Here’s a quickly written recipe for the dish our group created from the Iron Chef Cooking Competition from what I remember (note that the measurements in this recipe are just an estimate, since we did absolutely no measuring of anything at all):
Iron Chef Competition: The Saucy Patels’ Recipe
Ingredients
For the rice:
- 3 cups cooked basmati rice
- 2-3 tablespoons butter or ghee
- ½ cup golden raisins or sultanas
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- 2 teaspoons crushed saffron mixed into ½ cup warm milk
For the crunchy layer:
- 2-3 tablespoons butter or ghee
- 1 cup whole cashews, salted or unsalted
For the sauce/curry sauce:
- 2 tablespoons coconut oil
- 1 onion, finely chopped
- ½ teaspoon ground turmeric
- 3 whole dried red chilis, broken in half
- 3-4 tablespoons of ginger garlic paste (made from grating 3-4 inches of ginger and 10-ish cloves garlic)
- 1 can coconut milk
- 2-4 tablespoons soy sauce
- ¼ cup chopped fresh basil (preferably Thai basil)
- ¼ cup chopped fresh cilantro
- 1-2 teaspoons ground chili powder
- 2 tablespoons gongura pachidi (or any kind of mango or lime pachidi a.k.a. aachaar/chutney) OR try Thai red curry paste
- 1 teaspoon sugar
For the shrimp:
- 1 tablespoon coconut oil
- 15-20 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
- lime juice
For the pineapple layer:
- 4 tablespoons butter
- 2 cups cubed pineapple
- ¼ cup brown or raw sugar
Instructions
- Prepare rice layer. Heat butter in a small skillet. Saute the raisins in butter until the raisins engorge with the liquid gold! Scoop raisins aside into a small bowl.
- Increase heat and saute onion in same pan. Cook about 5-7 minutes. Mix in salt. Add rice to pan and mix well. Mix in the sautéed raisins. Turn off heat. Allow to slightly cool.
- Mix in the saffron milk into the rice and stir well. Set rice aside.
- Heat butter again for the cashews. Saute cashews until golden brown. Be careful not to burn the cashews. Set aside in a bowl.
- Prepare the sauce: Heat coconut oil over medium heat.
- Add the chopped onion. Stir well.
- Add turmeric and whole dried red chiles. Add the ginger and the garlic. Stir well and cook for about 10 minutes.
- Add coconut milk. Stir well.
- Add soy sauce, basil, cilantro, chili powder, and sugar. Stir well. Cook 5-7 minutes.
- Add the pachidi/chutney if using. If not, a good substitute would be fish sauce–just don’t use that much.
- Stir well and cook 5-10 minutes.
- Prepare shrimp separately in skillet. Heat a teaspoon of coconut oil. Add shrimp and saute for 2-3 minutes, flipping a few times. Sprinkle with lime juice.
- Pour pan contents into the pan with the curry sauce.
- Cook shrimp further in the sauce for about 5-7 minutes or until completely cooked through. Set aside.
- Prepare the pineapple: Heat butter until foamy in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add the pineapple pieces and cook for a few minutes. Sprinkle with brown sugar and turn heat to high. The pineapple will slightly brown and the juices will form a syrupy glaze with the brown sugar and butter. Cook for 5 minutes more and set aside.
- Plate: Fill a 4 ounce ramekin with the rice and level the rice. Turn out ramekin upside down onto plate. The rice will easily release without sticking. Top the rice stack with some cashews. Lay 4-6 shrimp around the rice stack, drizzling extra sauce around and on the rice. Scoop some pineapple over the cashew layer. Sprinkle with chopped cilantro.
CHEF RENU
THis looks realy delicious. Dit it win any prizes?
No prizes were handed out–it was a competition just for fun and we had a great time! Thanks for checking it out and I hope you try the recipe!
sounds delicious 🙂