Chingrir Malaikari | Prawn Malaikari

Chingri Machher Malaikari.

Chingri Malaikari or Prawn Malaikari , is a very famous and popular Bengali dish, made with prawns simmered in a spicy coconut gravy, served with white Rice or Pulao for lunch or dinner on special occasions. It used to be one of those dishes reserved only for grand affairs like birthdays or weddings. Prawns, specially the big Golda Chingri(ideal for this dish) was an expensive affair. Now however we make Malaikari with even the jumbo prawns, much smaller in size than the Golda.

ChingriMalaikari or Prawn Malaikari, is a very famous and popular Bengali entrée served with white Rice or Pulao for lunch or dinner on special occasions. I saw it described somewhere as an “Elegant Bengali Classic” – that definitely sums up this dish. It is so delicious that I want to run down and have my dinner right now instead of writing this up. I made it this Sunday and this write up is for sharing my style of chingri Malaikari recipe.

So most people think that coconut or coconut milk is not a popular ingredient in Bengali cooking, but it is in many of the special Bengali cuisines. This particular dish is cooked in a spiced up gravy of coconut milk and involved a lot of hard work. We need the grated coconut to extract the sweet white coconut milk.

To get the best tasting Malaikari, get a mix of large prawns with heads on and rest heads removed. The reason for this being the prawns head being very very tasty adds a fourth dimension to this already delicious preparation. However if you are not very familiar around prawns, I would suggest you get only the ones with no head , as the prawn head has to be delicately cleaned. If you want to though, go through the following steps to clean fresh prawn :Remove the hard shell, do not remove the tail, leave it on De-vein prawn, slit the back a little and take out the black thread thingy For shrimps with heads, carefully remove only the front portion of the head the eyes etc., do not remove the entire head, you want to keep the liquidy thing inside the head.

Chingri Malaikari | Prawn Malaikari 

 What You Need 

• Prawns ~ 1 kg of the larger size, get fresh ones, see above why I got some with heads on
• Onion ~1 medium sized onion grated OR sautéed lightly and then grind in a mixie 
• Garlic ~ 1 large clove coarsely chopped 
• Ginger ~ 1 tsp 
• Green Chillis ~ 6 slit 
• Coconut Milk ~ 1 can 
• Grated Coconut ~ 1/4 Cup (Optional)
• TejPata or Bay Leaves ~ 2 small 
• Elaichi or Cardamom ~ 4 
• Laung or Cloves ~ 4 
• Darchini or Cinnamon ~ 2 smallish sticks 
• Red Chilli Powder - 1 tsp 
• Turmeric Powder - 1 tsp 
• Garam Masala Powder - 1/2 tsp 
• Salt 
• Little Sugar 
• Mustard Oil - 3 Tbsp 
• Ghee - 1 tsp to finish off

How I Do It 

• Clean the prawns as explained earlier and mix it with turmeric and salt and keep aside for about ½ hour. 
•  Meanwhile grind the onion to a paste. Note: If your onion paste tends to turn bitter, saute the onions until translucent and then make the paste. If you are using grated coconut also, then grind it once again in the mixer to a coarse paste. 
• Heat oil in Kadai/Frying Pan Lightly fry the prawns so they turn golden in color, do not deep fry like other fish. As soon as the prawns turn a pale golden take them out put them on a paper towel. 
• In the same oil, add the chopped garlic. As soon as the fragrance of the garlic rises, take out the garlic from the oil so that the oil is now garlic flavored but there is no garlic in the gravy. 
• Add TejPata or BayLeaves Coarsely pound the Elaichi, Laung & Darchini with a pestle and add them too. 
• Add the onion paste when you see the whole garam masala crackling. 
• Continue frying the onion with a little bit of sugar till it turns brown in color or the oil separates from the paste. 
• Add the ginger paste and cook the masala. 
• Add the grated coconut paste and sauté for 2 minutes 4/4 Stir and add the coconut milk.
• Add a little water (about 1/3 of the can) in the can, mix well and add it too . 
• Add Red Chilli Powder, very little turmeric powder and salt. 
• Add the green chillies Mix well and cook the gravy. 
• The gravy tastes best when you simmer it a low heat for about 30-35 minutes. I have found that simmering the gravy with 5-6 fried prawns and a couple of the prawn heads adds a better taste to the gravy. 
• When you see the oil surfacing on the gravy add the rets of the fried prawns. Sprinkle 1/2 tsp of Garam Masala powder and mix it in.
• Cook on low for some more time till the gravy thickens and acquires a creamy consistency. 
• For a richer taste, finish off with a little ghee. 
• Serve with white Rice or yellow Pulao.
• Do make it a point to try out this dish, you will find a dinner of white Basmati Rice & Chingri macher Malaikari is nothing but unadulterated pleasure. 

Thank you.👍