Photos by Andre Gagne
As a country, India is a beautiful place full of contrasts, colours and flavors. The Indian culinary arts are the result of the combinations of different cultures. Who has not eaten curry? Who has not eaten Indian’s rice which is characterized by its high quality? Or who does not want to know a little more about this impactful country?
Coconut Lagoon knows what’s up when it comes to South Indian food. Chef Thottungal won Silver at this year’s Canadian Culinary Championships and the restaurant was featured in Anne DesBrisay’s “Ottawa Cooks”. Make sure to try the weekend brunch buffet and their take on turmeric milk, a recent Instagram sensation.
Thinking of those people who like the kitchen but don´t have time to cook, or those who have no idea of cooking but want to surprise someone special, OLM and Coconut Lagoon want to give you an special recipe made by the famous Chef Thottungal and its famous restaurant to make at home.
Moilee is an authentic dish from kerala, this is a mild ginger and the coconut curry mostly cooked with seafood and goes well with appam (hoppers) or kerala rice.
Do you want to describe what kerala rice is and where to find it here?
kerala rice is otherwise called matta rice is an indigenous variety of rice grown in kerala ,the grains are yellowish pink from being parboiled with red out layers .it takes more time to cook ,but very healthy ,parboil itself ensures the retention of nutritional value. This rice can found in South Indian or Sri-Lankan grocery stores.
Ingredients and quantity:
- Prawns, peeled and deveined with tail (16/21 CT) 2 Lbs
- Onion cut into wedges 2 Cups
- Ginger Julienne ¼ Cups
- Garlic Julienne ¼ Cups
- Thai Green Chili 4 each
Chef’s note: to say 2-4 chilies, depending on spice level desired – I found this very spicy, given we have described it as a mild curry! cut into two length wise 8 pcs yes it is fine depends on the spice level and safe to say 2 to 4.
- Curry leaves washed 2 sprigs
- Tomato cut into wedges 1 each
- Green Peppers cut into wedges 1 each
Chef’s note: always green! No other colors because the green pepper will add nice contrast and crispiness to the dish, with yellow sauce and red tomato we can’t use the red or yellow peppers.
- Coconut milk 2 cups (preferably freshly made or organic)
- Cardamom seeds crushed 1 tablespoon
Chef’s note: do you mean whole cardamom pods, crushed with… back of a knife? Yes, I do! whole green cardamom and just crack it with a knives blade hold it flat and just give a crack on a flat surface ,we don’t want cardamom to be fine powder as it will discolor the sauce ,just enough for the seeds to come out.
- Turmeric powder ½ tablespoon
- Coconut Oil ½ cup
- Lime Juice 3 tablespoon
- Water 1 cup
- Salt 2 teaspoon
Instructions:
- Marinate the Shrimp with 1 teaspoon salt and 1 tablespoon of lime juice for 6 hours in a medium bowl, covered, and in the fridge.
- Heat a large frying and add all. Once the oil is hot add the cracked Cardamom. Cook cardamom just enough to infuse the oil with the cardamom flavour, less a minute.
- Sautee the garlic, ginger, green chilies with Curry leaves and when it is slightly brown, add the onion and cook it till onions are soft. No more than five minutes since we need the onions not to be very soft
- Add Turmeric powder and stir it until the raw smell goes away, then add the shrimps and cook it with a 1 cup of water until shrimp are turn pink (about 2 minutes)
- When the shrimps are almost cooked, add the coconut milk and let it simmer for 2 minutes.
- Add the remaining salt, tomato and green pepper wedges and mix it. You should not cook any further as we need the pepper and tomato just to get wilted with the steam only.
- Serve with steamed Basmati Rice or Kerala Rice.