MISA MACH POORA- GRILLED SHRIMP RECIPE FROM MIZORAM

The land of the Seven Sisters - Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram and Tripura - is home to India’s largest collection of tribals who migrated to our peninsula, through the centuries via Myanmar. The prominent tribal groups include the Nagas, Khasis, Jaintias, Mizos, Boros, Garos and Kacharis. Each group maintains its own identity and culture of language, art and culinary specialties with their integral traditions forming part of their daily lives.

The land of the Seven Sisters still remain the lesser explored states of India. Apart from spectacular tourism, the regions are also renowned for their interesting cuisine, an experience in itself. From strong flavours to colourful dishes, the food of the northeast will definitely satiate a true foodie's palate. Northeast India is home to some of the most exclusive and special spices in the world including the world renowned raja mirchi or bhut jolokia (Ghost Pepper) which is the hottest chilli in the world according to the Guinness World records. 

For this Foodie Monday Blog Hop we have decided to take up Cuisines from North Eastern States - the cuisines of the frontier states of Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura and  the myths that surround Northeast Indian food. With my limited knowledge, when I was searching frantically for the recipes, I realized that the very  items that, for most of us, define Indian food: oil and masala and Northeastern food will have none of it. Bland, but also hot; pungent, but also aromatic; healthy, but also fatty—these adjectives can all be used to describe a meal from the Northeast, which is incomplete without a steaming platter of rice and various green vegetables. The food and lifestyle of Northeastern people are very simple. They take what is locally available and turn them into simple and tasty meals. There is no overabundant use of oils and spices. In some states, like Mizoram and to some extent Nagaland, the use of oil is almost non-existent as also that of salt. 

I came to realize that While Manipur is known for its fish delicacies, Nagaland is better known for its bamboo and meat fare. Mizoram mainly has boiled and subtle preparations rather than the fried foods. Sikkim and Arunachal Pradesh are more strongly influenced by our eastern neighbor  like China. This influence can easily be seen in their version of momos and noodles, but again without much influx of spices. Tripura's cuisine is evidently influenced by the mainland and is known for its bursting masalas. Assamese food is well known for its tangy flavours brought in by the extensive use of tomatoes and various citrus fruits for example Masor Tenga. 

While searching for the recipes, I find very little is known about the cuisines and there are very few online resources. While I have a good knowledge of Assamese cuisine thanks to my friend who have gifted me a book on it and I found so much of similarities in our cooking style and techniques and I almost relate to all of the recipes except the use of khar (traditional alkali) which is so typical to Assamese cuisine. This time I want to explore other cuisines besides Assamese Cuisines and stumbled upon this Shrimp recipe from Mizoram and did not find any other shrimp recipes list for rest of the states. Since my son like shrimp a lot, I decided to go ahead with this shrimp dish from MIZORAM. 

Mizoram is one of the seven Northeastern sister states sharing a border with Assam, Manipur, Tripura and an international border with Bangladesh and Burma. Mizoram means “land of the hill people”, mi means people, zo means hill and ram means country.Cuisine of Mizoram is similar to that of its other northeastern sister states and different from most of the mainland cuisine. Rice is a staple food served with fish, chicken, pork and duck. Meat and seafood are added to pretty much everything that is cooked. Mustard oil is used for cooking. Very little oil and spices are used and food tends to be bland. Vegetables are also used extensively unlike the common belief that Mizos eat only non-veg.

The food of Mizoram has a characteristic blend of Chinese and North Indian cuisine; thereby giving it a distinct flavour and taste. The dishes in the Mizoram food platter mostly include non-vegetarian preparations. Vegetables are also eaten along with meat. The food is served in banana leaves maintaining their age-old traditions. The local people here love to eat fish, mostly cooked or sauteed in mustard oil, which has a distinct flavour. Mizo people like bamboo in their food and also enjoy preparing delicacies made with duck meat.

Most popular dishes from this state are Misa Mach Poora, Panch Phoron taarkari, Dal with egg,Grilled shrimps. A meal in mizo will contains the following dishes for sure Vawksa ( smoked pork),Samtawk, Bai ( soup), Hmarcha Rawt ( Chilli chutney),any kind of Chhum ( Salad) and Behiiang. Chhangban Leh Kurtai  sounds exotic but  is a simple dish in itself. Made from rice flour and jaggery ,covered in leaf steamed into a delectable healthy and tasty treat from Mizoram.

 

The primary staple food of the Mizoram people is rice while the most common non-vegetarian food item is fish. Mustard oil is the most preferred medium of cooking for most Mizoram food items. However, the dishes are cooked with the least amount of oil. Bamboo shoots are among the most used vegetables in Mizo cuisine and among meats, ducks have a special place.Boiling, steaming and sautéing are the most preferred cooking methods followed in Mizoram cuisine, as the whole motive is to retain the maximum possible nutritive value of the ingredients.

In Mizoram people do like to include plenty of vegetables but they also add a meat to each and every dish and make it Non veg.The food in Mizo is quite similar to other north eastern states , Generally mild and some of ingredients used are punget in flavor.The staple is rice here, and they don't forget to include fish in their meal.Zero oil or very less oil is used in most of the recipes here. 

Misa Mach Poora is a popular dish from the northeast cuisine which is very easy and simple to prepare with just few ingredients on hand. Grilled shrimps are a sure way for an awesome delectable and luscious dinner; irresistibly marinated with subtle flavours, ready to be eaten with a bowl of hot rice.  If you love seafood, this Mizo dish is made for you. This is a dish traditionally made by grilling or roasting the shrimp on banana leaves placed on hot charcoals. The shrimp is flavoured with local spices and served with steamed rice. The sheer simplicity of the dish is what makes it so comforting to the soul. Most of the sources for this recipe online sites had onions in the ingredient list and none mentioned it in the preparation.So I have followed the recipe of Misa Mach poora from Here. The recipe was basically of Grilled Shrimp and served with Steamed Rice. I have made the recipe as per the instruction and after that I have used the grilled shrimp to make an Orange Glazed Shrimp curry that goes very well with the hot steaming pot of rice.

Total Time: 20 minutes
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cooking Time : 10 minutes
Serves: 4 

Ingredients:
Misa Mach Poora

• 500 grams Shrimp

• ¾ tsp. Salt (½ for marinating and ¼ while grilling. adjust to taste)

• 10 to 12 Peppercorns

• 1 tsp. Coriander Powder

• ½ cup Water

• 1 tsp. Mustard Oil

• ¼ tsp. Pepper Powder (adjust to taste)

• 1 – 2 tsp. Lime Juice

Orange-Glazed Shrimp

• Zest of one orange

• 3/4^th cup fresh orange juice 

• 3 tbsp. lime juice

• 1 tsp. hot red pepper sauce

• salt as per taste

• 1 tbsp. sesame seeds

• 1 tablespoon oil

• Grilled prawns from above

• 1 Onion finely chopped

• 6 to 7 garlic pods minced

• 1 to 2 green chillies finely chopped

• 1 teaspoon pepper powder

• Spring onions and fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Preparation:

• Peel, devein and clean the shrimp.
• Marinate the shrimp with ½ tsp. of salt and ½ tsp. of turmeric powder. Let it marinate for about 5-10 minutes.
• Boil water in a sauce pan with peppercorns . Boil just enough water to merge the shrimp in it.Add shrimp and cook for 2 minutes.
• Drain the water and transfer the shrimp to a bowl.
• Pour ½ tsp. of mustard oil on the shrimp, mix it and keep it aside until ready to grill.
• Make a paste of coriander powder and pepper powder with the help of 1 teaspoon of mustard oil and keep aside. 
• Place the banana leaf over a slow fire to make it soft. Marinade prawns with coriander and pepper paste and place on the banana leaf. Wrap the banana leaf tightly and secure with  a toothpick or banana stem thread.
• I have wrapped  the banana leaf with silver foil and placed it on the grilled rack over the stove. If you do not have banana leaf, you can place the shrimp on the pan and grill it on both sides until the shrimp is roasted. This should take about 5 minutes. 
• Take out the prawn after 5 minutes and open the silver foil and the banana leaf.
• At this stage you can squeeze lime juice and serve it as a side dish with rice or as an appetizer or with some cocktail.
• Or you can prepare a orange glazed syrup by stirring  together orange zest, orange juice, lime juice,  hot pepper sauce and salt .
• In a pan, and some oil and stir in the sesame seeds, chopped green chillies and garlic and saute for a minute .
• Add the chopped onions and fry till translucent. Stir in the orange syrup and bring  to a boil until thickened, for about about 2 minutes on high flame. 
• Stir in the grilled  shrimp along with ground pepper and toss everything well.
• transfer to a plate, sprinkle spring onions and fresh coriander leaves and serve over some hot steamed rice.

Sending this recipe of Misa Mach Poora to 29th Foodie Monday Bloghop theme of "Cuisines from North East"......

CREAMY WATERMELON GRANITA

Granita is the perfect refreshment when you're looking for an excuse to stick your face in the freezer every 30 minutes. Granita is much simpler than churned ice creams and sorbets and can be prepared with nospecial equipment. All you need to do is keep a sweetened puree in a container in the freezer, and occasionally scrape it up with a fork to form its granular to flaky consistency. This is frozen dessert at its most primitive, so the process of making it is really simple.

Granita is an Italian frozen dessert very similar to sorbet, except that it's made by hand instead of in a machine. Because of this, the texture of granita is coarser and flakier - like eating snow! It's briefly crunchy at the first spoonful and then melts deliciously in your mouth.

With all the ripe summer fruit around flooding the market, there is no shortage of possibilities that one can  try with Granitas. To make granita, you do nothing more than pour a fruity liquid into a pan, then place it in the freezer and use a spoon or fork to scrape the icy mixture as it freezes. It couldn’t be simpler, and there are so many different varieties: just make a liquid out of any fruit, pour it in a pan, and freeze it. Your Granita is ready.

I had shared a chilled melonballs salad with you the other day and I have the some leftover watermelon from that and see what I had been up to the whole week to beat the summer heat and keep myself cool. I will share the simple tricks of making this easy and quick coolers in other posts.

Coming back to Granita, I have tried the watermelon version. The gorgeous color of the watermelon shines through, and it reminds me of  the summer outside. The great thing about granita is that the light, scraped ice on top stays perfectly frozen in the freezer and  never crystallizes. It’s always light, cold, and perfect.

The exact recipe for the granita can vary depending on how ripe the fruit is, how sweet or sour it is, and how much liquid it holds. The ingredients for making granita is fruits, water and sugar. Combine all the ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook, stirring occasionally, until all the fruit has broken down into a pulp or alternatively, you churn the fruit in a food processor until it is pureed. Make a sugar syrup in advance and then stir it into the fruit puree.Either way, the end goal is a slightly thickened liquid with a consistency somewhere between orange juice and applesauce. To add more zing you can  add in any extra flavorings. I like to squeeze a lemon, a pinch of black salt, crushed pepper, mint leaves. You can also add chocolate chips, dry fruits and the possibilities with granite is endless.

Cuisine: Italian

Serves: 10 to 12

Prep time; 5 minutes

Setting time: 4 hours

Things you need to make this Granita:

• 4 cups watermelon cubes
• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 1/3 cup condensed milk
•  a pinch of black salt
• a pinch of crushed pepper
• 1/2 cup  raisins
• lime wedges and mint leaves for garnishing

Let's learn how to make this Granita:

• Place watermelon in container of food processor; pulse to puree watermelon. 

• Place the strainer over a bowl, pour pureed watermelon into it to strain out seeds, forcing watermelon through with back of spoon, if needed. 

• Stir  lime juice and condensed milk into pureed watermelon.

• Add salt and crushed pepper and pour into a freezer safe pan until firm.

• After half an hour, take the pan out of the freezer and scrap the granita with a fork. Put it back in the freezer. 

• Continue doing this every half an hour or so until the granita is completely frozen and resembles fresh snow. Depending on how often and how vigorously you stir the granita, the texture can be flakier (less stirring) or finer (more stirring).

• At this stage, you can either serve it up in individual bowls or lightly pack it into an air-tight container for later.

•  To serve, scrape frozen watermelon mixture with spoon to make granita. Stir in currants and serve with lime wedges and mint leaves immediately.

Enjoy Your Granita........ an easy frozen dessert that celebrates the fabulous fruit . That's really all there is to it. Watch out for this space for some amazing recipes. 

CAPSICUM PANEER

Good Food is very often Simple Food....How true to it's nature. Simple food is always so soul satisfying. After a hard day's work, nothing satisfies like a bowl of hot steaming rice and a flavorful curry to go with.Many a times, I faced the question from most of my readers, that how do I manage to work and cook regularly and share at regular interval. This is simple, I do a lot of pre-planning, like menu planning one day in advance and makes sure my refrigerator has all the basic ingredients to whip up a quick satisfying meal. One such dish is Capsicum Paneer which is fairly easy and quick to make.

Paneer is the star ingredient in some of my most favorite Indian dishes — and probably yours too. Paneer is home-made, unsalted, white cheese which is fresh and has a dense, crumbly texture that goes beautifully with any spices.This paneer capsicum is a gravy recipe made with marinated yogurt . The addition of yogurt gives a good flavor to this recipe and overall it is a rich creamy recipe which goes best with rotis, parathas or even a simple jeera rice.Although the taste is tangy you could also make them more spicy if you wish. When you're looking at making something quickly for lunch or dinner — which is healthy too, here's a recipe which can be a quick solution.

RECIPE TYPE: Main Course

CUISINE: Indian

PREP TIME:  30 mins

COOK TIME:  20 mins

TOTAL TIME:  40 mins

SERVES: 4

Ingredients for Marinating Paneer:

• 200 gms Paneer cut into squares
• ½ cup hung yogurt 
• 2 tsp kashmiri red chili powder 
• 1 tsp dry mango powder 
• 1/4th tsp chat masala
• 1 tbsp gram flour 
• 1 tsp garam masala
• 2 tsp oil

 Ingredients for the gravy:

• 3 tbsp oil 
• 1 tsp carom seed 
• 1 onion chopped into squares 
• 1 cup green, yellow and red bell pepper chopped into square 
• 2 tomatoes finely chopped 
• 1 tbsp grated ginger or chopped finely 
• 1 tsp chopped green chili 
• 1 tsp roasted cumin powder 
• 1 tsp kashmiri red chili powder 
• 1 tsp coriander  powder 
• 1 tsp garam masala powder
• ¼th tsp turmeric powder 
• Fresh coriander leaves for garnishing

Let's Learn How to make this recipe:

• Combine all the ingredients for marination and whisk well. Add oil ,gram flour and combine nicely. The mixture should be smooth and lump free. 

• Add the paneer  pieces into it and coat them nicely with the mixture. Cover with a cling wrap and marinate the paneer for 30 mins in the fridge.

• Heat  a non stick tawa or pan. Add a little oil and shallow fry the marinated paneer on all sides till brown . Remove them from the pan and place aside.

• In the same pan heat rest of the oil . Add carrom seeds and once they crackle add the onion, ginger and bell peppers.

• Saute on high heat for 2 mins . Now add chopped tomatoes, cover and cook until tomatoes become tender.

• Mash with the back of the spoon and cook till oil comes out.Add coriander powder, cumin powder, red chilli powder and turmeric powder along with salt .

• Cook for 30 secs. Add little water if the mixture dries up.You can add the leftover marination from the paneer to the gravy.

• Add the fried paneer and cook for a minute.  Switch off the gas and sprinkle garam masala  , green chilies ad fresh coriander leaves.

• Serve this with hot roti, rice or naan.

The red, green and yellow bell peppers give a nice juicy, sweet and crunchy texture that compliments the softness of cottage cheese. This one is bound to impress and believe me your family will never know that this was a less than 20 mins job.

STUFFED DATES TOFFEES

Hey, we are once again back with our 28th Foodie Monady Bloghop event and what a fun choosing the theme for this time. It's always a pleasure to visit my co-blogger friends blog and see what amazing recipes they have....and when the theme for this week was " Inter Blog challenge" , everyone including me were excited. This is the chance to cook something from each other's blog but wait who will cook from whose blog was the question in everyone's mind. Here comes the savior of our group Krithika ...the lively girl that she is always has surprises up her sleeves.....and comes this unique way of choosing the Blog by picking up a random draw. Personally, I would have been happy to cook from anyone's blog as I know each one of them are fantastic cooks and passionate Bloggers. I have been given to try recipes from a very talented and sweet friend Habeeba Nisa who blogs at Flavour Diary .

Nisa is born and raised in India and moved to UK with her family consisting of her hubby and two extremely sweet kids. She is a Software professional and was working  before she left India and currently work with her husband in his Company. Her Blog has  a collection of wonderful recipes to cook from. I have personally used one of her recipes of Chocolate cups in SPICY CHOCOLATE MOUSSE. Apart from this, some of the dishes which I like from her blog are Cute Deviled eggs, Chocolate Cardamom Sandesh, Dahi Vada . 

Spicy Chocolate Mousse

For this 28th Foodie Monday Blog Hop I have chosen this very easy and flavorful recipe of Stuffed Dates which can be done in both sweet and savory manner and like her I also tried the sweet version. You can have a look at the original picture of the recipe below. 

             

Here is what NISA has to say about her recipe: "Why to have just dates for your snack, why not have them with little more added vitamins and minerals. These lovely tiny energy bundles are easy to make and serve. Having a date a day would be satisfying to your taste buds with sweetness and also giving you all the essential nutrients for the day.  Its a blending and stuffing process".

Dates are the fruit of the date palm tree, and are often used as an ingredient in desserts and other recipes, naturally sweetening dishes and offer several nutritional benefits. Dates has been gaining popularity with more health conscious consumers who looks into the fact that dates can easily be used in cooking and baking to sweeten dishes, sometimes even taking the place of sugar or other artificial sweeteners.

The health benefits of dates are far-reaching, but one of the best things about the natural fruit is that although it is high in sugar, studies have shown that dates are actually a low-glycemic index food and do not significantly raise blood sugar levels after they are eaten. Dates are also loaded with fiber, have been shown to lower triglyceride levels, and deliver vitamins and minerals that are necessary to maintain optimum health.

Coming back to the recipe of Stuffed dates, it is an easy but impressive recipe with loaded goodness of dry fruits. This recipe is equally well-suited for an elegant dinner party or a  summer get together, as it balance sweet, nutty and crunchy flavors and  textures.I have made a few changes in the original recipe which I have marked in the Note.

Level: Easy 

Total time: 30 mins

Makes: 50 nos

Ingredients

• 2 packets dates

• 100 grams Almonds

• 100 grams Cashewnuts

• 2 tablespoon Raisins

• 1 tablespoon melon seeds

• A pinch of Nutmeg powder

• 1 tablespoon Milkmaid

• 100 grams chocolate chips(Optional)

• Few Cloves for garnishing

Lets learn How to make this:

• Cut the Dates in half and remove the seeds. You can also seedless dates.

• Dry roast the  Almonds, Cashewnuts and melon seeds separately. 

• In a blender add Almonds, cashews and blend it to a coarse powder.Add the melon seeds and nutmeg powder to it.Now add 1 tablespoon of milkmaid and knead it to make a dough consistency.Take a pinch of this mixture and stuff it inside the dates. Place a clove in the center and keep aside.The flavor of the clove and its spiciness will balance out the sweetness of the stuffed dates.
• You can have this as it is now or can follow the below mentioned procedure to make it more exotic.

• Now melt the chocolate chips  in a double boiler and mix it well. Once it melts add a a teaspoon of oil to make it smooth and easy coating of the dates.Dip each stuffed dates in it and keep on a parchment paper to dry. Place it inside a refrigerator to cool .Once cool, take out the dates and wrap it on color papers like toffees. You can have them as it is or can pass it off as a gift to someone you LOVE.

 This is such an easy to make recipe once you figure out a couple of basics, that you can easily make a few batches within  half an hour or so and have delicious gifts to share with friends and family or to serve throughout the holiday season.Believe me when I say you can make this and then invite people over for a tasting of this. Otherwise, you’ll be tempted to eat it all yourself. Promise.

 I have made the following few changes in the basic recipe adopted from Flavour Diary. 

• The original recipe calls for sugar and water , whereas I have replaced it with Milkmaid for proper binding in place of water.

• The original recipe calls for addition of food colors whereas I have kept it basic.

• I have dry roasted the almonds and cashew nuts for longer life .

• Kept the mixture a bit coarse so that it can give the feeling of chewiness.

• I have used melon seeds for crunchiness and nutmeg powder for aromatic flavor.

• I have used chocolates to cover the dates for a kids friendly version and kept it as it is for others.

Thank you Nisa for this wonderful and simple recipe and if I could have met you in person, I would have definitely gifted you the lovely stuffed dates wrapped up in chocolates for you and your kids.

Sending this Stuffed dates toffees recipe to our 28th Foodie Monday Bloghop theme of " Inter Blog Challenge".