PRAWN IN GARLIC CREAMY SAUCE

Keep aside the diet salad recipes. Let's have some little candle light dinner. It was our little celebration at home, i make this special to give my husband a treat. We are quite content to have good food at home, only two of us with nice crockery and a big mug of beer or Gin and tonic. The best part is that you do not have to pay for bill. ha..ha hha...I forget to click photo so here it is downloaded from Australian website.

 I. What do you need ? 

- 150 g Korean rice or sticky rice (or 1 1/3 cups cooked rice)
- 30g (1 1/2 tablespoons) butter or 1 1/2 tablespoons oil
- 16 green prawns, peeled and deveined (remove black line on the back of prawn, fish seller will do it for you)
- 4 large garlic cloves, crush to peel and finely chop
- 250ml (1 cup) thickened cream (can use Amul cream)

- 1 tablespoon finely shredded basil

II. How to make ? 

Wash and soaks rice in water for 30 minutes then put water 1.5 of amount of rice (1.5 cup of water for 1 cup of rice) put on gas till boil then slow fire and cover with lid, continue to cook for 15 minutes until all water drain off, stir. Turn of gas and keep lid on to keep warm.

Heat butter or oil in a frying pan or large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add prawns and cook for a couple of minutes, until prawns have just changed colour but are not completely cooked through. Turn prawns once during cooking. ©

Reduce heat to low, stir in garlic and cook for about 30 seconds, being careful not to brown garlic (it can develop a bitter flavour).

Add cream and increase heat so that the mixture is simmering rapidly.

While the sauce is reducing (keep an eye on the sauce to ensure it doesn't reduce too much), spoon one quarter of the rice into a mould, using the back of a spoon, firmly press the rice into the mould. Invert mould onto a serving plate, tap on mould to release rice and lift mould away. The best is that of you have ring mould, if you do not have doesn’t matter, use steel bowl in your kitchen. Repeat with remaining rice.

Simmer sauce until it has thickened to the desired consistency and prawns are cooked through. Stir in basil and remove from heat.

Place 4 prawns on each plate. Drizzle prawns with sauce and serve immediately.

III. TIPS

-          You can find prawn in INA market, big size prawn will have 13-16 pieces per kg. King size has 8 to 8 pieces per kg. For this recipe, better use big size or even little smaller prawn is also good.

-          Prawns are good when they has bottle green colour, the shell look shining and when you lift the prawn up, see the join at the head and body, if it is not broken then it is fresh.

-          You can use basmati rice in this recipe but it will not stick together when put in the mould and also the taste will be less sweet.

-          To avoid rice stuck on the mould, you can cover it with clean wrap then put rice on top of clean wrap.

CHICKEN CORIANDER SOUP

In this rainy season, this soup with ginger, coriander, lemon and pepper will help you to fight with cold and stuffy snooze. You will feel more appetizer and perfect for diet light lunch or starter in dinner. It is also easy and quick to cook.


I. What do you need ? (for 4 servings)

- 200 gr. Minced chicken

- A handful bunch of coriander (100 gr)

- A small piece of ginger (size of thumb)

- Pepper, salt

- Slide of lemon (for serving)

- 4 bowl of water (use the bowl you are going to serve the soup to measure water)

II. How to make ?

Put minced chicken in a bowl, add with half teaspoon of salt and pepper, 1 teaspoon of cooking oil (optional), mix well.

Peel and julienne the ginger or if you are not good in cutting then just grate or finely chop, put ginger in water and boil it. When water is boiled, use a small teaspoon to scoop chicken into boiling water and keep it boiled until all pieces of chicken are floated then slow down gas keep boiling in 5 minutes to make sure all chicken are well cooked. Do not close the lid during the time of cooking because it will make the soup not clear.

Add salt to taste. Coriander cut 1 inch long put into soup just before you serve. Sprinkle pepper and some drop of lemon, serve hot.

III. Tips

To make soup (broth) tastier without using MGS, chop 1 white radish (Mooli) put into water and boil for sometime, about 10 to 15 minutes until radish become transparent, then take it out and discard radish.

Black pepper should not buy ready grinded in the bottle, it will loose all aroma. Better buy some whole seed pepper and grind it as mush as you can use for a week or two then keep in glass jar air tide.