Chingri Do-Pyaza

"Shrimp is the fruit of the sea. You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sautee it. There's, um, shrimp kebabs, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, pan fried, deep fried, stir fried. There's pineapple shrimp and lemon shrimp, coconut shrimp, pepper shrimp, shrimp soup, shrimp stew, shrimp salad, shrimp and potatoes, shrimp burger, shrimp sandwich... That's, that's about it."



This is what Bubba Blue had to say in 'Forrest Gump'. And so very true...now both my husband and I are shrimp devouts..lol. Even during the 3 year vegetarian phase that I was in (for someone who used to eat meat and comes from a family where pure vegetarians are considered to be missing out on the real thing...I did pretty well) , if I wanted to I could have eaten shrimps !

Ever since I have been in Hong Kong we have been binging on shrimps...prawns..lobsters...its sea food haven here. Yum yum yum....!

I have tried almost all kinds of dishes with shrimps or "ha" as they say in cantonese..the last one was a "shrimp burger" at McD.

Heres' a recipie from my mom's kitchen that I L-O-V-E....Chingri Do-Pyaza.

Do-Pyaza means double the amount of onions. Originally this style of dish comes from the hot grass-lands of Central India, where in summer people eat a lot of onions because of its properties to cure heat stroke.

Chingri Do-Pyaza

Ingredients-

500 gms of shrimp, cleaned and deveined

2 large red onions, sliced/chopped finely

1 medium sized tomato, finely chopped

1/2 tsp of turmeric

1/2 tsp of cumin seeds

1/2 tsp of coriander powder

1 tbsp sugar

1 bay leaf

1 tbsp ginger paste

1 tbsp garlic paste

1 tsp cayenne powder

1 green chill, finely chopped

2 tbsp coconut milk

2 tbsp finely chopped coriander

salt to taste

3 tbsp oil for cooking

Method-

In a wok heat oil and add the bay leaf. Add cumin seeds, once they start to splutter, add the sliced onions. Sweat the onions till transparent and add the sugar.

Add the tomatoes and cook for a minute. Now add the ginger-garlic paste,turmeric,coriander powder,cayenne powder and green chilli. Saute for a minute, till the spices and oil separate.

Now add the shrimps and cook. Add the coconut milk and salt to taste.

Cover and simmer for a minute. Lastly, add the coriander leaves and serve.

Goes best with rice/lachedar paratha.

Note: This dish is a little on the sweeter side, so do not add too much of salt.

The dish turned out fabulous and the shrimps were juicy and finger-lickin' good.

However the best shrimp I ever eat is in Kolkata, my mum's chingri(shrimp,in bengali) curry. I haven't been able to duplicate it...nor do I want to really, so that my mom can spoil me when I go to my maayeka (mum's place) ;-p

One day while we were speaking on the phone, my mom sadly sighed that now she doesn't really need to cook for me as I could make all my favourites myself.Let me tell you that my mom gets joy out of making dishes that are our favourites. Its simple pleasures like this that she gets all excited about...actually don't we all !?!

Hence, I told her that her kadhi and chingri are unrivalled; and that she has to make it for me whenever I visit her. She was happy, I could feel it in her voice. Moms' are so simple and loving !