Prawns and Greens curry (Vali bhajji sungta ambat)
Few days back I blogged about Vali bhajji ambat and prawns curry. Now it is time for a delicious dish having both vali bhajji(Indian Spinach, Malabar Spinach or Vietnamese Spinach) and prawns(sungat).
This dish is cooked in almost all houses in North Kanara. Usually Prawns or khubbe(clams) are used for this dish.I recently tried this dish with Spinach (Palak) because I was not having the Vali. It came out very delicious. The greens and prawns give an out of the world taste to this gravy.
Ingredients:
15-20 prawns
1 cup vali bhajji (or spinach)
3/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut
1/2 cup toor daal
4 red chillies
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 1-2 pieces of normal tamarind
1 tea spn coriander seeds
A pinch turmeric
Oil
Salt
Method:
Cook toor daal and greens with a pinch of turmeric.
Heat oil and fry coriander seeds. Grind fried coriander with coconut, red chillies and tamarind to a smooth paste.
Heat oil and fry onion till they turn slightly brownish. Add prawns and fry for sometime(till the prawns turn white in color). Add cooked daal and ground masala. Add salt and cook till masala and prawns are completely cooked.
Serve hot with rice.
Serves : 4-5
Preparation time : 20 min
Hi!
Loved seeing this recipe on your blog. Grew up eating a version of it and have never made it myself. Brought back lovely memories of growing up on fishy food in Goa. I saw that in your last post you mentioned you could not find ‘tefla’. I would love to send you some I have with me here. So do send me your full postal address to dkakodkar@gmail.com and they’ll be there in a few days:-)
Thanks a lot Deepa.
Please let me know where is teppal available, it might help my readers also.
[...] This is prepared with raw papayas grwon at home. The second main ingredient is ‘vali bhajji’, which is also called as Indian Spinach, Malabar Spinach or Vietnamese Spinach. These are available in all american grocery stores (it is called as ’spinach’, it is a bit different than ‘palak’). This is easily available in Mangalore stores in India (called as ‘basale soppu’ in Kannada and ‘vaali’ in Marathi). If this green vegetable is not available, use normal palak for this dish, but this dish tastes great with ‘vali’ as a few tender stems are also used for this dish and the stems enhance the taste. When we were kids, mom used to serve mini-meals to us when we came back from school at 11.30 (our school timings were 8-11 and 2-5). Usually a kind of rice item called as ‘Pej’(Konkani) or ‘Ganji’(Kannada) was searved for this meal. This dish has a ‘bland’ taste to it, because it is made of only boiled rice and lot of water(it is a watery dish). Some people serve salt, ghee and milk with ‘pej’. I absolutely loved any side dish served with this ‘pej’. One such side dish was ‘vali bhajji – pappayi randayi’. Still I make this combo, but as a lunch or dinner, because there is no time for any mini-meals now . Other Vali dishes I have posted so far are ‘vali bhajji-sungta ambat‘ and ‘vali bhajji ambat‘. [...]
I am confused? Where is Malabar spinach in this dish?
Oops!!. I am sorry LG. I donno how I missed it. I have updated the post now. Thanks a lot for pointing it out. Actually since I had used the frozen palak (which had very tiny palak pieces), it is not even visisble in picture
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Hi Shilpa,
Love all your recipes! I love Konkani food. Please do add more Konkani recipes.
Love,
Shaktakaur
Hey Shilpa,
Wanted to let you know this recipe has now become a staple at our place. It is SO delicious — the combination of dal, spinach and shrimp gives it an out-of-this-world flavor. And the leftovers are even more tasty (if that’s possible).
Thanks so much for these recipes. I’m now off to finish up making my rava iddli recipe from your site (will let you know how it turns out). Thanks again!
-Amanda
I love this Ambat. We make it with sukkal sungata/dry prawns. Didn’t knew this can be done with clams and fresh prawns!
Manjula, I have heard sukkil sungat being added to this in few house. I don’t remember my mom adding it though. The one with fresh prawns is the most loved version at my home. Do give it a try sometime. It tastes great.
Hi Shilpa,
I cook this way without dal. I want try your recipe now.
15-20 prawns
1 cup vegetables (use any one variety)drumsticks,brinjal,mangalore cucumber,raw mango,potato,lauki or bread fruit.
3/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut
4 red chillies
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 1-2 pieces of normal tamarind
1 tea spn coriander seeds
1/2 tsp jeera
A pinch turmeric
Oil
Salt
or
just add 1 tbsp of bafat powder, 1 flake of garlic, 1/2 chopped onion and tamrind and grind to a fine paste. Boil the vegetable with little salt and when cooked add the (prawns fresh/dried)or clams/squid and add the grinded masala and boil till done.check for salt.
sony
Hi Shilpa,
I usually cook this without dal.
15-20 prawns
1 cup vali bhajji (or spinach)
3/4 cup fresh/frozen coconut
1/4 tsp jeera
4 red chillies
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tea spn tamarind extract or 1-2 pieces of normal tamarind
1 tea spn coriander seeds
A pinch turmeric
Oil
Salt.
Can I too share some goan receipes here.
My dad buys me vali and dried shrimp from a Korean store. Indian stores here don’t carry them.