Chingri Maacher Malai Curry - Coconut Shrimp Curry

At four, when all other kids wanted to be doctors, I wanted to grow up to fry and eat fish in my parents' kitchen. Yes my first ambition was to be a fish fryer! Many dreams and aspirations have since come and gone but none as dear as the first. Of course with age my ambition has been trimmed to fish eater. The exhilarating anticipation I experience standing in my parents' kitchen as ma puts a turmeric-stained hilsa steak in hissing mustard oil is tantamount to a virgin's before the first time.

I loved my fish and rice and my parents grateful to have at least one kid who inherited the true bengali love heartily indulged my piscine appetite. So much so, that during season the pricey hilsa was a staple at my parents’. During the months when hilsa was unavailable or supposedly didn't taste as well, we ate koi, tangra, pabda and the likes. Another fish, which though not a fish, that often found itself on our dinner table was the prawn; its distinction being the only marine life my sister obliged to consume.

According to family lore, as a child I supposedly couldn't distinguish between prawns and roaches. Though I don't want to believe that hackneyed tale, I can sense the rationale. I often watched the domestic help kill live prawns in our kitchen by holding them under boiling water. In the process, some crustaceans frequently escaped her and went crawling and fluttering their antennae all around.

When I met N, I was aghast at his lack of knowledge of fish and seafood. That man only ate rohu, an Indian carp! Realizing that most freshwater fish would be too bony for him, I first introduced him to pomfret and then to shrimp, keeping my fingers crossed all the while. After he had enjoyed his first shrimp fried rice, I cooked chingri maacher malai curry, the reluctant Bengali delicacy for him and with that, I won him over, across murky waters to the side of fish lovers.

The first time I made malai curry, ma instructed me over phone on how to devein prawns, milk a coconut and cook the crustacean. Due to inevitable miscommunication, I cooked the curry little different from her, which I actually liked more. Of course, I have never told her that! I always used bagda chingri (tiger prawns) like ma but after moving to the States, I never found them at the stores. I suspect even if I do, I won't be able to afford them. Hence like many Indian recipes, I substituted - this time with shrimp. However, here I find canned coconut milk, so that kind of evens out the absence of tiger prawns.

Ma cooks them with the heads on. She sincerely believes eating crustacean brains increases the abilities of the eater's own! Myths aside, if you are brave enough go ahead and suck the brain off a prawn - you just might enjoy the gooey, salty cerebral fluid as much as I did. N however, is squeamish around animal heads, so I buy decapitated ones.

Chingri Maacher Malai Curry

Ingredients:

Fresh shrimp/ prawn - 1/2 lb (if using non-decapitated prawns use 3/4 lb)

Coconut Milk - 8 fl. oz or 1/2 can (not the thickened or sweetened kind)

Onion paste - 2 tbsp

Garlic - 1 large clove coarsely chopped and crushed

Ginger - 1 tsp

Slit Green Chillies - 4

Bay Leaves - 3 small

Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp or to taste

Turmeric Powder - 1/2 tsp for marinade and 1/4 tsp for curry

Salt - to taste

Water - 1/2 cup plus more if required

Ground Masala:

Green Cardamom - 2

Cloves - 3

Cinnamon - 2 small sticks

Dried red chillies - 3 large

Black Peppercorns - 10

Mustard Oil - 2tbps (I use canola)

Method:

Prepping the shrimps/prawns - Wash the shrimp. Remove the hard shell; be careful not to remove the tail or the head(if using) . Check if the shrimp has been deveined, if not slit the back a little and remove the black thread. Marinate the shrimp in salt and turmeric powder for half hour.

Prepping the ground masala - While the shrimp marinates dry roast the whole spices and grind to a coarse powder. N eats particularly hot food and I, being the vegetarian heeds to his taste when cooking non vegetarian food. If you like curry mild, omit the dried red chillies and peppercorns like ma.

Cooking -

• Heat 2tbsp of oil in a heavy bottom skillet. Put the marinated shrimp to the hot oil and let them fry till they turn reddish. Remove from oil. Be careful not to fry the shrimp crisp as fish.
• Add the crushed garlic to the same oil and fry till golden brown and remove.
• To this same oil add bayleaves. After 10 seconds, add the ground masala. (Ma doesn't roast and grind the whole garam masala but I don't like chewing on whole cloves and cardamom while enjoying my curry.)
• When the garam masala starts giving off their aroma, add the onion paste and fry till golden brown.
• Add ginger paste and chillies and fry for another 30 seconds.
• Now add the coconut milk and 1/2 cup of water.
• Immediately add red chili powder, turmeric and salt.
• Bring the curry to a boil. Add the fried shrimp. You can add more water now if you curry has already become very thick.
• Let it simmer for another 5 minutes or till the curry reaches a creamy consistency.
• Remove from heat and enjoy with steamed white rice. Though I usually eat brown rice, I have never tried malai curry with it.

Serves - 2