My Russian Weekend!

From India, sitting in a garden house in Bamberg, Germany, having an authentic home-cooked Russian lunch in an unusually warm Spring afternoon!! Doesn't it sound interesting?
This was my first Russian food exprience:

1) Fish


2)The plate contains salad, beans (pickled), carrot (pickled)and yes, Kartoffelbrei (mashed potato), we are in Germany after all.



The ingredients of the salad are crab, hard-boiled egg, sweet corn, rice and Schmand(creme)/mayonese. Now I can make this salad, too, thanks to my host, a beautiful young lady working for an MNC on deputation in Bamberg!
This was just the small beginning of the weekend-long feast.

Schrimps with Shredded Bell-peppers

When you are busy, schrimp can be a good option to cook if you dont have to clean iy on your own. I get already cleaned and 'beheaded' ones from the supermarket, and think of the huge prawns, cleaned by mom and fried in mustard oil, with their heads of course, back home, with nostalgia.


I sauteed the schrimps, chopped onion, gree chilly in butter a little and then added chopped red, yellow, and green bell-peppers into it and cooked for a while.
It is a very quick recipe, ideal when your day is really long and you return home late.

Shrimp with Peas

Ingredients:

Shrimp -- 100 gm
Peas -- 25 gm
Coconut -- half of one small
Red onion – one large
Garlic -- a big clove
Salt
Sugar – a pinch
Ginger powder – a pinch
Turmeric powder -- half a teaspoon
Cumin powder -- half a teaspoon
(Use curry-powder if these typical Indian spices are not available.)

Olive oil (or sunflower oil)
Green chilly – one medium
Red chilly powder (optional)
Tomato – one small (optional)

How to Prepare:

Chop 1/3 of the onion into thin slices. Grate the rest.
Shred the chilly and also the garlic.

Grate coconut. Keep it to one side.
Grate tomato. Keep it to one side.

Heat the oil a little and add chopped onion, garlic and green chilly to it.
Sauté till the onion start turning golden.
Add schrimps. (You can add them later also. I prefer frying them a little.)
Now add the spices, grated onion and stir and mix very well.
Now add grated coconut, stir and sauté.

Add salt.
Add grated tomato. Stir and mix well.

Stir and cook for some time.
Add water and the peas. (You can add the shrimps at this stage also.)
Boil till the peas are cooked.

Serve hot with rice.