Daab Chingri: Bengali Recipe

Add as a preferred source on Google

Daab Chingri is a dish not only served in but also cooked in a coconut! This Bengali recipe takes the popular combination of coconut and prawns but adds a touch of creativity to it. This Indian food recipe makes use of coconut and prawns but not the hardened and shelled mature coconut, it is tender coconut that adds the mild flavour to Daab Chingri. The Bengali recipe unlike most others is on the sweeter side of thing. Hardly a couple of spices are use din making this easy seafood recipe and that is why it is suitable for all tastes, even European.

You cook this Bengali recipe on the gas but microwaves seem to be the ways things are done these days but the procedure of cooking on gas is also mentioned here.

Ingredients For Daab Chingri:

1. Prawns (small) 500 grams
2. Tender coconut 2 (water removed and insides scraped)
3. Onions 1 (chopped finely)
4. Ginger 2 inch piece (minced)
5. Garlic 10 cloves (mincced)
6. Green chillies 5-6 (minced)
7. Mustard seeds 3 tablespoons (soaked and made into a paste)
8. Mustard oil 2 tablespoons
9. Panch Phoron or a seasoning of equal amounts of cumin, mustard, fenugreek and ennel seeds 1teaspoon
10. Salt as per taste

Procedure For Making Daab Chingri:

• It is usually the tradition to steam prawns directly in coconut water but if the smells are too strong for you, fry them lightly.
• Heal oil mustard oil (because it is a Bengali recipe) in a deep frying pan, season it with panch phoron and lightly fry the prawns in it. The cooking time must not exceed 2 minutes.
• Now add the onions to it and cook until they turn light golden. Throw in the paste of ginger, garlic and chillies into it. Cook for another 2 minutes.
• Meanwhile you must smother the scarped coconut into a semi solid consistency by beating it with a heavy object like a rolling pin.
• Now transfer the spices simmering on the pan into the a tender coconut shell. Add the scraped coconut and the prawns; and then 1 and a half cups of coconut water to it.
• Add salt and seal the mouth of the coconut with dough kneaded with flour. You can either bake this in the microwave (preheated to 250 degrees) for 7 to 10 minutes.
• The other option is to steam the coconut in a pan full of boiling water for 5-6 minutes.
• To check if it is done see if the oil has started floating on the surface.

Serve Daab Chingri a coconut shell as a side dish for rice.