Shrimp in a Fiery Coconut Sauce
Unbelievably good! A dish created at the spur of the moment and captured the heart of all of us.
A recipe rose out of necessity with a few leftover ingredients at home – coconut, tomato, a few drying cilantro leaves and of course chili peppers and a Bengali dame’s love for shrimp. What I had in mind was a spicy version of my homeland’s classic Chingri Maacher Malaikari, but later realized that this dish closely resembled the Bahia Style Shrimp, Moqueca de Camarao – a Brazilian favorite, more than the the gentle sweetish familiar one I had in mind.
The above mentioned Bahian Shrimp has it roots going back to West Africa and is traditionally cooked in dende oil (Brazilian palm oil). I was amazed at the resemblance it had to a spicy Indian curry and you can make a sure bet that this is going to be an awesome deal with some hot rice! I have not had the opportunity to taste this authentic dish, but counting from the ingredients and the procedure I could tell that my creation would be very similar – rich, spicy and full of flavors.
Shrimp in a Fiery Coconut Sauce
Ingredients:
- 30 large shrimp, deveined & peeled but with tail on (you can peel it completely if you prefer it)
- 2 tablespoons oil + 1 teaspoon oil
- 1 tablespoon lime juice
- salt
- 1 teaspoon red chili powder or cayenne, (or as per taste)
- 1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped
- 5 tablespoons fresh/frozen shredded coconut
- 1/2 cup coconut milk or light coconut cream
- 1 large tomato, chopped
- 6 hot chili peppers or as per your taste, like thai bird (remove the seeds and white membrane if it is too spicy for you)
- 1/2 teaspoon cumin
- 4 cloves of garlic, peeled
- 1/2 inch piece fresh ginger
Preparation:Slice 2 hot chili peppers; set aside.
Marinate shrimp with salt and lime juice.
Make a thick paste with cilantro, tomato, coconut, garlic, ginger, 4 chili hot pepper, cumin and coconut milk in the blender. Set aside.
Heat 1 teaspoon oil. Pour out the marinated shrimp in the hot oil and stir them around for a minute and a half. The shrimp will be transparent no more and will start to curl up. Remove from pan and set aside.
Heat the rest of the oil. Add the sliced hot peppers. Add the coconut cilantro tomato paste to the pan and add the red chili powder and salt. Simmer at medium heat for about 20-25 minutes until the oil separates and the sauce gets thicker. Add the shrimp to the sauce and cover the pan. Simmer for another 8 minutes. Garnish with fresh coriander if you want and serve hot with rice.
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I do really like this dish…from the title to the sweet coconut and fiery sauce.
There are so many similarities between all these different cuisines, it is simply amazing! Wonder if all these can be traced back into a common origin, or if it is just coincidence based on the climate and the available ingredients. Anyway, this dish looks like a winner, the gravy looks very much like the Kerala prawn curry.
It is amazing!! I make a similar recipe and I love it. I don’t add ginger to mine, but that sounds great.
Yeah, some of the best dishes are the ones created without a recipe, and at the spur of the moment…
Raat hoye geche kintu tomar chingri dekhe jibhe ekebare jol
I bet nothing can beat this spicy, hot shripm gravy. Perfect with hot rice.
Deepa
Hamaree Rasoi
Love this shrimp dish, rich, spicy and full of flavour.
Curd rice + prawns curry is my fav…ur version sounds interesting with coconut…sure to be flavourful
Amar chai … ettu, etta spoonful … pleeeease.
Bowl ta dekhe ekhuni bhaat khete boshe porte icche korche. 🙂
Ki shundor colour hoyeche … unlike the plain looking malai kari.
This is surely going to be made in my place also this summer, looks so so good, but thenwith a little less number of chillies so that my bunch won’t start crying 🙂 i would love the spicer version.
Curry and shrimps = paradise! That is one devilishly good looking dish!
Cheers,
Rosa
asadharon dekhte hoeche. amar maa erokom aktakhub jhal jhal jhol kore tabe tomato ar alu die. eta ebarei try korbo.
That luks extremely tempting to me…perfect with steamed rice:)
shrimp and coconut are a match made in heaven.:))
nic ecolor!!!
Perfect alibi for a Sunday afternoon lunch. Two thumbs up!
Sounds wonderfully spicy with 6 hot chili peppers, exactly what we like!
I bet this tastes like heaven!!!
With delicious Shrimp and Coconut Sauce, I cannot resit to add Kampot Pepper for the fragrant.
I love anything fiery! This sounds amazing esp with shrimps and coconut millk!
I just made this and it was really delicious! One thing is that the tomato is not listed in the coconut paste instructions part so I didn’t add it until later realizing I had forgotten it. Yours has more of a gravy than my did, but I think I may have used too much coconut. Still, it was amazing and I couldn’t stop myself from eating the gravy as it was cooking:) The apartment smells wonderful now. Thanks, I love your site and recipes!
Thanks! I had missed the tomato in the instructions. It is supposed to go in the blender along with the other things. Sorry about that. I have updated the post. Thank you very much.
Glad that you liked it 🙂 One of our favorites too.
made it again today 🙂 in case I put up a little fat your Shrimp gets the credit. It’s really addictive you know.
Btw I saved some gravy and added aloo kofta to it from the non-shrimp spouse and he loved it. I guess with this recipe, I have learnt the art of hitting two palettes with one gravy? 😆
That looks like a seriously good dish. Great combination!
That hit for the post was from me
for dinner tonight 😉
Now this looks delicious. I am a fiend when it comes to spicy foods. I can’t get enough. I think I’m going to have to make a run to the grocery store, this recipe is just so tempting. And from the other comments I’ve read, I think this will be on the menu tomorrow night. Thanks for sharing this great recipe.
This is awsm.. i think Arvind will like this more than the malai curry 🙂 saving both to give a try 😛
I’m really excited to make this. Question though: did you used sweetened or unsweetened coconut?
~L
The recipe will need unsweetened coconut and fresh and frozen(fresh grated and then frozen) kind only. The dry flakes (even if unsweetened) – the kind used for baking will not work here. Hope this helps.
Hi Soma,
Kudo’s for this frame!!
Great dish great frame too!!
Brought in that sense of ‘temptation to taste immediate’ while looking at the frame!
Great!
Regards,
I wud add some tamarind water to the coconut milk. It’ll give a nice tangy flavor to the overall dish coupled with the fiery hot taste.