Cajun Prawns with Pineapple Salsa

Description:
A variant to the recipe that I found on: http://thebestrecipes.wordpress.com/2008/03/06/cajun-fish-with-pineapple-salsa-and-wilted-spinach-salad/

Marinated shelled prawns for the afternoon in Cajun spices, Worchestershire sauce and beer. Pan fried them just before dinner. The pineapple salso has fresh mint in it, pineapple, capsicum and a small onion. Think the salsa can be improved, I guess I put in a bit too much of pineapple, but it was nice anyway... The prawns can be replaced with white fish fillets, which might be nicer - will try this next time...


Ingredients:
1 kg large prawns

marinade:
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
11/2 teaspoons ground black pepper
11/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
5/6 Dashes of Tabasco
2 teaspoons cajun seasoning (original recipe has 2 teaspoons paprika and 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper)
5 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 Cup beer

Pineapple Salsa:
250g fresh pineapple
1/2 red capsicum
1/2 yellow capsicum
1 small red onion
2-3 tablespoons fresh mint
1 tablespoon fresh coriander (substituted with dried coriander leaf flakes)


Directions:
Clean the prawns and remove the shells, leave only the bit at the tail in tact.
Mix the marinade ingredients in a bowl and add it to the prawns. Leave the marinated prawns in the fridge overnight or at least for a few hours.

For the salsa, chop the onion, pineapple, capsicum into fine pieces.
Cut the mint leaves fine. Mix all together and refridgerate.

Fry the prawns (discard the marinade) until they are nicely cooked. Serve on a plate. The salsa can be added at the side.
If you use fish instead of prawns, spread the salsa over the fish fillets.

Gumbo Soup

Description:
This is a Cajun soup where anything goes, I made a chicken & sausage version - basically cooked it for the whole afternoon on the slow cooker. It has a mix of herbs and spices, meat or fish, and sturdy vegetables like okras, celery, carrot, capsicum, onion. The soup can be a meal on its own, it's very heavy as it has a roux base (roux = mix of wheat flour with oil or butter). I served it with French bread (to dip in the soup), but it can be served with rice too. Some people add rice in the soup itself.

Ingredients:
1 cup oil
1 cup (wheat) flour
2 large onions
2 capsicums
1 carrot
6 ribs celery
6 cloves garlic
12 okras
2 litre chicken stock
4 bay leaves
1 teaspoon dried thyme leaves (i couldn't get those)
3 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
salt & pepper (to taste)
1 chicken
1 salami sausage (original recipe requires Andouille sausage - I substituted with Hot Hungarian Salami)
gumbo file powder
fresh parsley

Directions:
Chicken chopped into chunks. Sausage chopped into cubes.
Season the chicken with salt, pepper and Cajun seasoning. Brown quickly in frying pan.
Take out the chicken - keep aside, brown the sausage, take out, keep aside with the chicken (discard the fat).

Make a roux of the oil and the flour. Heat the oil, slowly pour in the flour, stir and keep stirring till it becomes a dough ball and turns light brown. I make it peanut colour - some people make it chocolate (but that's tough ... ) - careful not to burn it. If it does get burnt... start again.
Take out the dough and put it in the fridge for about half an hour to let it cool off.

Meanwhile clean the vegetables and cut them into chunky pieces.
The onion in large pieces too. The garlic in slices.

Make a chicken stock (or buy ready made one - I made mine with chicken stock cubes and water).

Put the roux dough back in the pan - slowly heat and add a bit of the chicken stock. Stir till it gets to a smooth paste. Add a bit more stock, keep stirring, keep adding stock, keep stirring. Make sure at all times that you have a smooth substance. Once you have added half of the stock, it's time to add the vegetables and the chicken. Stir, add remainder of the stock, stir again and now put it in a slow cooker to let it cook for a few hours.

Before serving add the chopped parsley.

Serve hot with French bread or rice.

Assam prawns

Description:
i simply love the tangy taste of assam...

Ingredients:
Prawns
Garlic
Ginger
Buah keras (or macadamias)
Tamarind (juice)
Belacan (prawn paste), small piece
Fresh red chillies (or dried)
Shallots


Directions:
Preparation:
Cut the garlic, ginger, chillies, buah keras (candlenuts) fine. Crumble the belacan (this stuff has strong taste, don't use too much of it). Grind the mixture together into a paste. Chop the shallots fine (this will give your sauce some texture, so add more for thicker sauce).

Prepare the tamarind juice (break off a piece of tamarind, put it in a bowl, add water and squeeze it with your hand until it becomes a smooth brown liquid, remove the seeds). You can add a bit of sugar to make it less sour.

Clean the prawns (I usually take of the heads, and cut open the back to clean and let the spices go in).

Cooking

Fry the spices mixture in some oil, for a short while (till fragrant, don’t let it get burnt). Add the prawns and fry them till they get a pinkish colour. Add the shallots and fry them for a minute before adding the tamarind juice. Add salt to taste. Let it simmer for about 5 to 10 minutes and it’s ready to serve!

Brinjal stuffed with minced meat

Description:
One of my cooking experiments that turned out well enough to be recorded :)

Ingredients:
1 large brinjal
150 gram minced meat
oyster sauce
5-spice powder
coriander powder
corn starch

for the sauce:
chopped garlic
chopped red chilli
Shao Xing cooking rice wine
soy sauce
oyster sauce

Directions:
Cut the brinjal into 4 identical sized pieces (cut in half and lengthwise in half).
Hollow out the 4 pieces and what is cut out from the brinjal can be used for the sauce.

Mix the minced meat with some 5-spice powder, coriander, a bit of oyster sauce and a teaspoon of corn starch.

Stuff the brinjal pieces with the minced meat mixture (arrange the meat on the top).
Heat oil in the pan, fry the garlic with the brinjal insides and the chillie for a minute. Add the stuffed brinjal pieces (minced meat facing up) in the frying pan and arrange them neatly. Pour the wine over the brinjal pieces as well as the soy sauce. Let it get to a boil and cover with the lid. Let it simmer for while (about 10 minutes) until the brinjal gets soft and the meat is cooked. Add a bit of water if the sauce gets too dry. Take out the brinjal when done, and add a bit of oyster sauce to the sauce mixture. Then pour the sauce over the brinjal and serve

Assam fish curry

Description:
I must give the credits of my curry fish recipe to Makan Time website (there are other good recipes of local dishes to be found here as well). Click on the “Mom’s recipes” link on the left side menu bar and choose the recipe for “Fish head Curry”.

I make this curry in different varieties, based on what’s available in fridge and my mood of the day. (I vary the veggies - like no lady fingers, but changed to beans and cabbage - and fish, instead of fish head, I sometimes use prawns, squid, or a piece of fish).

Ingredients:
1 Brinjal
Lady fingers
(Green beans)
Tomatoes
Red chillies
Curry leaves
Curry powder
Coconut milk
Tamarind juice
Garlic
2 small red onions
Turmeric powder (or fresh turmeric)
Chili powder
Lemon grass
Fresh Ginger
Gelangal
Piece of fresh fish (fish should be sturdy enough to cook for a while)


Directions:
1. Ground onions, garlic, ginger and red chillies.
Crush lemon grass.
Prepare coconut milk and tamarind juice.
Clean and cut the veggies into bite sized pieces, quarter tomatoes.

2. Heat oil and fry grounded onion, garlic, ginger, red chillies till fragrant.
Add in lemon grass, curry powder, curry leaves and chili powder, fry briefly. Take care not to burn the ingredients (really fry just for half a minute).

3. Add in tamarind juice, the coconut milk, make it into a smooth substance, add some water if necessary. Then add the beans, brinjal, cabbage, some salt and let it cook for a while. When half cooked, add in fish, tomatoes and let cook till the fish is ready. When it's cooked, remove from heat before it starts to boil.

Curry pumpkin soup

Description:
This can be an appetizer or served as a meal with bread (e.g. garlic bread, toast, french loaf).
I made this recipe as an improvisation one night when I wanted to have a quick and healthy meal and had some pumpkin left in the fridge.
Recorded it later as I liked the taste of it.

Ingredients:
Half pumpkin (e.g. butternut)
250 ml chicken stock
1 onion
1 tablespoon sundried tomatoes (or tomato puree)
2 star anise (茴香)
Curry powder
Pinch of salt


Directions:
Cut the pumpkin in cubes, and cut the onion fine.
Heat some oil and fry the onion till glazy, then add the pumpkin, fry for minute and stir.
Add in curry powder and stir it through the rest of the mixture.
Add in chicken stock and tomato until heated, then reduce the fire.
Add in star anise, let it cook for about 5 – 10 mins until the pumpkin is soft.
Mash it a bit to make it more smooth and soupy, or if you want it real smooth use blender.

To make it more presentable add some pumpkin seeds on the top.

Serve with garlic bread or toast.

Cannelloni Spinach & Minced Meat

Description:
Labour intensive, but good if you getting guests for dinner, as the preparations can be done in advance and then you just put it in the oven to cook before your guests are supposed to arrive.

Ingredients:
1 pack of (pre-cooked) cannelloni (12 pieces)
250g minced meat
250g frozen spinach (let it de-freeze before start cooking)
1 Onion (finely chopped)
4 cloves Garlic (finely chopped)
Pine nuts
2 eggs (lightly beaten)
1 tablespoon milk
Fresh Italian herbs (e.g. rosemary, basil, oregano)
Ground pepper
Salt to taste
Cheese (e.g. grated parmesan)
Pasta tomato sauce (either ready-made from a jar or "cook your own")


Directions:
Fry the onion and garlic in olive oil, when onions are glazy, add the minced meat and stir to make it into fine mixture. When meat is done, add spinach and mix the mixture well. Add pine nuts, stir through. Add the eggs and the milk, stir well. Finally add the herbs (fine pieces).
Close the fire and use the mixture to stuff the cannelloni.

Take an oven dish, cover the bottom with 1/3 of the tomato sauce. Place the filled cannelloni on top of the tomato sauce. If any filling left over, spread it out on top of the cannelloni. Pour over the remainder of the tomato sauce and make sure all the cannelloni shells are covered in sauce. Cover the dish with aluminium foil. Put in the oven on 220C, let it cook for about 50 mins. Take off the foil and add cheese, cook it for another 5 mins to let the cheese melt.

Serve with fresh salad.