Today I wanted to show how to make Daab Chingri – Prawns Cooked in a Tender Coconut Shell at home very easily. This is a special recipe for upcoming Bengali New Year (Pohela Boishakh). Daab Chingri is a very delicious & yummy dish mostly available in authenticate Bengali restaurants, however today we will learn to make this at home.
Bengali New Year is celebrated across many countries, however since most of the Bengalis live in India and Bangladesh the majority of the celebration happens there. Almost all the Bengalis are foodie too, and during Pohela Boishakh we really crave for some authenticate Bengali recipe.
Staying away from home we always miss the special dishes like Daab Chingri, so I wanted to show you how we can make this at home. You need green/young coconut and large shrimp/prawn to make this recipe. The idea is to slow cook the prawn/shrimp inside the tender green coconut.
Look at the following steps on how I have cut the top part of the green/young coconut. Drain the water from green coconut/daab and keep it aside. Now scoop out the flesh from the coconut/daab using spoon and keep it aside. You need all three of them to cook the Daab Chingri.
Here is another close-up of the Daab Chingri. This truly delicious, yummy and flavorful dish would easily take all the attention at the dinner table. Large shrimp/prawn/chingri are most suitable for this recipe.
I am using 6-7 jam boo prawn/shrimp. I have cut & clean them, afterwards marinated with salt and turmeric powder. You need to shallow fry them. Prawn/shrimp gets cook real fast, you don’t want to keep them for more than a min, otherwise it might get hard.
Next you need to heat the mustard oil, add “panch-foron”/multi spice blend then when it starts to crackle, add boiled onion paste & saute for 2-3 minutes in low medium flame.Now add prawn and mix them well. At last you need add the paste you have already created and cook for another 2-3 minutes.
We will cook the Daab Chingri in oven, however if you want to cook this in microwave oven, then continue cooking for at least 5 more mins. Also add the coconut water frequently to adjust the thickness.
Now turn off the heat and pour it in the daab/green coconut ,drizzle some mustered oil and put 1-2 green chili. Now cover the top of the coconut and shell with atta/wheat/flour dough. Refer the picture below.
The Daab Chingri is a very special recipe. It’s also not hard to make for a larger group. If you are making this in microwave oven, you need to cook for only 10mins in microwave oven.However I recommend using regular oven for the best result.
Here is the step by step instruction of how to make the Daab Chingri – Prawns Cooked in a Tender Coconut Shell. How you all will enjoy this very much.
- 1 Daab or Tender Coconut
- 6-7 Jumbo Prawn/Shrimp
- 2-3 Tablespoon Boiled Onion Paste (boiled the onion in microwave about 5 minutes and then make a paste)
- 2 ½ Tablespoons Poppy Seed (posto) Paste
- 3 Tablespoons Mustard Paste (black and white, 50-50)
- 2-3 Green Chilies
- ¼ Cup Coconut Flesh/Malai
- ⅓ Cup Coconut water
- ½ Teaspoon Turmeric Powder
- 2-3 Tablespoons Mustard Oil
- 1 Teaspoon Panch Phoron(Whole spice blend)
- Salt (as per taste)
- Pinch of Sugar (optional)
- Atta Dough/all purpose flower powder dough (to seal the top of coconut)
- Take a daab/green coconut and cut the top of the it. Make slightly bigger round shape hole so that it will help while stuffing.
- Do not throw away the head part, we need to use this to seal while cooking. Now first drain the coconut water and keep it aside.
- Afterwards, scoop out the flesh/malai of the daab/green coconut using spoon and keep this also aside.
- We need to make a fine paste using mustard seeds (black and white, 50-50 ratio), poppy seeds (posto),1/3 cup of coconut water, salt (as needed), pinch of sugar (optional), 2 green chilies, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder.
- You can put all of them in a food-processor and make the paste.
- However for best result, you can make the paste of mustard seeds and poppy seeds (posto) separately. This will help you to make sure the mustard seeds paste & poppy seeds paste are perfect.
- Afterwards, add the mustard seeds paste , poppy seeds paste, ⅓ cup of coconut water, salt (as needed), pinch of sugar (optional), 2 green chilies, ½ teaspoon turmeric powder in a food-processor and make a fine paste.
- Cut and clean the shrimp/prawn, marinate with salt and turmeric powder.
- Heat a skillet add 1 tablespoon of mustard oil and shallow fry the shrimp, keep them aside. Don’t overcook the shrimp otherwise shrimp become stiff.
- Take 1 tablespoon of mustard oil in the same skillet and add panch-phoron(whole spice blend). Once it starts to crackle, add boiled onion paste and sauté for 1-2 minutes.
- Add the shrimp/prawn and almost immediately add the paste which you have made at step 2. Cook all these 2 -3 minutes, adjust the salt if needed.Turn off the heat.
- Pour shrimp mixture inside the daab, drizzle some mustard on the top and put 1-2 green chilis.
- Place the top part of the daab and seal it with dough.
- Preheat the oven at 420F/210C and bake it for 40 - 50 minutes.
- Once you take out the daab/green coconut from the oven, cool it for another 10 minutes then take out the dough and top part of the coconut carefully.
- Your Daab Chingri is now ready to be served. Serve it hot with plain white rice.
You can also use charmagaz paste (Almonds, Pumpkin seeds, Cantaloupe Seeds and Water melon seeds) to thicken your gravy. However this is optional.
barnali biswas ray says
Looks yummy 🙂
funloveandcooking@gmail.com says
Thank you for your feedback Barnali !
Misha says
When do you put in the coconut Malai?