Chingri Malaikari
If you’re yearning for a Bengali dish, there is only one dish that can satiate your cravings superbly and wholeheartedly.
Chingri Malai is close to the heart of many Bengalis. Succulent freshwater prawns are laid in a bed of super creamy and super flavourful coconut milk sauce. Although the dish looks simple, elegant and deceptive, it is packed with a burst of flavours and is also high in antioxidants and vitamins.
So go ahead and quench your desires for Bengali food with this delectable dish.
Ingredients:
1kg bagda or golda chingri
50g Doctor’s Choice Refined Sunflower oil
10g ghee
200g onion paste
20g ginger paste
4g turmeric powder
1 tsp Kashmiri red chilli powder
75g yoghurt
6 pcs green chilli
300g coconut milk (first press)
200g coconut milk (second press)
24g salt
36g sugar
½ tsp bengali garam masala
Method:
Clean the prawns meticulously by deveining and removing its shell. Leave the flavourful head intact.
Coat the prawns with 1 tsp salt and ½ tsp turmeric and keep aside, allowing it to marinate.
In a grinder, add onions and blend them into a fine paste. Extract coconut milk and reserve both first press milk and second press milk. Keep both separately in different jars.
Pour in the Doctor’s Choice Refined Sunflower oil in a pan. Once the oil is hot, lower the prawns one by one into the oil. Allow it to fry for about 2 minutes and remove it quickly.
For the next process, add ghee to the residual oil in the pan. Temper with dried red chillies, bay leaf, cardamom cloves and cinnamon.
Gently pour in the onion paste and fry till the onions turn golden brown.
Add ginger paste and fry it for a couple of minutes more. Next, add the turmeric and Kashmiri red chilli powder. Stir often and gently so that the spices don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Gently add in the second pressed coconut extract along with three slit green chillies and salt. Allow it to simmer.
Once you notice the oil separating from the spices, beat the yoghurt and add it into the pan. Stir vigorously to prevent the yoghurt from splitting.
After about 4 minutes, add the first press coconut milk and let it come to a boil.
Add in the fried prawns and allow them to bubble in the curry for 5 minutes.
Garnish with garam masala.
Savour the dish with piping hot rice or begun bhaja.
