Prawn Patio

Dhandar and Kolmi No Patio, soul food for a Parsi

Home coming meals are always Dhandar Patio. The ubiquitous combo that features compulsorily on the weekly menu of any Parsi household. A pile of rice covered with yellow dal this in itself  a combo, is called Dhandar. While the vegetarian me enjoy it with papad and pickle my non vegetarian  loving Parsi husband demanded a patio. 

With this post I start a series of meals which my husband enjoyed but I did not post on the blog. Some are very simple and some elaborate. This is to record all the little things that made Arvi happy.

A patio is a sort of a quick pickle made with onion and tomato and any fish. The Prawn patio or Kolmi no Patio being the most favorite among all. So here is the recipe. 

Ingredients

1 cup de-shelled and de-veined prawns

1 onion chopped very fine

1 tomato pureed

1 green chili pounded

2 tablespoon Jeeru Lasan Masala

2 tablespoon oil

optional finely chopped cilantro for garnish.

Preparation

Marinate the cleaned prawns with Jeeru Lasan Masala. Leave it to rest for 10-15 mins. The masala already has salt so no need to add extra. Keeping salt right will help the sweetness of the prawns shine in this dish.

Procedure

Heat oil in a pan. Add the finely chopped onions to the hot oil, follow in with the pounded green chili. Fry until soft. Add tomato puree, let it meld into a paste with the onions. After this add the marinated prawns. Cook till prawns are done but still tender. 

Garnish if you like with finely chopped cilantro. My husband never enjoyed cilantro on his non veg so I skipped it most times.

Note: You will find cookbooks mention the use of vinegar in patio but in homes like ours vinegar did not have much of a presence in cooking except for pickling told my husband. So when vinegar is used, jaggery is added to balance the sourness. my recipe does not need vinegar so eliminates jaggery automatically.

Make this simple lip-smacking recipe and let me know how you like it.