic

2 teaspoon of chopped onion

1 teaspoon of lime juice

uncooked prawns/shrimp

½ cup firm tofu

2 cup flat white noodles

1 cup bean sprouts

½ cup roasted and crushed peanuts

fresh coriander leaves

1 egg

salt to taste

Preparation time: 20 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Soak the flat rice noodles in boiling water until they are soft. Drain the water and wash with cold water and set aside.

The tamarind extract can be bought in any store but if using whole tamarind, soak the tamarind in warm water and them blend it in the blender. Strain the juice using a strainer.

Pad thai sauce

Add tamarind paste to a wok and add the fish sauce. Add the palm sugar and brown sugar,stir and let it simmer for about 3-4 minutes. Set the sauce aside in a bowl.

Noodles

Coat the wok with oil add the garlic, onion and red chillies. Add prawn to the wok and cook until they are pink. Add firm tofu and the egg and cook it for 2 minutes.

Add the noodles to the wok and add 3-4 teaspoon of sauce and add lime juice. Toss the noddles until they are coated with sauce. Add the lime juice and bean sprouts and toss again.

Serve the pad thai with roasted and crushed peanuts.

 

 

Sambar

The recipe for today is sambar. Sambar south Indian dish best eaten with Idli, Dosa, medu vada or just plain rice. It is a sumptous lentils or vegetable stew cooked with toor dal. To make authentic sambar you would need to make the smabar masala from scratch. But in this recipe I am showing you how to make sambar from store bought sambar masala. But if would like to make the sambar masala from scratch please visit www.vahrevah.com from chef Thumma.

Ingredients:

Ingredients:

½ cup toor dal

3 tablespoon of sambar masala

1 teaspoon of tumeric

1 teaspoon of mustard seeds

1 teaspoon of asafoetida

curry leaves

3 dry red chillies

1 tablespoon of garlic

1 red onion chopped

½ cup coconut milk

1 potato diced

1 tomato chopped

¼ cup jaggery

1 tablespoon tamarind extract

salt to taste.

Preparation time: 15 mins

Cooking time: 10 mins

Wash and cook the dal in pressure cooker for 15 minutes under pressure or cook it on a stove until it is tender. Mash the dal evenly and add little water if necessary.

In a pan heat oil and add mustard seeds. Once the seeds start popping add the asafoetida, turmeric and curry leaves. Add the red chillies and saute for 30 seconds. Add the garlic and onion and saute until onions become translucent.

Add the potatoes and any other vegetables you may want to use (eggplant or drumsticks go best with the sambar along with potatoes). Add the sambar masala and tamarind juice to the pan. Saute for a minute and add the coconut milk to the pan cook for further 2 minutes.

Add the cooked dal to the pan and add a cup of water and bring to boil. Once the sambar comes to boil add the jaggery and tomatoes. Add salt to taste and simmer until the vegetables are cooked.

Serve with Idli, dosa or medu vada.