Coconut Milk Prawn Biryani

For Biryani
Prawn – 1/2 kg
Basmathi rice – 3 cups
Onion – 2 (chopped lengthwise)
Tomato – 2
Ginger Garlic Paste – 1.5 tsp 
Green Chillies – 2 (slit into half – lengthwise)
Chilli powder – 1.5 tsp
Mint leaves – 3 tbsp (chopped nicely) 
Coriander leaves – 3 tbsp (chopped nicely)
Thick Coconut Milk – 2 cups
Water – 3 cups 
Oil – 2 tbsp
Ghee – 2 tbsp
Cashews – few (optional)
Coriander leaves for garnishing
Salt – as per taste

2. Add the onion and ginger garlic paste and saute, till the raw smell of ginger goes off. Add the tomato and saute it. 

3. Add the green chilli, coriander leaves, mint leaves, and saute for a min. Then add the chilli powder, turmeric powder and salt and the Biryani masala.

4. Add in the curd/yogurt now. Let the masala leaves out oil. Now add the washed prawns.

5. Let the prawns gets coated with masala well. When the prawns starts leaving out water, add in the coconut milk and water.

6. When the water starts to boil, add the soaked rice and close the cooker lid. Cook in low flame.

7. Exactly after 10 min, open the lid. Now add the ghee and slightly mix without breaking the rice. Close the lid again for another 5 more minutes.

8. Serve the hot hot coconut milk biryani with mutton masala.

Notes:
1. This whole biryani, can be made with coconut milk, but as the coconut milk has more cholesterol, I reduced the milk.
2. Spiciness can be adjusted according to the your spice level.

How to make Prawn Thokku | shrimp thokku | eral thokku

If you are my regular reader, you definitely know I am a great fan of prawns. This prawn thokku or eral thokku is my hubby’s favorite. It can be had with rice as side dish or with any kind of tiffin items like idli or dosa or chappathi. This prawn thokku can be kept for 3 days also. But in our family it will be over within 1 day as everyone loves it. Now we see how to prepare this prawn thokku. 

Ingredients II (For Marination)
Chilli Powder – 1/2 tsp
Cumin Powder – 1/2 tsp
Corinader Powder – 1 /2 tsp
Turmeric – 1/5 tsp
Ginger garlic paste – 1 tsp

Ingredietns III (For Kadai Masala)
Dry Red Chilli – 5
Coriander seeds – 1/2 tbsp
Pepper corns – 1/2 tsp
Cumin seeds – 1/2 tsp
Fennel seeds – 1 tsp
Kasuri methi – 1/2 tsp (crushed)

2. Add the ingredients mentioned in Ingredietns II list and marianate the prawns for 45 to 1 hr. If keeping in freezer  20 to 30 min is enough.

3. Now dry fry the masala mentioned in ingredients III till nice aroma comes.( around 3 to 4 min). Then ground them to a coarse powder. Keep it aside. 

4. Wash and Cut the bell peppers into cubes. In a kadai, add a tsp of oil and when it is hot, add the bell peppers and a pinch a salt and start cooking. Care should be taken that it retains its crunchiness and don’t let it brown. 

5. In a wok or kadai, add oil and when hot add the cumin seeds. When it splutters, add the onion and when onions becomes soft, add the ginger. Saute them well.

6.  Now add the chopped tomato and cook until soft. Now add the tomato puree. Let them cook well of around 4 to 5 min.

7. Now add the prawns. The prawns start to leave out water. Add the ground kadai masala that time and allow them to cook.

8. When the gravy turns to thick as shown in the picture, squeeze quarter lemon. (This step is optional. I added for tangy taste). Keep the flame low.

9. Now add the cooked capsicum or bell peppers and give a stir. Let it cook in low flame for 5 minutes, so that bell peppers absorb the kadai masala. Do not cook for more, as the capsicum looses its crunchiness. Add kasuri methi along with bell peppers. Add the sugar now, mix it well. cook in low for 1 minute and switch off the stove.

10. Garnish with coriander leaves and ginger and Serve the Kadai Prawns with roti or naan or even with plain rice.

Tasty and yummy Kadai Prawns are ready to be served.

Notes:
1. You can always adjust the spice leaves according to your family taste buds. The above one is a medium spicy one. But still my little ones, complained it is bit spicy.
2. For a rich gravy, you can add 3 tbsp of heavy cream, while adding the capsicum.
3. Instead of ginger pieces, you can add ginger paste also. But cook, till the raw smell goes off.
4. Adding capsicum is optional, it gives really nice taste to the gravy.
5. Adding sugar is also optional, but I like to add it to North Indian dishes normally.
6. Adding lemon juice is also optional, but adding it, gives a nice tangy taste. If your tomatoes are tangy already, then you can skip adding lemon juice.