Chingri Malaikari (Ghoti Coconut-Milk Prawn Curry)
The quintessential Ghoti (West Bengali) festive dish — large prawns cooked in a delicate coconut-milk gravy spiced with green cardamom, cinnamon and a pinch of sugar. Served with white rice on Bengali wedding feasts and Durga Puja Ashtami lunches.
Ingredients
Garnish
- green chillies — 12 g
- Jaggery — 5 g
- bay leaf — 1 g
- Ginger — 15 g (pasted)
- Mustard Oil — 50 g
- dry kashmiri chillies — 4 g
- Green Cardamom — 2 g
- Garlic — 5 g (pasted)
- cinnamon stick — 2 g
- Turmeric — 3 g
- coconut milk — 250 g
- prawns — 400 g (cleaned-deveined-headless)
- salt — 6 g
- onion — 80 g (pasted)
- Cloves — 1 g
Method
- Marinate 400 g prawns with 2 g turmeric and 2 g salt for 15 min.
- Heat 30 g mustard oil till smoking; cool slightly. Shallow-fry the prawns 30 sec each side — just till they turn opaque pink. Remove.
- In the same oil add 20 g more mustard oil. Add bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves — let bloom 30 sec.
- Add the onion-ginger-garlic paste. Sauté 6 minutes till the raw smell goes and oil starts to release.
- Add Kashmiri chilli powder, remaining turmeric, salt. Add 50 ml warm water; cook till oil separates.
- Pour in 250 ml coconut milk and 5 g jaggery. Bring to a very gentle simmer — do NOT boil hard, coconut milk will curdle.
- Slide in the prawns. Cover; simmer 4-5 min on LOW until prawns are just done.
- Switch off. Add slit green chillies, drizzle 5 g raw mustard oil. Rest 5 min covered. Serve with hot rice or basanti pulao.
Common questions
- How many calories in one plate of Chingri Malaikari (Ghoti Coconut-Milk Prawn Curry)?
- 434 kcal per plate.
- How much cooking time?
- 37 min — 15 min prep, 22 min cooking.