Tuesday, August 17, 2010

Culinary Comeback with Shōrsē Diye Chingri Maachh

You can take a fish out of water, but you cannot take the fish out of a Bengali. Even though that Bengali is pregnant and claims she has aversions for anything non-vegetarian.

After being sufficiently mocked and made fun of for continuing on my no-meat, no-fish hiatus, and being treated as a social pariah, I thought of a culinary comeback.

The urge was there. The ingredients too. Just under 30 minutes, I was eating a lunch today with a work-from-home husband. A meal we will remember for a long, long time. Hope my grape-size baby will too.
IMG_0295IMG_0294 Ingredients for Shōrsē Diye Chingri Maachh (Shrimps in Mustard Sauce) are:

500 grams tiger shrimp or prawns of your choice, shell and tail on, deveined
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
Two and a half tablespoons yellow mustard seeds
1 heaped tablespoon poppy / posto seeds
Half teaspoon turmeric powder
4-5 green chilies (I used about six!)
2-3 tablespoons mustard oil (No other cooking oil will work. Trust me.)
Salt

IMG_0282 Wash and clean the shrimps. In a grinder, make a course powder of the mustard and poppy seeds. Since the quantity is little, its best to do a dry powder first and then add half the quantity of the green chilies and wet grind with a little water. You can also add a little salt and the turmeric powder to this mixture.

Now add the mustard-poppy seed mixture to the shrimps along with the yogurt and slit green chilies. Add salt (if needed) and drizzle the mustard oil all over the shrimp. Mix well.

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You can either steam this or cook this in the microwave for 10 minutes. Of course covered all the time.

If you have a pressure cooker, put the shrimps and its sauce in a steel tiffin box, pour a little water at the base of the cooker and cook this till a whistle goes off.

IMG_0287 Else, you can put it in a microwaveable bowl, cover and cook for 10 minutes.

There are no two ways of eating the Shōrsē Diye Chingri Maachh. It has to be eaten with steaming hot rice and yes, we did eat with our hands today.
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15 comments:

Ushnish Ghosh said...

Dear Pree
This is a lovely traditional dish, my all time favorite ..will try soon..
Bhalo theko

theconservativefoodie said...

Looks yum, a small problem. Being a convert Bong, still shy from being a prawn eater !

GB said...

Sounds delish! :)

Regina said...

Simply gorgeous! I cant wait to make this . I hope you and lil baby bump are fine :) xxx

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Good show and welcome back Pree. Time to feed the little one some good stuff.

Got some prawns at home and will try this. My only problem with using curd in the beginning is that it cracks. what if one adds it at the end?

Kalyan Karmakar said...

won't 20 min in micro be too long for prawns? Never cooked prawns in micro before

Nalini said...

Yum! Can I make the paste with the normal black mustard we use for tadka? Will it affect the taste

PreeOccupied said...

@Kaku, thanks a bunch.

@New kid, I don't think this recipe can tempt you anyway.

@GB, I know you don't like prawns...but if you like salmon, you can give it a try.

@Regina, thanks for asking. Baby bump seems happy with today's meal, or the Mommy says.

@The Knife, yogurt will curdle if you add it in something hot. When you begin cooking this, nothing is hot. So trust me and go ahead and add it all together. And no, 20 minutes wasn't too much. It did not dry up the shrimps or nor did it make it chewy. But you might want to stop at 17 and check. That should be fine too.

@Nalini, you can try it. Though I personally use the black mustard only for tadKa. Do not grind it for too long lest it gets bitter. Add a pinch of salt and of course the poppy seeds and turmeric when you are dry grinding. I will keep my fingers crossed.

Soma said...

shorshe chingri bhapa ta ebar kortei hobe. onek din dhore bhabchi kintu ar hoye utchey na.

MW e konodin chingri korini.

Lipsmacking goood!

soma - www.ecurry.com

Kalyan Karmakar said...

Of course I trust you :) Specially after the pulao

Gouri Guha said...

Dear Pree,
I cook prawn with sorse bata without curd, will try your method. Simply love this dish...tastes great with bhaat of course.
Nice pics:)

Jaya M said...

Looks so delicious Pree..
hugs and smiles

Alisa said...

Its a lovely dish and Im so inspired to try it.I can just imagine eating this with some steamed rice. Yum!

Sharon said...

I am so going to try this!

Lovely blog Pree. I love the pics you put up on FB!

The Ketchup Girl said...

firstly, congratulations on being pregnant :). What a time this is, enjoy it to the fullest! Secondly, I always end up making malai curry with chingri. This time, I will make it with shorshe . Your blog inspires me to cook! I haven;t been doing much. so yaay to you! :)