Chingri Bhapa (Prawn in Steamed Coconut-Mustard Sauce)

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Do you love prawns as much as I do?

I just love them! And one of my favourite ways to cook medium-sized tiger prawns is with a semi-dry, coconut-mustard paste (#ChingriBhapa). Since it is entirely steamed, it preserves the natural sweetness and flavour of tiger prawns. And the taste is to die for. 



#BengaliCuisine has a lot of gravies and sauces based on mustard paste. Similar to the Japanese, Bengalis are a fish and rice eating race. Fish is cooked in mustard paste after frying in mustard oil (shorsher tel). 

Steamed bhekti or #bhektipaturi is one of the most unique preparations of #BengaliCuisine. We have hilsa paturi, hilsa bhapa, shorse hilsa jhal, and an array of other fish preparations using mustard paste.

Coconut meat and milk are used sparingly in #Ghoti (West Bengali) cuisine. We scrape the coconut from inside (or you can peel the skin, cut into small cubes and grind in mixer) and use the shavings either as they are, or by soaking in warm water to extract the coconut milk. A lot of our vegetarian dishes are garnished with coconut shavings. And oh yes, we also cut the coconut into teeny-small slices and fry and use in dals.

Here is a simple way of making prawns in coconut-mustard sauce (#ChingriBhapa).

Ingredients

Fresh tiger prawns - 300 gms.

Coconut shavings - 1 cup

Mustard seeds ground to paste - 2 tspns

Mustard Oil - 1/2 tspn

Green Chilli - 2 (slit)

Turmeric (Haldi) Powder - 1/2 tspn.

Chilli Powder - 1/2 tsp.

Salt to taste

Process

First clean and lightly parboil the prawns in 1 cup water with 1/2 teaspoon turmeric powder and a little salt. Remove from fire after 7 minutes.

In a wok/kadhai, heat one teaspoon mustard oil, and add chillies. Add the prawns and lightly saute. 

Give the coconut shavings on the prawns. Toss and mix well. Add haldi and chilli powders, and salt, and a little water. 


Add the mustard paste, mix in half cup water, cover the wok and keep the gas on low flame. Keep checking if it is getting too dry, sprinkle water from time to time.



Remove from fire after 10-15 minutes. Garnish with a green chilli. Serve with steamed rice.


#BengaliCuisine #PrawnRecipe #ChingriBhapa

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