SC - Bhuna Prawn and Puri

[Oughton, Karin (GEIS, Tirlan)]

>-Poster: Elysant <snowfire at mail.snet.net>
>
>>I have a bhuna shrimp recipe or two but nothing that really matches your
>>description. IIRC, bhuna means that the dish includes spices that are
>>dry-roasted, then ground and mixed with yoghurt or some liquid.
>
>Could you post the recipes, Nanna?  I could try making them and see how they
>differ from what I had.  I wonder if such dishes are Period?
>
>Also where would I get the dry-roasted spices from?  Maybe dry roast
>them myself or are they obtainable like that I wonder?

Yes, you roast them yourself in a clean dry skillet, until they are
fragrant and *just* turning color. You shake the pan or stir the spices
while they are toasting so they cook evenly and don't burn. It's best to
roast each type of spice separately, since they'll take differing lengths
of time to get done, cool them, then grind to a powder.

Bhuna or bhoona:
According to Dharamjit Singh in his book "Indian Cookery", bhoona means
"frying" - it is used for meats and vegetables. There are three styles of
bhoona.

1. Sukha bhoona - is simple sauteeing, the meat is seasoned with spices
crushed into a paste and rubbed into the meat.

2. Dum bhoona - is pot roasting with some moisture. The meat may be
marinated or rubbed with aromatics, then seared, moistened, and cooked in a
tightly closed pot. (dum is to cook with moisture - often added *after*
some other cooking method was used to begin the process)

3. Ard bhoona - is dry pot roasting, using butter only with no liquid or
marinade. "The meat is first seared, then placed in a heavy casserole and
drenched with butter. The lid is closed tightly and cooking completed in
the oven. More butter is added during cooking."


Puri:
Puri is deep-fried whole-wheat bread.  Indian flat bread (made without
yeast) is quite delicious this way - it puffs out because of the expanding
air in the middle. Served immediately after being cooked, puris stay puffed
even in the bread basket.


I looked through 10 Indian cookbooks, 9 by Indians, 1 by a Sri Lankan, and
7 of which were actually printed in India for use by Indians. No recipes
were called Shrimp or Prawn Bhoona/Bhuna. The closest i saw is a Shrimp
Masala recipe which is cooked by the bhoona technique (and was not at all
sweet). But mostly the shrimp are either grilled or cooked with yogurt
sauce.


Anahita Gaouri bint-Karim al-hakim al-Fassi


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