Sunday special lunch consists of tender juicy shrimp, spice flavored rice, boiled eggs and a colorful beetroot raita as a side , everything comes together in around 45 minutes with a little planning.
Success of this Sunday special lunch recipe lies in doing little things in the order given below so you can finish the cooking in the given time. Trust me I am not a very fast person I would rather get the dish correct and not worry about finishing on dot yet I managed in 45 minutes (cooking time)
The secret lies in doing prep work and keeping everything handy. Here you need to pay attention on how to group stuff to be done together.
- Marinating the shrimp the previous night and keep it ready in the refrigerator.
- Slow roasting spice and cutting onion, washing greens at the same time.
- Frying the onion in batches and the shrimp in a pan close by at the same time as they both need your attention.
- Boil eggs and the beetroot with skin together in the instant pot on a trivet. (Both are steam cooked not boiled so they are not intermingling)
1. Shrimp will turn from transparent grey to opaque white. It will curl to a 'C ' shape . Don't wait until it turns into a full curled shape this will be over cooked.
2. Use a fork and gently press on the edge of a piece it should be tender and fall apart easily. (perfectly cooked).
3. Remove from heat to prevent further cooking. Don't leave it unattended as overcooking the shrimp will make it tough and hard to chew.
More shrimp recipes from this blog :
NOTE: Shrimp is the star of this lunch so skimping on that would be a bad idea. Use jumbo shrimp for the visual effect as well.
Sunday special lunch
Equipment
- Rice cooker
- Instant pot / or stove top
- Non stick frying pan
Ingredients
For Shrimp
- 1/2 lb Shrimp (peeled and deveined) i have used tail on -jumbo shrimp here
- 1/2 tsp Turmeric powder
- 1/2 - 1 tsp Chili powder / Cayenne
- 1 1/2 tsp Ginger garlic paste
- Salt to taste
For the rice
- 1 1/2 cups Basmathi rice
- 4- 5 pods Whole cardamom
- 4 whole cloves
- 2 inch piece Cinnamon stick
- 1 tsp Poppy seed (White not blue)
To garnish :
- 1-2 medium sized Red Onion thinly sliced ( julienned then cut into half)
- Few sprigs Cilantro chopped
- 1 tbsp Freshly grated coconut
- 1-2 Green chili cut into 3-4 pieces
- 2 Eggs (Hard boiled)
FOR BEETROOT RAITA
- 1 Medium Beet (Washed)
- 1/2 tsp Cumin roasted and coarsely powdered
- 1/2 tsp or to taste Pink salt
- Few sprigs Spring onion or cilantro chopped
- 1 cup Plain whole milk yogurt
- 1 lime juiced( if yogurt is not tart enough) else skip
Instructions
For the rice and garnish -
- Marinate the shrimp with turmeric powder,chili powder, ginger garlic paste and salt. Keep aside for 20 minutes or best refrigerate overnight (Saves time and turns out flavorful as it has time to absorb spices)
- Wash the rice well 2-3 times and soak in 2 cups of water. Keep aside for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime:1. Dry roast the whole spices in low heat - cardamom first then cinnamon then cloves and finally poppy seed until brown aromatic and crisp (not black). When it comes to room temp powder these spices in spice blender. Except cinnamon.2. For Garnish -Heat some cooking oil and fry the thinly sliced onion on medium to low heat to golden brown and keep this aside on a paper towel by spreading it (as onion will turn soggy if kept in a heap and turn dark ). Separate slices for even browning. Slice the green chillies too and fry in same oil and keep aside.
- In the rice add the freshly ground spices, cinnamon stick, salt to taste, 1 tsp of fried onion, 2 tsps of the oil it was fried in (do not skip this it adds a lot of flavor to rice) required water(1 inch above rice level) stir well and allow it cook in a rice cooker.
- Meanwhile in the same onion fried oil shallow fry the shrimp in batches. (Per side 3-4 minutes on medium heat) Cook only until the shrimp curls and becomes tender. Set aside. (Do not over crowd to finish faster)
- Mix rice once gently when it is half cooked without breaking the grains.
- When you put rice to cook at the same time put two eggs and the beetroot (no need to peel) for raita to cook in the instant pot on a trivet adding1 cup water 6 minutes and 6-8 minutes for natural pressure release. Hard boiled eggs hold the shape better this way.cook beet and egg separately if cooking on stove top to required doneness.
For Beetroot raita
- When the beet reaches bearable heat peel it and chop into small pieces.Mix all the rest of the ingredients given in the list and gently place the beet pieces in it and swirl lightly (do not mix vigorously ). Sprinkle some spring onion on top for color. Keep chilled until ready to serve.
Assembling the rice
- In a wide serving dish (preferably heatable )spread 3/4 th of the rice then the fried shrimp. Then rest of the rice. Fried onion and green chilies, grated coconut. Chopped cilantro and Hard boiled eggs.Keep the dish covered.
- Heat the rice dish for 5 minutes just before serving.Now enjoy warm shrimp egg rice with chilled beetroot raita.
Video
Notes
- Fry the onion and shrimp at the same time bcos both need you to stand there and keep an eye.
- Make sure to get brown or natural poppy seeds, not the blue black ones it will ruin the color of the pilaf.
- Do not skip dry roasting as grinding poppy seeds becomes impossible.
- Use nonstick pan to fry shrimp in 2 -3 tsp oil. Fry in batches.
LEFTOVERS :
Stays good if refrigerated well for uptown 2 days. Sprinkle little water and microwave few seconds before serving. If you think u are going to have leftovers omit garnishing with the coconut grated as it can get stale easily.
Hope you will give this Sunday special lunch recipe a try and let me know.
Meena
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