Kolkata Food Bloggers Met Team Zomato

Vibrant, jovial and cordial they were who welcomed us with a professional gesture and left us at the end to feel at home with the joy and conversation we shared. They were team of 6 young representatives from the Zomato group who organized a Kolkata Food Bloggers meet at a restaurant in south Kolkata called Straits. The meet was a plan on process for three months and got materialized when we bloggers returned from our vacations fresh and glee.  9 food bloggers of Kolkata out of 14 had managed to attend this meet. We all were very excited as this was our first formal meet which was arranged by a Professional Group.

Picture Courtesy: Poorna Banerjee

 As we entered in the Restaurant we were cordially invited by the team Zomato. We led to a separate unit of the restaurant just opposite to the main section what we discovered later. The interior of the main area was very decent and looked very cosy. The ambiance of the restaurant touched my heart.

Picture Courtesy: Archita Chanda Ray

Picture Courtesy: Archita Chanda Ray

We comfortably occupied our seats to the other room and then more than couple of hours spent in a winks way as we got so involved in confabbing. We started formally introducing each other. The team Zomato introduced themselves and requested to introduce ourselves too. And then our conversation changed in to chatting, giggling, sharing information, clicking and eating.

Kolkata Food Bloggers and the Zomato Team

Team Zomato: Saurav, Devika Sohini, Angikaar, Joy (Straits's Owner), Ishita. Picture Courtesy : Poorna Banerjee

In between we were kept on serving foods by Straits.  Straits is located at Rashbehari Avenue on the main road, on the first floor of a building just above a Blackberry store.  The most relaxing part of the restaurant is, it has its own parking area.  The restaurant Strait serves Singaporean and Malaysian food. I was quite excited as I would be having first time in India the Singaporean and Malaysian food, as this flavourful cuisine is one of my favourites. 

A pink drink served made out of sugarcane and grenadine.

After we reached we were served a drink made of Sugarcane and grenadine. The drink was ok. Then we got the starter Popiah, a spring roll made out of chicken and peanut. Popiah didn't appeal my taste at all, though I finished most of just to find the ingredients in it. I munched more peanuts than chicken. The vegetarians were served Godo Godo (Roasted Vegetables with Peanut Sauce)

While we were busy in exchanging our view on blogging, food and eating habits, the lunch was served - one of the Famous Malaysian platters Nasi Lemak consists of Coconut rice, Egg Sambal, Chicken Rendang and Anchiovies with Peanuts. Again I was not able to do justice with the platter. I found the rice missing the coconut flavour. The Egg Sambal was too rich with  the ready to use Sambal paste and in much generous way. Therefore the flavour had become too strong too satisfy my heart. The Chicken Rendang was quite satisfactory, though I felt the originality of the  Malaysian cuisine was missing in each food. The vegetarians were served Vegetarian Nasi Lemak (Coconut Rice served with Paneer Rendang and deep fried Mushroom with Kung Po Sauce).

 I am not at all a sweet lover so when the dessert Sago Gula Maleka was served I left it alone tasting a spoon and stirring what the ingredients were there in it. The overall food experience with Straits was not that satisfactory as we expected. But hope if we visit their place next time we will have better experience then. 

Apart from the food, the experience with the Zomato team was wonderful, with all the food talks, information exchang on various food chains in Kolkata, et al. We got to know much about Zomato itself. 

We Kolkata Food Bloggers: (Right to left)Arundhuti, Poorna, Amrita, Sanoli, Radhika, Archita, Kamalika, Sayantani and Sarani. Picture Courtesy: Archita Chanda Ray. 

We found Team Zomato very professionally groomed and well informed too. They are young and energetic. Their innocence still lie in their smiles and eyes. Even we felt so gratitude when they gifted each one of us a  Zomato coffee mug and the Connoisseur's                          guide. 

Picture Courtesy: Archita Chanda Ray

This guide I found one of the most useful gifts for a newcomer like me in Kolkata. It is enlisted with all the Kolkata restaurants, along with their addresses, phone numbers and reviews too. The overall experience was quite satisfactory and last but not the least Sayantani's lovely gifts made us more cheerful above all...

More reads on Zomato Meet:
By: Poorna Banerjee
By: Archita Chanda Ray

                                                     . 

Mochar Paturi (Steamed Banana Blossom wrapped in Banana Leaves)

To be honest I never knew about the existence of Mochar Paturi (Steamed Banana Blossom wrapped in Banana Leaves) unless and until one day somebody posted - "How to cook Mochar Paturi" in a famous FB group called Chef at Large. We Bengalis were called for, to help her with the recipe of Mocha Paturi. To my surprise there were many who were hearing it for the first time but there were many too who were well versed with the dish. I shared the basic Paturi recipe with it adding Mocha/Banana Blossom in it just on guess. And yes I found, those who shared the recipe were similar like what I thought. From that very day I was trying to target the dish and make it, but time proved to be too busy to me to enter in the kitchen to hit the dish. At last the day came when I successfully able to just the dish.

The web meaning of Paturi says:

"The Paturi is a Bhape (see above) that is cooked by means of wrapping the item to be steamed inside a banana leaf. Substituting other leaves or synthetic material (such as aluminum foil) for banana leaf does not do justice to the unique flavor required".  Source: HERE.

The basic  and most significant ingredients of the Paturi are the uses of the coconut and the mustard paste along with raw Mustard oil.  And of coarse the banana leaves that we use to wrap the Paturi. On top of it one can add Poppy Seeds, Chatu/Sattu etc. Ilish machher Paturi or Bhetki Machher Paturi are two most famous and traditional Paturi dishes of Bengali Cuisine.  In any celebrations and ceremonial parties the Paturies are common of all.

I was only aware of the Non-veg Paturis and prepared them many a times in my kitchen. This is for the first time I attempted for a Veg Paturi. The foodie part of my childhood is crystal clear to me and the fights I always had with my mom when she tried to feed me all healthy foods and veggies. Mocha/Banana Blossom for example was one of the most despite dishes I always avoided. My mom had to scratch her head to cook Mocha in different ways every time so that I could store the nutrition that Mocha provides. But every time I used to reject. And now I am cooking Mocha at my kitchen and liking it too…….

Those days are gone and my mom gets surprised when I tell her I cook this or that with Mocha or some other veggies which were once used to be my enemies. Now I am on the same shoe like my mother and trying new recipes every time so that  my daughter too eat the healthy foods. Days do pay back and who else than me can say better…:) After the success of Mocha Chingri, here I present another exotic dish form the Bengali Cuisine the Mocha Paturi.

Ingrdients:

Mocha/ Banana Blossom:  1 cup Finely chopped (See the notes)

Scraped Coconut: 1 cup

Mustard seeds : 4 tbspn

Poppy Seeds: 2 tbspn

Green Chilli: 1 or more

Salt and sugar according to taste.

Turmeric- 1/4 tspn + a pinch

Banana leaves cut in a  4"X4" square- 15- 20 pieces.

Mustard Oil- As per taste

Method:

1. Soak the Mustard seeds and the poppy seeds for 10-15mnts. Then make a paste adding pinch of turmeric, salt and a green chili in to it. Reserve.
2. Boil the chopped mocha/banana blossom with a pinch of salt and the remaining turmeric powder for 15-20 mnts. I pressured cook it and took off the gas after 4 whistles.
3. Now strain the boiled mocha/banana blossom and mash it with you palm as much you can.
4. Add all the other ingredients and mix them well.
5. To make the banana leaves pliable and to avoid the cracks in between put each square both sides top on the flame for 3-4secs. You will notice a mild change in colour and you will understand it is ready.
   
6. Take a scoop of the mixture, drizzle few drops of mustard oil on the top and wrap nicely and pin it with a toothpick. (Adding oil is optional you can add it later too.)
7. Steam for 10-15 mnts either in steamer or put the Paturis in a tiffin box (metal) / container with a lid. Take a big vessel than that container, boil water and put the container in it. The water should       not rise more than the half of the small container. Cover the vessel and cook.
8. Then serve hot with white rice and if you want you can add more mustard oil after the Paturis are done.

Note:

1. How to cut Mocha/Banana Blossom see HERE in the "Method" section.
2. Always use fresh Mocha/Banana Blossom for it.
3. If Banana Leaves are not available then you can use aluminium foil too.
4. If you want to make it with ready made mustard powder then add water very little and little bit of curd with it.

Cherry Apricot Choco Ice Cream Fudge

Everyday we face so many types of incidents and many keep a deep insight in our heart. We share and we start to value on it with a hope may be a little effort can help to change the world. Today I would like to share one incident that I had already shared in my Facebook status. Those who are connected with me had already read this. Now I would liked to share with my readers who have not read it yet…

The other day  on the way to my daughter's school, my driver drew my attention to a biker who was carrying his son of 5-6 yrs old on his back sit. The boy was peacefully sleeping, resting his head on his Father's (guessed) back without holding anything or he was tied up to anything. Just at the glance my heart jumped with some uncanny fear and I told my driver to slow down the car by the biker. I shouted to the man informing that his son was sleeping. The man patted his son with one hand and asked:

"Ki re ghumochhish??? (Are you sleeping??)"

And without stopping he sped away to his destination. After that I didn't know why my heart kept on pounding and all those unwanted fears started to rule over my mind. 

I was really trying to console my mind that everything was fine or would be fine. But could not stop blaming the man, who himself was wearing a helmet but carrying his son without any safety belts, helmets or any kind of protection. Every day we read so many tragic incidents about the bikers till why not people get aware of this???? And we keep on blaming others.

Blaming other is easy, but once you blame yourself life will become easier for you and easier for others too.....

Now let me come to my today's preparation. I bought fruit again with a mind set of using them in my baking or in the desserts. After the huge success of Cherry Dark Egg Less Cake  my confidence level increased another level and this time I bought a pack of Apricot. Honestly speaking I have only tasted this fruit in chocolates. Never in my dreams I have thought of bringing them home and eat or use in some dish. But now I want more fruit in my kitchen either for baking or preparing desserts or something less.  Dry Apricot is very famous and hugely found in India. But the raw fruit I found first time in Kolkata. May be it had missed my eyes as I was a rare visitor of the fruit section where now I love to spend more time exploring the range of fruits available in the market. To read more about Apricot you can visit HERE. Apricot is a very nutritious fruit which helps to protect the heart and eyes, as well as provide the disease-fighting effects of fiber. It also helps to prevent constipation and digestive conditions.

The Apricots I bought, were very tart. I decided to first use them raw rather than baking them.  So the other day I made this divine dessert which melts in mouth and leaves a tart sweetness of the Apricot, Cherry, Chocolate and the Ice Cream. In every bite you will have the tart bite amalgamated with the sweetness.  Now let us have a look to the recipe.

Ingredients:

A Rectangle loaf pan (Size: 6" X 3")

For the Chocolate Layer:

Chocolate- 3/4 cup (Grated)

Whole fat Cream- 1/2 cup (or you can use 3 scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream)

Cherry- 8-10 seeded and sliced

For the Ice Cream layer:

Vanilla Ice Cream-3 scoops

Apricot- 2 seeded and sliced

Method:

1. Put the chocolate in a dry microwave safe bowl. Microwave it for 10secs. Then stir. If the chocolate is not melted then again microwave for 5secs. Microwave and stir alternatively till the chocolate is melted.
2. Add the Ice Cream in it, Mix them nicely and melt for 10 secs more. Make sure the Ice Cream and the Chocolate should blend together nicely.
3. Add the sliced cherries, mix with it and make two separate portions and reserve.
4. Take the 3 scoops of Vanilla Ice Cream. Microwave it for 10secs. Add the Apricots. Mix well.
5. Now take a rectangle loaf pan (Size: 6" X 3"). Take aluminum foil and line in the pan very cautiously and slowly so that there should not me much folds or wrinkles in the foil. The best way is first make the pan upside down then cover the foil and take the impression of the pan. The foil it self will look like the same shape of the pan. Then take the pan and fit the foil in it.
6. Now take the first half of the Chocolate and layer it evenly. Freeze it for 30 mnts.
7. Then pour the Ice Cream layer on the first layer. Freeze it for an hour.
8. Then again take out the pan and pour the remaining chocolate layer on the second layer.
9. Freeze over night and then enjoy the Apricot Cherry Choco Ice Cream Fudge in slices.

Note:

If the weather is too hot then keep the remaining portions  (Which you will use later) of the chocolate and Ice Cream in the refrigerator. Just take them out 10-15 mnts before you will do the next layer.

Cherry Dark Chocolate Egg less Cake

“Your hand and your mouth agreed many years ago that, as far as chocolate is concerned, there is no need to involve your brain.” 
― Dave Barry

Every day I used to stare at the fresh fruit cakes made by my fellow food bloggers, drooled over those and bookmarked the recipes. But I have never gathered that much courage to bake one in fear to discard them. Using fresh fruits in baking was a very rare entry in my kitchen and a challenging job for me too. And I was also not that much confident to make some with a scary heart if I had to trash it as none of the family members ever had shown any decent interest in it. Whenever I asked my Man or my daughter if they would like to have some delicious desserts with fresh fruits they totally hooted out. But that didn't put me down. My utmost passion to experiment the fresh fruits in cooking made me to try secretly a Mango Pie. When I served them, with raising eye brows and faces with disapproval, they tasted it. No need to say they did like the Mango Pie.  I got little bit enthusiastic to use more fresh fruits in my cooking. Then I made Mango Yoghurt/ Aam Doi and Apple Yoghurt. To my surprise this time also they devoured it without any protest. More confident I am now getting more prone towards using fresh fruits in my baking.  Please don't laugh at me, once I prepared Apple Chicken too just to feed my daughter apple who was then a rigid apple hater. 

I have a very bad addiction of getting the impulse of craving for chocolates or chocolate cakes in the wrong hours. This is the reason that whenever I am in my parents’ house, my dad buys creamy chocolate cakes and stores them in the fridge. I often get caught red handed stealing cakes and guttling it surrendering completely to the pleasure of the chocolaty world in the middle of the night sitting on the kitchen platform swinging happily my legs. This time also when my Cherry Dark Chocolate Egg Less Cake was born, I was in intense labour in craving for some chocolate cake. And I got totally relieved and satiated after smacking my creation. Cherry these time was my saviour, who paired heavenly with my creamy icing chocolate cake and gave me the divine satisfaction and the taste that was still osculating my lips, my heart. Now I am off to the recipe:

Ingredients:

Cake pan I used: 5" round

For the Cake:

Flour: 3/4 cup

Baking Soda: less than 1/2 Tspn

Baking Powder: 1 Tspn

Cocoa Powder- 2 Tbspns heaped

Fresh Cherry- 8-10 seeded and cut in halves. (You can use less or more)

Condense Milk: 1/2 tin (room temperature)

Butter- 2 Tbspns heaped (room temperature)

Soda Water - 1/4 cup or less  (room temperature)

For the Icing-

Amul cream- 1 pack (200 gms)

Garted dark Chocolate: 1  & 1/2 cups

For the decoration:

Cherries: As much you need.

Method:

Prepare the Icing first:

1. Warm the cream in a double boiler and melt the chocolate in it. Mix well.
2. After it cools down refrigerate for and hour.

Prepare the cake:

1. Shift all the dry ingredients 3-4 times (Flour, baking powder, baking soda, cocoa powder).
2. Mix the condense milk and the butter nicely.
3. Pre heat the oven to 200 C degree.
4. Add the Flour , 3/4 of the 1/4 cup soda water and the cherries to the butter mixture and fold all together nicely.
5. The mixture will be little bit flowing when you drop the mixture from the spatula or spoon. If you need to add the remaining milk then mix it.
6. Grease a pan and dust with flour.
7. Put the cake mixture and bake for 25-30 mnts at 170 C degree. Check pricking a tooth pick coming out clean. It needed bake for 5mnts more.
8. Take it out of the oven and let it completely cool.
9. Teke out the cake form the pan slowly. Now cut the cake to get three layers. Evenly spread the icing in each layer and keep on stacking.
10. You can cover the whole cake nicely with the remaining icing and make simple designs. Or do the rosettes I have done here. Decorate with the cherries and refrigerate for an hour or so to set the cake and enjoy. 

 Note:

1. To know how to make Rosettes Priya of Cook like Priya has shared us her very useful post Here  and for a youtube video visit Here.

2. The cake will stay for 3-4 days in the fridge. 

3. If you want to add eggs then you can add 2 eggs and increase the butter to 200gm.

Travel Chitchat

“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” 

― Lao Tzu

Remember those hazards of standing in a long queue from the early morning and buying tickets for the tours our parents used to do. Sometimes we too accompany them to experience the pathetic inert conditions and made our parents' life miserable at that point of time by continuously nagging about how long we had to stand there. And if we were at home the excitement used to keep on fueling inside the heart and the glance was fixed on the door to see whether our parents returned with a happy smile on their face to declare "YES we got the tickets" or not. 

Buying tickets, planning a vacation was then all hand written and used to be done manually. We either rush straight to the stations, airports, bus depots or to the agents to make it bit easier. But many used to avoid the agents to save the little money what the agents would charge extra. First fill up a form to buy a ticket for bus, train or flights, and then do the payment in cash. But now, the days are gone when we have to stand in queues for booking train/bus or even Flight tickets. This is the advance era where day by day we are blessed with all the easy mode of communications. And when travel is concern you just have to sit in front of a desk top with an internet connection, click a button, fill up the mandatory requirement and here your travel booking is done. The online booking system has made life too easy and less time consuming.

Fly with an airline was quite a fancy in previous days. To avoid the exorbitant price of the flight tickets, people used to travel by train or bus. And on the contrary the rail routes and services where quite good on those old days. Now people feel more secure to fly rather than travelling on land. So the present scenario depicts the first preference to travel by flights and then choose the second option going by train. People have learnt to save their precious time too and therefore getting prone towards choosing the option to fly with the different airlines. The catchiest present situation is, Airline tickets have become very cheap too. You can buy directly from the respected airlines or go for the different travel booking sites which will not only help one to find the flight tickets in cheap rates, it will also provide all other information and booking options about hotels, car rentals etc. In one search on the net it will give you numerous options to visit the online travel industry.

 The online booking sites are always flooded with many attractive deals and budget tour package programs. And the best part of an online booking site is that it will give the detail of what the cheapest flight offers are going on. The scoring punch line of Air Arabia 'Pay Less, Fly More' does the just to explain about the online travel industry. This is what they provide. Once you are accustomed with this service you will become addicted to it. Sometimes people do have some different and negative notes on this too. But the famous and reputed online booking sites are always reliable and handy with their utmost comfortable services. Even airlines like Air Asia offers the cheapest deal to travel. Now we are more tend towards wrapping ourselves in the comfort zone and our advanced society speedily developing to give us the utmost felicities which we avail without wasting much time. We have learnt to value our time and the money too. The pleasure of vacation demands the conveniences, where time and money can be spent economically and this is what the tourism industry is providing us. Cheers to the online travel industry for making the world of tourism so easy.

If Jamai Shashti is there, why not Meye/Bou Shashti!!!!

Yesterday religiously and ceremoniously the Jamai Shashti got celebrated in West Bengal or rather all over the world wherever Bengalis are domiciling. On this day Mother- In-Law or the wives, as a representative of their mothers, cook delectable widely spread delicacies directly from a Bengali Kitchen. When it comes to food we Bengalis are always ready with our creative version of delicious dishes. Mishti Polao, Five types of Fries, Dal, Vegetable Torkari/curry, variations with Prawns dishes, mutton or chicken, Ilish/Hilsha, the must present dish, Chatni, Mishti/Sweets, etc are offered to the Jamai with an eye catching presentation during this fest. This is a day when the Jamai/Son-In-Law gets pampered by his Mom-In-Law.

Shashti is actually a name of a Hindu Goddess who is worshiped "as the benefactor and protector of children (especially, as the giver of male child)." (source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashthi). On the other hand "Shashthi (Sanskrit: Ṣaṣṭhī ) is the sixth day or tithi of a Paksha or fourteen-day phase of the moon. The word comes from the Sanskrit cardinal ShaRh (six), whence the ordinal number (linguistics) ShaShTha (sixth), fem. ShaShThI (days of the pakSha are feminine gender)". (Source:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shashthi_(day) )

Usually the sixth tithi, known as Shahsti and especially in the waxing period (shuklapaksha), the mothers in Bengal worship Goddes Shashti during this day by fasting for her child's well being. But in a particular day of the month of Jaishthya is mainly celebrated as Jamai Shahsti, though the elders shower new cloths to the younger in family and the mothers do Shahsti puja during this time too. This fest symbolically ties up a strong bonding between two families and mainly an affectionate bonding of love between the parents-in-laws with their son-in-laws. Every ritual in a sense brings the family members close together and a quality time to be spent in a festive manner. And a Bengali Festival means the scrumptious kingly size spread of delicious food and new clothing.

Now let me come to my point what I want to establish and urge for in this post. A thought just came in my mind why we don't have a Meye/Bou Shashti?? Posted in my facebook status yesterday and got many positive vibes to start one for. Even when I shared my thought with my Mom-In-Law, I found her more excited than me and asked me several times when we are going to have that day…...

We spent a particular day for the Jamai/ Son-In-Laws, but whenever a son-in-law is visiting his in-laws house he always gets the special treatment and offerings of the inviting delicacies. So Jamai Shahsti often cycles around, though not along with all those rituals, pampering is always the priority. May be I might sound a bit jealous but we ladies many a times secretly crave for this kind of treatment. Busy with our every day household chores, work place, taking care of the every family member, we, ladies also need this kind of special care often. But OFTEN the word may sound too much to the men. Ok at least one day we can have at least. Who knows while spending one special day for the ladies of the household may cycle back every month.. It will make a relationship not only strong but will infuse a fun in our busy boring live too. And yes the Man will also get a different taste of life by relaxing himself from his busy schedule and tiring days. (Strategy to make them convince…wink) 

So therefore let us have special day for Meye/Bou Shashti in the Indian calendar like Jamai Shashti. I know many may oppose my claim and may argue with it. But let me clear my views rightly. The main symbolic hidden secret of a festival or a ritual is, it creates a strong bonding in between people. As Jamai Shahsti brings closer the son and parents in laws, same like, I also want a day should be celebrated, if not religiously, to make a strong bonding between the ladies and the men, between the daughter- in-law and the parent-in-laws in a household. The Ladies may spend many special days by herself,  with her husband and in-laws but I call for a day where the ladies should get pampered and treated with special care on a particular day (Though I claim this too be specially treated every day, that might give too much pressure to the men…:P).  But it is something like feeling special for a day when the Men will cook for the ladies of the house and give us a full day leave by showing their love and affectionate for us.

 Even from our childhood we two sisters celebrated Bon PoNta as we don't have any brother and tying up Rakhi on each other's hand…So it's not always that the boys will dominate most rituals we can also have ours..

So what do you say????? If the month June is for the Jamai/Son-in-Law then let us make July our month.

So we are going to spend every year the Second Saturday or Sunday of Month July. Let me see how many of you are going to celebrate this with us.

Last but not the least I have a request. Please don't spoil this would be happy celebration by too much arguments and criticism. If you don't like it or don't want be a part that is absolutely your choice. But those who want please let them enjoy it to the fullest. Thanks in advance.

Tangy Prawns

What you do when the hungry bellies are supposed to bang the table for food and you found your pantry almost empty at the dinner time. Yea it happens sometimes. When it is pouring down heavily and your lazy limbs, sipping in the cuppas, feel like enjoying the cozy corners of the home and speculating on anything relishing the foggy down pour and jingling sound of the rains, avoiding battling with the mud dirt clad soggy roads of a city life.

Being an experienced lazy kitchen queen I occasionally face this kind of situation. And never mind, most of the time I proudly demonstrate to come up with something very tasty with the limited ingredients handy at that moment. This Tangy Prawns is one of them. Prawn itself is a taste enhancer and goes brilliantly with the minimum ingredients. No matter how ever or with whatever you cook with the dish it will never let you down. I love to keep my freezer crowded with frozen prawns, chicken breasts and minced chicken as they are my magic wands for the fast and easy cooking and mainly when I am dead tired to cook. But unfortunately that day I found only a pack of frozen prawns in the freezer, a tomato puree tetra pack and coconut milk tetra pack. Without wasting a time I incorporate the scattering ingredients and cook this Tangy Prawns which paired toppingly with Kichuri /Kichri (A preparation with rice and lentil). So here the magical dish I prepared in a tweak moment and no need to say, prawns win over again.

Ingredients:

Prawns- 9-10

Tomato Puree- 1/2 pack (of the 200gm)

Coconut Milk- 1/2 pack (of the 200gm)

Chopped Garlic- handful

Onion - 1 medium (Sliced)

Salt & Sugar- as per taste.

Oil- 2 tbspoon

Method:-

1. Heat the oil. Shallow fry the prawns with a pinch of salt and reserve.

2. Add chopped garlic. Let them turn brown then add sliced onion. Fry them till they turn brown.

3. Add the tomato puree and boil for couple of minutes. Add the Prawns, salt and sugar.

4. Add the coconut milk and keep it cook unless the consistency of the gravy gets thicken.

5. Serve hot with anything.

Note:

I have cooked it with the minimum ingredients. You can add and keep new variations. Like adding coriander/ curry leaves, ginger paste, green chilies and other spices. You can add potato too.