Chingri Bharta

 

This is a classic Bangladeshi dish. It’s common for Bangladeshi’s to make bharta/bhorta (mish-mash) out of a lot of everyday items. Chingri or Prawn being no exception.

Recently I attended a potluck lunch and decided to make this yummy yet easy to make main-course. Prawn Bharta goes really well with steaming white rice.

Ingredients

• 20-25 medium sized shrimp shelled and de -veined
• 5-6 dried red chilies
• 5-6 green hot chilies
• 1/2 onion finely chopped
• 2 tbsp. minced garlic
• 1 tbsp. minced ginger
• 1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
• 1 tbsp. kalonji (nigella seeds)
• 1/4 cup mustard oil
• 1 tbsp. lime juice
• 1 tsp. sugatr
• 1/2 tsp. turmeric powder
• Salt to taste

 

Procedure

Heat 2 tablespoon mustard oil in a heavy bottomed pan. Smear the prawns with turmeric powder. Add the prawns to medium hot oil and cook till they turn pink and cooked through. Do not over cook. Remove them from the pan and allow them to come down to the room temperature. Take aside 10-12 prawns and put them in a blender or food processor. Pulse the blender/food processor to process the shrimp coarse and chunky consistency. It should NOT be a fine paste. Transfer the content in a mixing bowl.

Cut the rest of the prawns into small bit sized pieces. Keep them in the mixing bowl.

In the separate pan, heat about 2 tbsp. of oil. Add the dry red chilies and nigella seeds to it. Cook them until they stop sputtering. Now add half the amount of the green chilies, 1/4 cup onion, garlic and the ginger in the pan and cook them on low to medium heat until the onion, garlic and ginger looses their rawness, but still maintain their structure. They should not turn brown. Once done, transfer the all the content of the pan to the mixing bowl.

Add the rest of the chopped onions, green chili peppers, rest of the mustard oil, sugar, salt and lime juice. Gently toss. Garnish with fresh cilantro.

Serve over hot rice or as a side.