Affair with Prata

The week was more eventful than normally since my brother is living with us now. Since my parents are here to visit for a while, we have been eating out a lot for the past couple weeks to show the food heavens in the GTA. Last week we were invited to eat the famous crab at Saigon Star .What very interesting about this always full seating restaurant,they presented pratha and french baguette for dipping the crab sauce, an unusual trade for a bowl of rice in a Vietnamese restaurant. 

Eversince I have been wanting to eat those delicious fluffy Prata. During his days in Malaysia, my brother said the norm is to eat Prata/ Roti Canai with sweet condensed milk. Although he did not get to satisfy his sweet tooth, he got a fair share of Prata for dinner ( maybe next time). I took out a bag of frozen Shana Paratha and toast it with a little butter in a pan untill those layers of flour and fat is bubbly and turned golden brown.

To accompany the Prata, chickpea dipping is the way to go. Some left over cherry tomatoes can serve the dipping well too. I bet its not the most authentic Indian style of eating prata with a dal , since my chickpea dipping is thicker almost like hummus. But it was faster to cook and bursting with flavor!

My husband is a carnivore, so does my brother. The meal is incomplete without a piece a meat on their   plate. I decided to make a simple pan seared garlic basa fillet ( if it counts as meat, since I already defroze them). So a meal is complete with a last touch of apricot syrup. I give the sweet portion for my brother sweet tooth ( part of it), well not really. It would be  a perfect marriage of sweet earthiness.

Chickpeas Dipping

A can of chickpeas

1/2 red onions diced

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 tbsp of turmeric

a handful of cherry tomatoes/ 1 tomatoes if you will

1/2 tbsp of cumin ( if you like more it more spicy you can add more)

salt and cracked pepper to taste

In a pan heat up the olive oil and throw in the red onions untill it softens, put in the spices, tomatoes ,add the chickpeas with the juice. Simmer untill the water is absorbed. You can use a fork to mash the chickpeas, and serve!

Pan Seared ( Garlic) Basa fillet

2 Basa fillet

2 garlic cloves minced,

1 tbsp of butter

Flour , cayene peper, and salt for coating

Make the basa fillet into 4 portions each. Pat dry the the fillet with towel. In a bowl mix flour, cayene pepper, and salt for coating. Coat the fish uniformly ,set aside. Warm the butter in a pan, if the heat gets too hot, add some canola oil so the butter will not get burned. Sautee the garlic so the oil is infused with flavor.Take out the garlic and pan fry the fish 3-5 minutes per side untill cooked. Assemble the meal, dont forget the apricot syrup!

and Have a good Eat!