Indo Chinese Prawns

It's been eons since I posted a recipe here. A lot of things have changed in the interim. We've moved countries, rather continents ;) and two cities in India since. My family has grown from just the two of us to include a cute little hyper active baby boy, who we have named Calvin; I've moved from being a super busy career woman at IBM, to a home maker, to a work from home mom; my husband has changed jobs; all in all our world has changed drastically. Between the baby and a full time job (who ever said work from home jobs were easy!), I get very little time to experiment in the kitchen. So that's been the reason for my so called disappearance from the blogging scene.But yeah, the underlying passion for cooking has always been there and I'd never want that to go away. When I referred to my blog recently to check the ingredients for Punjabi Chole, nostalgia set in and thought, this was a good time as any to restart the blog; also, now that I'm back to cooking everyday, I'll have enough recipes to post as well.

Being close to the sea (Bay of Bengal), Chennai offers an amazing variety of sea food- fresh and tasty. Prawns in particular are available in abundance and at attractive prices too. I've been making a lot of prawn since we've moved here. I will post recipes for all of them soon, but today I have for you, a quick but very tasty prawn dry recipe. I call it Indo Chinese prawn because this dish is made by marinating the prawns in Indian spices and cooking them in Chinese sauces. The taste is sweet and savory - a perfect combo to have with fried rice/ noodles. This isn't spicy but is flavorful and the addition of veggies adds a nice dimension to this dish. Don't get disheartened with the long list of ingredients; it sure isn't as complicated as it reads. So try out Indo Chinese prawns and let me how the dish turned out.


Ingredients
Prawns: 1 lb
Ginger finely chopped: 1 tsp
Garlic finely chopped: 1 tsp
Green Chillies: 2- slit into half lengthwise
Spring Onions: 2 sprigs
Precooked Vegetables like carrots, brocolli,capsicum, mushroom etc
Oil: 1 tbsp
sugar: 1 tsp
cilantro: for garnishing

For Marination:
Ginger Garlic Paste: 1/2 tbsp
Turmeric Powder: 1 tsp
Coriander Powder: 2 tsp
Red Pepper/Chilli Powder - 1 tsp
Black pepper powder - 2 tsp
Vinegar: 2 tsp

For the Sauce:
Tomato sauce: 2 tbsp or as required
Soy sauce: 2 tsp or as required
Vinegar: 1 tsp
Green chilli sauce: 1 tsp
Ajinamoto (optional)
salt: to taste

Method:

1)Clean and de-vein the prawns. If the prawns are of a good size, leave the shells on. The shells enhance flavor.
2)Marinate the prawns with ginger garlic paste, and the powders mentioned above, and vinegar. Leave aside for an hour or so in the refrigerator. The longer you marinate the better the flavor.
3)Cut the veggies of your choice into slices (lengthwise would be better) and cook them in salted water for just about a minute or two. They will be stir fried later, so don't overcook them. Drain off the water.
4)Heat oil in a wok and add chopped ginger and garlic. Fry for a few seconds and add green chillies and spring onions. Now add the vegetables from the previous step and give it a good stir on high flame. Mix in the sauces and keep stirring. Add sugar and vinegar. Ajinamoto if used, should be added at this point.I refrain from using ajinamoto, but there's no denying the fact that it enhances the taste and flavor of any Chinese preparation.
5)Now add in the prawns and incorporate them nicely into the veggie/sauce mix. Taste the dish to see if you need any heat/spice/salt and add accordingly. Give the prawns a couple of minutes to cook and once the shells change color, switch off the stove.
6)Garnish with cilantro

Note:
a)Make sure the prawns are not overcooked. If they cook longer than required they turn rubbery and the delicate flavors are lost.
b)This dish is on the sweet/sour side. Not something I'd recommed as a starter with drinks
c)If you want more gravy, after adding the sauces, add water mixed with corn flour ( in the ratio 1 cup of water: 2 tsp of corn flour)