Daab Chingri | Prawns cooked in tender coconut shell
Daab Chingri, or prawns cooked in tender coconut shell is more of an urban Bengali dish, made very popular by restaurants. The base recipe is very much like shorshe chingri bhaape, where prawns are mixed in a mustard-coconut paste and then steamed. Here the steaming or cooking happens in a tender green coconut shell, with the the tender coconut(daab) and its cream(daab er malai) elevating the flavor of the dish.
Not all recipes start with a line like "And in my grandmother's kitchen..."
Neither do all recipes have a boat load of nostalgia tied to them.
But one thing is true, every delicious recipe is triggered by the memory of a meal.
I had never seen a
Daab Chingri cooked in my grandmother's kitchen. Neither did my Mother ever make it.
Daab aka
Tender Young Coconut was very popular in India and we loved it as a drink. Bonus was the tender meat of the coconut -- the
shaansh. But prawns cooked in the shell of a tender green coconut? It never featured in any of my childhood meals!
Now
Shorshe Chingri Bhaape, where prawns were mixed with a
mustard-coconut paste and steamed, was a very popular dish in my home. Only it was steamed in a sealed stainless steel container, that was put either in a pot of rice being cooked or in a pressure cooker. Sometimes, and only sometimes, in my Dida's kitchen, shrimp, coconut and mustard paste would be tossed together, put in a coconut shell and tucked into the dying embers of a unoon. But that was not Daab, that was the hard cooconut shell, it was more of a hasty practical dish and not fancy.
I started hearing about
Daab Chingri only when
finer Bengali food restaurants started sprouting around Kolkata metropolis. Unlike the
paise hotels, which served everyday Bengali meals to the masses, these restaurants offered fine dining in a lovely ambiance and a menu that boasted of Bengali delicacies -- some known and some concocted. I have a hunch that
"Daab Chingri" was a brilliant idea spawned by one of them. It tasted delicious like Chingri Bhaape and was very unique in its presentation style. No wonder the dish took off swiftly and spread like wild fire.
Soon, every other person started saying "The Bengali traditional Daab Chingri cooked by my grandmother....". Like really? Your grandmother in the 60s, 70s, 80s and even early 90s cooked Daab Chingri in her kitchen? Errr...think twice!
But to be honest, Daab Chingri is more of
an urban Bengali dish and not one of those traditional ones with boatmen, Portuguese, Thakurbari and history written all over them.
![](https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjazrf9DSTHaLdw00nB0nrxyVRtm6EnM10L1xgVbbJEBLGkbQo6OzS_QXH-lsN7HAnit07YSE5I3he2MCgFUqOVeCSx4NzjXZCfBW8nbJvriBAHI6ah01k97qaRXkm8TgqMjVFC8g/s400/DaabChingri_6BP.jpg) |
Daab Chingri at 6 Ballygunge Place |
So anyway, having heard so much about this dish, I wanted to desperately try it. Last time during my India trip, my parents took me to
6 Ballygunge Place. Beautiful decor, awesome table settings, very unique menu -- I was blown over! And they had Daab Chingri on the menu. I had to order it of course. It was a beautiful dish no doubt but I had a feeling that the prawns were cooked prior and then the dish finished off in the Daab. No harm done of course. Maybe this is how one makes Daab Chingri, I concluded.
Then last week, my very talented friend
Moumita made Daab Chingri at home and shared with me. It was delicious. The Daab that we get here is
not the green coconut served in Indian restaurants, but a slightly more mature version, stripped of the green exterior.
Today, I had a deep desire to cook Daab Chingri at home. Moumita was away from her phone. I started browsing recipes on the internet and each involved garlic, cream, paanchphoron and what not 😡ðŸ˜. That's not how I envisioned Daab Chingri. I knew my Daab Chingri would be the mustard-coconut one and not the garlic-cream one.
I then, texted another friend
Baishali and she promptly shared two recipes with me. Both her recipes were exactly how I wanted them to be and here's what sealed the deal. Her recipes were very, very easy.
In fact one of them was done totally in the Microwave. As I was experimenting, I tried both the Oven and Microwave method. With
lots of green Chili, the
sharp mustard paste mellowed by the
mildly sweet Coconut,
golden Mustard Oil, and
succulent prawns -- this was a beautiful dish. Triggered by the memory of a meal and aided by friends, it was dish I would always treasure.💓
To be honest, it is very much like the
Shorshe Chingri Bhaape who has gone to a glamorous party. The Tender Coconut Shell definitely adds some panache to the presentation and lends a layer of coconut flavor to the dish.