Stuffed Squid

Something new! Stuffed squid is one of the luxury dishes in Vietnamese cuisine and the basic stuffing mixture is made of pork ground, clear vermicelli and wood ear mushrooms, green onions and seasonings. My version of the stuffing included lean pork ground, cooked quinoa, green onions and seasonings. I stuffed all that goodness into two large tubular squids, which I have gutted and cleaned earlier. the traditional method would have been to use baby squid, but that is just too time consuming for me.
Before deep-frying the stuffed squids, I closed the squid opening with small bamboo skewers and emerged the squids into boiling water for around 2 minutes to blanch and precook the squid in order to lock in moisture and flavor. I had a wok filled with canola oil and I fried those two suckers until golden brown and when the center of the tube was firm but bouncy (indicating that the filling is also cooked).
I served the squid with a creamy coconut curry sauce with steamed rice and sauteed white asparagus. Family loved it, so this is a definite repeat dish!

 

Naan

I made this a week ago and completely had no time to post it. This is my first time trying to make Naan at home and the simple instructions by Auntie Manjula is very straight forward, however, I need to figure out how to roll the dough evenly lol. Naan is a very popular Indian flatbread, eaten with curries, as wraps, with dips or on its own. This recipe gave me an excuse to try out my new baking stone, which I really, really love!
I brushed my Naan bread with melted butter and served with Mattar Paneer.

Mattar Paneer

I made one of my favorite Indian curry dishes today, Mattar Paneer (Green Pea Curry with Indian Cheese). Makes my mouth water every time I say it...(yes, I am a curry fanatic). I used the recipe from Auntie Manjula's Youtube video. I served mine with Brown Basmati Rice, cooked with saffron.
 Yum, Yum, Yum!!

Potatoes in Yogurt Curry

Tangy and full of delish!

I have been craving curry lately and I came across this a recipe for potatoes and curry by Aunt Manjula. Check out her page she has some great Indian veggie recipes! I made mine with less spiciness and the yogurt was fat free. I also used new baby potatoes instead of russet potatoes, which gave a different texture. And I doubled the recipe because I also made some for my family.
I served my curry with Roti bread, which I bought frozen from an Asian Supermarket.

New baby potatoes

Plain yogurt and spices

Potatoes in the yogurt gravy

The Roti bread that I used

Spices