Aloo Fulkopi Diye Chingri Maachher Kaaliya ( Prawns Cooked With Potatoes And Cauliflower In A Rich Gravy)

There’s a Bong phrase called “Maayer Haater Ranna” or “The Taste Of  Maa’s Cooking” and who can understand it better than me!! How I miss those blissfully delicious food cooked with so much love and affection and not to mention my childhood days in Kolkata!! One of those dishes was “Aloo Fulkopi Diye Chingri Maachher Kaaliya” “Prawns Cooked With Potatoes And Cauliflower In A Rich Gravy”. Maa used to cook it brilliantly, took it to a different level. I had made an attempt to make it reminiscing her cooking, though the taste was not like hers but good enough to be relished by everyone. The dish needs prawns with heads intact or preferably medium-sized fresh water lobsters/Indian Scampi having large heads, but both of them were not available in the market. So I had to do with packed Sumeru prawns the only variety I could find in Amritsar. Sharing with you Maa’s recipe of that delicacy….

Chingri Maachher Kaaliya

Chingri Maachher Kaaliya

Chingri Maachher Kaaliya

Chingri Maachher Kaaliya

Recipe:

Ingredients:

• 750 gms prawns/lobsters deveined
• 3 potatoes sliced
• 1 whole cauliflower cut into big florets
• 2 big onions chopped/grated
• 1 tsp ginger paste
• 1 tsp garlic paste
• 1 large tomato puree
• 4 green chillies
• 4 green cardamoms
• 3 cinnamon sticks
• 4 cloves
• 2 tsp turmeric powder
• 2-3 tsp Kashmiri Red Chilli powder
• 2 tsp atta/wheatflour
• Mustard oil as per requirement
• 1 tblspn ghee/clarified butter
• Salt n sugar to taste

Chingri Maachher Kaaliya

Procedure:

Wash and clean the prawns in warm water and smear with turmeric and salt. Heat oil on a wok, sauté the prawns for a few minutes and take them out. Now fry the potatoes and cauliflower florets. Remove from the wok as soon as they take a light brown hue. Now in the same oil splutter the whole garam masalas, add some sugar for a richer color, add onions and fry them brown. Add ginger garlic paste, keep frying, add the tomato puree, salt and the powdered masalas. Keep stirring till the oil separates. Add water mixed with atta and cook covered till the potatoes are almost done. Now add the prawns and cook for 5 -7 minutes covered, turn off the heat. Serve topping it with ghee and slit green chillies.