Saturday, February 11, 2006

Sizzling Shrimp / Chemmen varattiyathu




Be warned –this one is RED-HOT


In Kerala clay-pots are preferred for cooking, especially for cooking sea food. Since I do not have a clay-pot, I just use my regular pan. A poor substitute. There really has to be some logical reason why food cooked in a clay-pot tastes so good that it becomes the ideal in your mind, an unattainable ideal!

recipe

Shrimp : around 30, de-veined, washed
Onion : 1 medium, finely sliced
Tomato: 2 medium
Green Chilli : 1 or 2
Ginger paste : 1 t
Garlic paste : 1 t
Curry leaf: 10
Chili powder : 2t +1 t
Turmeric powder : ½ t
Corriander powder : 2t
Fenugreek : ¼ t
Oil : 4/5 T

Reserve 1 T oil, heat the rest in a heavy pan.

Sprinkle 1t of chili powder, pinch of turmeric powder, and a hint of ginger on the shrimp, and drop the shrimp in the pan. Enjoy the sizzzzzle, stir-fry for a minute or two, until just done and take them out.

Fry fenugreek for a minute, add ginger, garlic,green chillies, and onion, and cook on medium to low heat giving an occasional stir.

Once the onions are almost golden, push them to a side of the pan and pour the reserved oil. Now throw in the red, the brown and the yellow ( chili, coriander and turmeric), and let their colors and flavors get tuned in the hot oil for a minute. I mean let the spices fry in the oil until their raw smell is gone, about 2 minutes.

Add tomatoes, salt and curry leaves. Cook until it forms a thick gravy , and oil floats on top. Now let shrimp join the waiting and wooing gravy. Cook for a another two minutes so that all the shrimp is well coated with masala, and revel in it! This curry tastes good with rotis, rice n dal, bread…even dosa.



an artist's palette , or a foodie's platter

8 comments:

Ashwini said...

Wow! I love the spicy meen/ chemeen preparations of Kerala. I am def going to try this. Re: claypots, I think the food gets cooked evenly without losing its flavor. After seeing all the hoopla on teflon leaking from pans, I think we might soon be going back to grandma's kitchen ways!

sailu said...

Love prawns and your recipe is traditional and I prepare it almost on the same lines as yours.

reshma said...

Ashwini, am thinking of smuggling in a clay pot next time I go home:)

Sailu , yes, this is a traditional and very popular recipe.
thanks for reading and commenting .

Unknown said...

This looks sooooo very yummy. For the past 2 weeks I have been craving for a spicy prawn dish. I am definately going to try this out.

Anonymous said...

Look so yummy, I'll definetly try this and we do have the chatti at home brought it form home last time we were there.

reshma said...

Pushpa, this is a very popular curry in kerala, hopefully you will like it too:)Thank you


Kuttan, Thanks! chatti and all, I envy you :)

pr!tz said...

reshma.... reshma...reshma........
look what you did to me! Now I am drooling! And I want my ma!!

*scuttling to the kitchen to cook up something splendidly keralite!*

Sumitha said...

Hey Reshma,wonderful recipe,I am bookmarking it to try!