Shrimp Stuffed Coconut

This is a fantastic starter, which can go with any mood you are in. I am pretty sure once you serve it to your guests they will be so delighted that they will do anything to get the recipe. Well, I bribed my grandma (from Bengal) for it by picking some herbal leaves for her in hot sweaty afternoons for a month in Bengal. She oneday gave away the recipe suddenly while chatting about her village when I gave up hope. I am glad she did as none of my sisters or even my mom knows the recipe in full till now. So reader should feel lucky too.

Ingredients:

1. Shrimps about 1 kilo in weight, washed, cleaned and not boiled.
2. Shallots: about 3, finely chopped in wedges.
3. Coriander leaves about a handful.
4. Lime juice about 1/3 of a tea cup or as you prefer.
5. Salt to taste
6. Finely shredded fresh 1 lime leaves
7. Mustard paste about 2 tea spoons
8. 4 table spoons of mustard oil
9. 2/3 green fresh Indian chillies, finely chopped deseeded if you want to avoid heat. Do not forget to wash your hand after handling chillies, or simply use rubber gloves if you want.
10. One coconut whole, water taken out from the tiny eyes from it by piercing with sharp knife.

Preparation

Mix entire ingredient in a bowl and gently stuff them through eye of the coconut leaving no free space. Once it is fully stuffed, you can seal the eye  with some butter paper and then a bit of very soft flour dough which will act as glue.

My grandma used to throw the coconut inside her clay stove, which uses fire wood while there is no fire, but the coals are very hot after cooking is finish. She used to keep it there until she was ready to serve.

I use my barbecue grill. After I finish barbecue, I lift the hot grill and keep the coconut covered by hot coals and ashes until I want to serve the dish. It takes about 15 to 20 minutes to cook all the shrimps inside. As it is sealed there is no chance that any flavour will be lost. In fact, all will be there inside, gently amalgamating with one another creating a mouth watering starter with bit of smoky flavour. When you want to serve it take out the coconut from coals and wash it with hot water so ashes from it surface are cleaned. You do not need to clean it thoroughly.  Now keep a clean steel tray underneath to collect any shrimps from coconut which will drop, hold the coco nut at the top of the tray and gently but hit it medium hard with a knife at the dia of the coconut until it crack open. The moment it opens up you will feel a rush of flavours hitting your nose, serve your shrimps as you like on a dish. I usually serve the two halves of the coconut filled with shrimps on banana leave covered tray.

This starter we Bengali serve with white rice, usually during lunch time. This and similar kind of starters are served as appetiser as small quantity to make your guest more hungry for the next course.

variation of this recipe is: if you find it hard to use coconut then wrap the mix in double aluminum foil, mix some shredded coconut or coconut powder and wrap tightly keeping a bit of space for steam accommodate. bake for 20 minutes and serve.

Spicy Duck / Goose Curry

Spicy Duck/ Goose Curry:

Just it  happened so that i was writing this recipe today and one of my Bengali colleague called me and said that he is missing duck curry. I was surprised, then again I shouldn't be as all Bengalis love duck curry minus the city boys of Bengal of  course.  This is a very Bengali recipe and as my grandma (mom’s mom) is from south West Bengal, she used to cook it with coconut milk. Her native land is coastal land full of beautiful coconut trees. Their almost all recipe are with coconut milk. These people do not eat very spicy food though, especially red chili is not their favorite but she adapted this recipe to match with her in-law’s customs of spicy, fried and oily food. Well, we added the heat of chili afterward when we followed her recipe. I have eaten duck curry of East Bengal and there I found it with loads of gravy and aubergine, which is as for my taste is very yummy but I am just used to eating this curry and so I introduced the same recipe to my children to take it forward.

The Duck or Goose, what ever you use, tastes better if it is of free range for beautiful flavorsome flesh and it is good when you have it in winter time so you can have enough fat which will give an unique flavor. I believe we Bengalis do not only enjoy food, we enjoy flavors alot, and it is the most essential part of cooking. So sharpen nose rather I should say senses when you want to enjoy this curry.

Ingredient:

1. A nice healthy free range duck/ goose of winter about 1 and ½ Kilo weight which should feed six people. The colour of the skin of this bird should be pink and the fatty bits should look pale yellow under skin.
2. 1 coconut, cored, shredded and blended with hot water. Later press out the milk with the help of a muslin and squeeze the shredded coconut in muslin hard so all milk comes out leaving the nearly dry coconut grates.
3. Mix of hole garam Masala of Bengal: 5 clove, 5 cardamoms, 1 inch long cinnamon,
4. Bay leaves: about 2/3
5. Roasted Cumin seed paste/ powder: about one tea spoon
6. Roasted Coriander powder/ paste: about one tea spoon.
7. Fenugreek seeds: ½ tea spoon
8. Fennel seeds: one tea spoon made into powder.
9. Turmeric powder: 1 table spoon
10. Chili powder: 1 table spoon or more if you really fancy hot food
11. Ginger: 1 and ½ inch made into paste
12. Garlic: I use whole as it will balance the amount of cholesterol of this food, if garlic is not for your taste use ½ of a whole garlic made into paste.
13. Fresh green chili: 5/ 10
14. Fresh green coriander leaves to garnish
15. Little bit of corn oil, about 2 table spoon as coconut will release its oils along with the duck fat.
16. Fresh Lime leaves (optional)

Preparation:

Make duck into medium pieces with the bone and skin. Do not chop up in bite size pieces, otherwise softer meats of breast will become shredded before your drumstick pieces are even cooked.

Fry the pieces in hot oil skin side down, brown them and take them off. You may need to fry them in batches.

In the same pot in medium low heat fry the fenugreek and fennel seeds whole garam masala and then after 30 seconds add onion and fry until transparent and soft. Add turmeric, chili powder, coriander and cumin powders and bit of salt so all the spices amalgamate. You may need to add little bit of water so the spices do not burn or stick to the bottom. Add the fried pieces of meat and fry more, increasing the heat little bit so the overall temperature of the curry does not drop sharply. Stir well, so all the prices coat  meat pieces. At this point duck will release moisture and fat. Do not let it sweat a lot, add bit of coconut milk if it gets dry, but not water. Then after 10 minutes of frying, add rest of the coconut milk and increase the heat so the gravy boils. When it reaches the boiling point, reduce to medium and cover with a tight lid, so no flavour can escape.

After 10 to 15 minutes, check the meat, if they are tender and the thickness of the gravy to make sure they do not dry or stick at the bottom of the pan.

When you reach your desired consistency of the gravy, reduce the temperature further, and simmer with the lid on. Add salt if you need to. Before you take the flame off, add chopped coriander and green chillies, grounded cumin powder if you have in your cupboard. I always add some fresh lime leaves and a squeeze of half a lime for my taste. My grandma and mom always used to make this curry with just enough gravy to coat meats and obviously used to add a lot of oil so it is more succulent and rich. You can do so, if you want to increase your fat intake, or you are just not bothered.

Serve it with steamed brown long grain rice. I am not kidding, it really taste superb with some long grain rice, even better if you can get hold of wild rice with a portion of green salads. Enjoy, as I do in a cold wintry nights watching blankets of snow making my usual neighbourhood looks like a fairytale town. 

INDIAN CHICKEN HEALING SOUP

This is a fantastic soup which can be a treat for you, especially when you are down with cold and fever. My mum used to cook it for us when we had flue and she came from a family of Buddhist healers of South Asia. Well, I will go straight into recipe which is actually very simple but extremely delicious when it is cold and gray winter outside. 

You need:

One organic free range chicken

6 to 8 shallots chopped and fried in butter to golden colour

1 inch ginger shredded in long thin pieces

2 carrots cut in chunks

2 potatoes cut in halves

One stick of cinnamon

5-6 cloves

3 cardamoms

3 Bay leaves

One tea spoon of whole coriander seeds (optional)

One tea spoon of turmeric (it has great healing power)

1 teaspoon of whole black peppers

1/2 cup of plain yogurt

Salt to taste

2 table spoon of butter.

Process: cut the chicken in big pieces and wash them thoroughly. You can remove the skin if you like. I usually remove the skin. Take big soup pot or a stock pot and throw the chicken in cover with water and all the ingredients including the yogurt, except the onion. For yogurt make sure you beat the yogurt in a cup of water and mix it thoroughly then pour it in.

Simmer the soup for an hour or so until the chicken is soft. Taste for salt and if you think it need some add some more and that goes for pepper too. Keep the soup on a low heat while you make the onion fry.

In a frying pan fry the shallots in butter in low heat until they are golden brown. Throw the fried shallots in soup and you will see the beautiful fragrance of your chicken soup made you already feel very fresh.

Serving: you can have this soup on its own or with some Nan Bread or white basmati rice. Remember when you are not feeling well, whole grain will take more energy for digest and will remain in your stomach for long. I also serve it with Thai jasmine sticky rice. My children have it with toasted bread and they love to soak them in. Eat in small quantity for the day and I am sure before you go to bed that night you will feel much better. Keep in cold corner of the kitchen for the night and next morning warm it on low heat and you will find the taste has matured a lot and it is even more delicious. 

Ginger, and all those spices have a natural healing power and chicken itself is good for recovering from flue and cold.

Note: I am deployed in a very remote location now and do not have access to make this soup to add a nice photograph of it. If any reader feels interested to make this soup, they may as well take a bit of trouble to take an attractive picture of it and send it to me. Please do not forget to let me know if you were successful in making this soup.