Shrimp

The Hirshon Bangladeshi Prawn Curry With Coconut – চিংড়ী মালাইকারি

July 1, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Bangladeshi Prawn Curry With Coconut Image Used Under Creative Commons License From youtube.com

My Citizens! Few cuisines so expertly combine the heat of mustard with complex spicing as Bengali/Bangladeshi – and I am honored to share one of my favorite recipes of this type with you! 🙂

Citizens, Bangladesh is a country in South Asia, bordered by India to its west, north and east and Myanmar (Burma) to its southeast. To its south, it faces the Bay of Bengal. Bangladesh (“The land of Bengal”) has a rich heritage of ancient civilization – Bangladesh’s documented history spans 4,000 years. Bangladesh human history has in fact been documented dating back more than 20,000 years!

Bangladesh is the world’s eighth-most populous country, with more than 168 million people. It is one of the most densely populated countries, and among countries with a population exceeding 10 million, it is the most densely populated. Geographically, the country is dominated by the fertile Bengal delta, the world’s largest delta. This also gives Bangladesh a unique name tag as “the land of rivers”.

The present-day borders of Bangladesh took shape during the Partition of Bengal and the British India in 1947, when the region came to be known as East Pakistan, as a part of the newly formed state of Pakistan that was partially carved out from the Indian state of Bengal.

It was separated from West Pakistan by 870 miles of Indian territory. Due to political exclusion, ethnic and linguistic discrimination and economic neglect by the politically dominant western part of the state, the Bangladesh Liberation War and independence resulted in 1971. Like Pakistan from where it originated, Bangladesh is an almost entirely Muslim country.

Chingri malai curry, also known as Prawn malai curry, is a Bengali curry made from prawns and coconut milk and flavored with spices. The dish is popular throughout Bangladesh and is served during weddings and celebrations, or for guests, and was also very popular among the British in Calcutta.

As noted on the excellent blog cosmopolitancurrymania.com:

Chingri Macher Malai Curry is Bengali prawn curry with coconut.

Undoubtedly, Chingri Macher Malai Curry or Chingri Malai Curry is among one of my favourite Bengali dishes. A curry cooked with Chingri Mach (a common Bengali term used for lobsters, prawns or shrimps) is generally a part of the Bengali menu, especially on occasions such as the Noboborsho or Poila Boisakh (Bengali New Year).

Be it jumbo prawns or small shrimps, Bengalis love to include them in their cooking in myriad ways. There are traditional dishes where shrimps are cooked with bottle gourd (lau chingri) or cabbage (badhakopir ghonto chingri mach diye).

Sometimes these are steamed with mustard paste in a banana leaf parcel (chingri paturi), whereas sometimes these are cooked with chopped banana flowers (mocha chingri) or cooked in an awesome chutney base (chingri macher chatni)!

Coconut paste is used in the preparation of Chingri Macher Malai Curry. We might find replacing with coconut milk as an easy option, but the texture of the curry would be different in that case.

So we Bengalis, who are one of the hardcore fish-eating communities in India, love gorging on chingri, among others. The Chingri Macher Malai Curry is one of the Bengali regal dishes, just fit for those special days when you feel like eating like a King, and surprisingly, without going overboard on spices!

A bit about the history of the Chingri Macher Malai Curry. Some people believe that this dish has a Malaysian influence and the early version of the recipe might have been bought by Malaysian sailors to the Bay of Bengal, many years ago.

The word “Malai” is actually “Malay”, meaning Malaysian. The use of coconut paste or milk in curries across Asia is one common thread among the cuisines. Interestingly, Malai in Hindi means “milk cream”, but the dish doesn’t use milk cream. So, it is apparent that Malai is the distorted way of saying “Malay”. But, this is just one school of thought.

Now, there is no single recipe for the perfect Malai curry. Different Bengali families use slightly (and sometimes, hugely) different recipes. Some add cashewnut paste, garam masala powder and/or tomatoes in this, but I don’t.

Some may not like to add a little mustard paste, raisin paste and ghee, but I do. Some add coconut milk, but I prefer freshly scraped coconut paste.

These are certain factors which make one Malai curry taste quite different than the other, but at the end of the day, the best Malai curry is the one which is rich, creamy and doesn’t taste too spicy, and only then will the flavor of the shrimp or prawn be at its epitome!

This Bengali (Indian) dish tastes majestic with jumbo prawns or lobsters, with heads intact, but you can replace with any kind of shrimp for a regular curry.

Mustard oil is the recommended oil, as it adds great flavor to this dish, but if you don’t find this oil, replace with any good oil with high smoking point.

I’ve added in a touch of the ubiquitous Bengali whole spice mix known as panch phoron (Bengali: পাঁচ ফোড়ন pãch phoṛon), used throughout Bangladesh, Eastern India and Southern Nepal in their cuisine. The name literally means “five spices”.

I’ve created a version specifically for this curry dish that uses radhuni or celery seeds instead of the more common mustard seeds. Radhuni is still a traditional spice used in panch phoran, but I find its flavor profile works better with this recipe than mustard seed. I also cut back on the fenugreek, as I find it to be bitter.

Citizens, whilst mustard oil is a foundation flavor in this cuisine, it is EXTREMELY IMPORTANT to only use one brand of mustard oil in this or any other Bengali recipe. You can buy it here – any other brand may potentially risk your health, so please do stick only with this one! I have every confidence you will adore the spice and succulence of this unique dish!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Bangladeshi Prawn Curry With Coconut – চিংড়ী মালাইকারি

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Ingredients

4 of the biggest Jumbo prawns you can find, preferably U4 (under 4 per pound), with the shell over the heads and tails being intact (deveined)
¾ cup Freshly scraped coconut paste
¾ tsp Turmeric powder (for marination)
¾ tsp Salt (for marination)
½ cup Mustard oil - see important note in recipe preamble, ONLY use the brand specified!
1 cup very finely chopped Onion
¾ tsp Ginger paste
1 ½ tsp Freshly made black-mustard-seed paste
1 Whole, very large dried bay leaf
4 whole cloves
1” stick Whole cinnamon (cassia bark)
4 Whole green cardamoms, seeds taken out of their green pods
1 tsp Raisin paste
¼ tsp Cumin seeds
½ tsp. Kashmiri chili powder (preferred) or spicy paprika
¾ tsp Cumin powder
½ tsp Turmeric powder (for the curry)
¾ tsp Salt (for the curry)
¼ tsp Granulated sugar
1 tsp Ghee (Indian clarified butter)
2 hot Green chilies - jalapeno if possible, slit down the side
2 mild green chilies - slit down the side
1 cup chicken stock
***
The Hirshon Shrimp Curry Panch Phoran: 1 tsp (save extra for another use), made from:
1 tsp freshly-ground fenugreek (aka methi) seed (मेथी दाना)
2 tsp freshly-ground nigella (aka kalonji) seed (मंग्रैल / कलौंजी)
2 tsp freshly-ground cumin seed (जीरा)
2 tsp freshly-ground radhuni seed (রাধুনি) or celery seed
2 tsp freshly-ground fennel seed (सौंफ़)

Instructions

Shell and devein the prawns, remove heads – add shells and heads to chicken stock, simmer for 15 minutes. Strain out shrimp parts, reserve stock.
The black-mustard-seed paste used in this recipe is ground with a pinch of salt and half a green chili to remove bitterness. The black skins are then removed by passing the paste through a fine wire mesh or muslin cloth. The yellow paste is used for this recipe.
Marinate the jumbo prawns for at least 15 min, with turmeric powder and salt.
Heat oil in a kadai or a pan. When it starts smoking, reduce the flame to medium and introduce the prawns carefully and close the lid immediately to prevent sputtering. After 1 min, turn the prawns and fry the other side for another minute. Remove the prawns from the oil.
In the same hot oil, add the bay leaf, whole cinnamon (cassia bark), cloves, green cardamoms and wait for a few seconds.
Add the cumin seeds and let these seeds turn light brown. Add the chopped onion and half the salt (for the curry). Sauté for 7 min, or until the onion looks golden-brown and soft.
Add the turmeric, panch phoran and the cumin powders, combined with 4 tbsp stock. Sauté continuously to prevent burning of the powders. Add the ginger paste and sauté again, sprinkling a little water if the onion mixture starts sticking to the pan.
After 5 min, add the rest of the salt, sugar, red chili powder, black-mustard-seed paste, raisin paste and coconut paste and sauté till the mixture starts separating from the oil.
Sauté the mixture untill oil starts separating: this is a very important step in Bengali cooking!
At this stage, add the fried prawns and sauté for 5 min at a simmered flame. Add whole green chilies and ¾ cup of stock. Let the curry boil for 10 min, simmered and covered. Before serving, add the ghee to the curry.
Chingri Malai Curry is best served with steamed rice.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-bangladeshi-prawn-curry-with-coconut-%e0%a6%9a%e0%a6%bf%e0%a6%82%e0%a6%a1%e0%a6%bc%e0%a7%80-%e0%a6%ae%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%b2%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%87%e0%a6%95%e0%a6%be%e0%a6%b0%e0%a6%bf/

The Hirshon Anhui Hotpot – 一品锅

June 23, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Yipinguo Image Used Under Creative Commons License From gushi.tw

My Citizens, your incandescent leader – the never ordinary TFD! – was privileged to eat at one of San Francisco’s finest restaurants last night – and it is one of the finest Chinese restaurants in all of the country! The chef’s table in the kitchen of Eight Tables was without question an unmatched experience and I was blown away by their use of Chinese medicinal herbs in several of the dishes!

In honor of that meal, allow me to share a unique recipe from Anhui province in China, where medicinal cuisine perhaps had its earliest start in China!

As noted on wayofchina.com:

Anhui (安徽) cuisine is also called Huibang cai (徽帮菜), Anhuicai (安徽菜), and Huizhou fengwei (徽州风味). It is one of the Chinese famous eight major cuisines.

The Anhui cuisine originated in the Southern Song dynasty, it was a local specialty. Its unique geography and humanistic environment give Anhui cuisine unique taste. The reason why Anhui cuisine becomes one of the Chinese famous major cuisines because it played a very important role in the Chinese history.

Huizhou merchants are one of the famous merchants’ groups in the history of China. Anhui is located in poor mountainous areas and people could not survive by farming in the old days.

Huizhou merchants began to be active in the Song Dynasty, and their heyday was in the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Huizhou merchants were almost everywhere and sold almost everything at that time. They were hard-working, diligent, and thrifty, gradually growing from small businesses into large capitalists.

The Ming and Qing Dynasties was a time when China’s commodity economy was more developed. Capitalism had sprouted in the Ming and Qing dynasties. This was when Huizhou merchants peaked.

While Huizhou merchants were doing their businesses, they also brought their hometown flavor to almost every corner of China. Anhui cuisine became a famous major cuisine since then.

There are two sayings about how the Huizhou merchants helped the propagation and development of Anhui cuisine:

The first is that at that time, the Huizhou merchants always talked about business, entertaining, or gathering with friends while put on a Huizhou style dinner to show their respect for the guests.

The second is that Huizhou merchants were all over the country, and kept their own tastes. So Anhui cuisine restaurants were all over the country in order to meet their requirements.

From the late Ming Dynasty to the end of the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty, Huizhou merchants had the No.1 strength among the top 10 business groups in China. Huizhou people had established thousands of Anhui cuisine restaurants across the country. There were more than 140 Anhui cuisine restaurants in Shanghai, which shows that the Huizhou merchants had a wide range of influence at that time.

As to this specific recipe, allow me to quote from the excellent site carryitlikeharry.com:

If you were to ask me to name one fad that is currently raving in the Chinese culinary world, I’d say it is Yipinguo 一品锅.

While all westerners know about ‘Chinese fondue’ (also known as hotpot, or shabu shabu), not many know about Yipinguo.

Yipinguo 一品锅 literally means ‘first grade pot’. By ‘pot’, one infers a ‘stew’.

Yipinguo has a very specific origin: it is a winter dish of the people living in the Anhui 安徽 province in central China, specifically in the county of Huizhou 徽州. It was made in the Ming dynasty by the wife of the State Secretary Bi Jiang 毕锵 (AD1517-1608), Madam Xu 余氏.

The Chinese Emperor came for a visit and Xu wanted to showcase the local dish of a hotpot. She presented the dish to the Emperor who loved it, and named it ‘first grade pot’. The term ‘Yipin’ 一品, is the same term used to classify court officials, hence only the Emperor has the right to confer the grade. Henceforth, the local Huizhou hotpot dish became known as Yipinguo 一品锅.

So what is so special about it?

Firstly, unlike other hotpots, Yipinguo is cooked, before it is placed on the table. Guests do not get to cook the raw ingredients over a boiling pot of broth.

Secondly, ingredients in a Yipinguo are layered in a strict hierarchy, such as that the lower layers are ingredients that take longer time to cook.

Thirdly, one does not stir the pot and it has to be presented as it has been placed.

Last but not least, the combination of the ingredients in the Yipinguo follows a strict Chinese medicinal rule of food compatibility, unlike other Chinese hotpots.

Layering of Yipinguo

The lowest layer comprises hard vegetables; daikon radish, carrots, bamboo shoots, winter melon.

The next layer is meat: pork, beef, duck, chicken, game meat and any kind of liver.

The following layer: seafood such as prawns, baby lobsters, fish, abalone, shellfish.

The second top layer is mushroom types: shiitake, straw mushrooms, black fungus etc.

The penultimate layer is made up of tofu products: tofu puffs, tofu sticks, tofu etc.

TFD follows tradition that the top layer should be something green – I use the leaves and yellow flowers of Yu Choy, which looks a lot like Chinese Broccoli (Gai Lan), except that the Yu Choy stalks are skinnier and the flowers are yellow (Gai Lan has white flowers).

This vegetable is tender, the taste of the leaves are very much like spinach leaves, even though it is part of the mustard family. Fresh Yu-Choy has small tight yellow flowers, bright green leaves and stems, and if you look at the bottom of the bunch of stems, they should not be dried out.

The yellow flowers add to the imperial pedigree of this dish, as yellow was a color reserved for the Emperor alone. I have also upped the luxury quotient with ingredients worthy of the imperial presence! Lastly, I also specify a unique alcohol brewed with Chinese medicinal herbs first created for the Imperial family!

This is a ‘no-cook’ recipe and a delicious one at that, my Citizens! It includes wild game, wild herbs and a cooking technique that all define Anhui cuisine!

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon Anhui Hotpot – 一品锅

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Ingredients

Layer 1:
Some dried (or fresh) Bamboo shoots
1 Carrot, sliced and cut into decorative coins
½ Daikon radish, peeled and sliced
Some peeled and diced winter melon
A handful of dried wolfberries
Layer 2:
½ chicken breast fillet, sliced
½ duck breast fillet, sliced
Layer 3:
About 10 minced venison balls
Layer 4:
10 raw prawns
1 or 2 top-quality canned abalone, sliced
⅓ pound black cod fillet
Layer 5:
5 dried top-quality dried shiitake mushrooms, heavy cracking on top and thick capped
¼ cup dried wood ears
5 dried top-quality morel mushrooms
handful of dried lily buds
Layer 6:
1 cake very firm tofu, sliced
8 tofu puffs
Top Layer:
Leaves and yellow flowers of Yu Choy
Others:
1 whole pot of Chinese Superior Stock (strongly preferred) or chicken stock (salted)
½ cup Imperial Lotus White Chiew (御蓮白酒, Yàlián báijiǔ): This is a variety of baijiu infused with twenty medicinal herbs. It was first produced for the Chinese royal family in 1790. Alternatively, you could use Chu Yeh Ching (竹葉青酒, zhúyèqīnqjiǔ, lit. "bamboo-leaf green liquor"): this sweet liquor, produced in Shanxi, is made from Fenjiu brewed with a dozen or more selected Chinese herbal medicines. One of the ingredients is bamboo leaves, which gives the liquor a yellowish-green color and its name. Its alcohol content ranges between 38 and 46% by volume. As a final alternative, use top-quality shaoxing rice wine

Instructions

There are no ‘cooking skills’ required, just like for other hotpot dishes. The taste of the dish comes from the ingredients and the stock.
Place your ingredients by layer according to the instructions above, but leaving out the topmost layer of greens.
Fill the pot until your stock just covers your ingredients.
Bring it to boil then cover and let it simmer on medium heat for 2 hours, occassionally adding more stock. In the last 15 minutes, add the greens and flowers.
Once done, serve the whole pot on the table and let your guests discover the ingredients layer by layer.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-anhui-hotpot-%e4%b8%80%e5%93%81%e9%94%85/

The Hirshon South Carolina Frogmore Stew

June 19, 2018 by The Generalissimo Leave a Comment

Frogmore Stew Image Used Under Creative Commons License From francesschultz.com

My Citizens, your downhome Leader – the always south of the Mason-Dixon Line TFD! – is a huge fan of all forms of seafood boils. Few, however, can compare with the Lowcountry majestic glory that is Frogmore Stew!

Social gatherings in coastal South Carolina tend to revolve around shellfish. Frogmore Stew is very much like a Louisiana boil, usually involving shrimp, corn on the cob, sausage, and red potatoes, and sometimes ham, and is considered part of Lowcountry cuisine.

Known variously as Frogmore Stew, Beaufort Stew, a Beaufort boil, a Lowcountry boil, or a tidewater boil, they tend to be a bit milder than their Louisiana cousins. For example, it is not unusual for a Lowcountry recipe to call for a mixture of hot and mild boil seasonings, whereas a Louisiana recipe may start with crab boil packets and add large amounts of cayenne pepper.

Frogmore is the name of a community in the middle of St. Helena Island, near Beaufort, South Carolina. Although there are many versions of this dish around, the name Frogmore Stew was coined in the 1960s by Richard Gay, one of the owners of Gay Fish Company, circa 1948, on St. Helena Island.

Frogmore Stew became far better-known after it was featured on the cover of Gourmet Magazine in the 1980s, and is enjoyed by all, with this name, to this day. In 2005, The Travel Channel featured Richard’s brother, Charles Gay, cooking Frogmore Stew in its popular program Taste of America with Mark DeCarlo.

The Low Country Boil may have possible influences from Louisiana, as there are some obvious similarities to some dishes of the cuisine of Louisiana. It showcases the same set of French, Spanish, African and Caribbean influences, including slave trade influences that Louisiana is known for.

Meals for large gatherings of people would have to be made as quickly as possible with readily-available foods. The boil was a quick and easy way to prepare all the foods at once.

The most well attended function to feature Frogmore Stew occurs in July at the 10-day Beaufort Water Festival (in the 54 years of the festival it has grown to be the largest totally volunteer run festival on the south eastern coast), the event feeds 2,400, the recipe includes 1,200 lbs of shrimp, 2,400 ears of corn, 600 lbs of sausage, 72 oz of seafood seasoning and is served with 350 lbs of coleslaw, 250 gal of iced tea, 2,400 rolls and 90 watermelons.

As noted in whatscookingamerica.com:

Frogmore Stew is actually not a stew and it contains NO Frogs!

Frogmore Stew is considered a classic Low Country South Carolina dish. This dish is also know as Low-Country boil, Tidewater Boil, and Beaufort Boil. Frogmore Stew gets it’s name from a place that has only a post office on one side of the road and a two-story white country store on the other.

Frogmore is the mailing address for the residents of St. Helena Island just off the South Carolina coast. The town was named by John Grayson, and early owner, named after his ancestral English country estate in England.

Frogmore Stew has become a current favorite at some fancy restaurants in Charleston and some of the resorts along the Carolina coast. This seafood boil is usually served on paper plates around newspaper-covered picnic tables outdoors, with plenty of ice-cold beer.

Beaufort historian, Gerhard Spieler believes that the recipe was the invention of local shrimpers who used whatever food items they had on hand to make a stew.

Richard Gay of Gay Seafood Company also claimed to have invented Frogmore Stew. On National Guard duty in Beaufort in the 1960s, he was preparing a cookout of leftovers for his fellow guardsmen and he brought the recipe home to the community of Frogmore with him, putting out copies of the recipe at his seafood market and selling all the necessary ingredients.

My version of this classic feast includes an eccentric touch of curry powder, as Charleston’s early recipes often included this ingredient due to its serving as a major trading port with India during the 18th century. My preferred blend of curry powder is Penzey’s Maharajah – get it here.

I also prefer this brand of seafood boil seasonings.

Battle on – The Generalissimo

The Hirshon South Carolina Frogmore Stew

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Ingredients

1 (12-ounce) bottle IPA-style beer
1 (1.5-ounce) bag seafood boil seasoning
1 tablespoon sea salt
½ teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 ½ teaspoons Penzey's Maharajah curry powder
3 bay leaves
1 tablespoon dill seeds
2 onions, quartered
2 garlic heads, halved lengthwise
1 pound small red potatoes
4 very leafy celery stalks, de-stringed and cut into 1-inch pieces
4 ears fresh corn, husks removed and halved
1 pound kielbasa smoked sausage, cut into 1-inch diagonal slices
2 pounds large shrimp
French baguette, lemon wedges, melted butter, and Old Bay seasoning
Garnish with basil sprigs

Instructions

Bring 4 quarts water and first 9 ingredients to a boil in a 12-quart stockpot. Add potatoes; simmer 15 minutes. Add corn and sausage; simmer 8 minutes. Add shrimp and celery, cover, and turn off heat. Let shrimp sit 10 to 15 minutes to absorb flavor.
Drain liquid, and spread shrimp boil out on a newspaper-covered table. Serve with baguette slices, lemon wedges, melted butter, and Old Bay seasoning. Garnish with basil sprigs.

https://www.thefooddictator.com/the-hirshon-south-carolina-frogmore-stew/