The specialty of Konkani seafood dishes is – they are almost always quite spicy and made with coconut. A drizzle of coconut oil on top of these, with hot rice tastes heavenly. I can’t stress enough on how much I miss these dishes here. Being from coastal area, we always got very fresh fish and relished these spicy dishes made at home. Don’t know why I don’t make these often here.
Last week I was talking to my friend Hema over the phone. Like every time that we talk, she mentioned that she had a spicy sungta sukke that day. Ohh, just the name of it, made the Konkani girl in me crave for it. I kept thinking about it for next two days. Then finally gave up and asked her to give me her recipe. This is what she gave me, I tried on Sunday. We had awesome lunch.
Well, Hema’s recipe is slightly different than what aayi uses for dhoddak. We usually don’t use coriander and teppal/tirphal in same dish. Here is my aayi’s version. Also, I have rarely seen the usage of non-fried coriander seeds in aayi’s cooking. But for once, I wanted to try the recipe as it is, without modifying. It came out really well.
Ingredients:
1 lb (0.45kgs) prawns
2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut
9-10 red chillies (if you can handle more, increase it)
1/2 tea spn coriander seeds
3-4 teppal/tirphal
2-3 kokum pieces
Salt
Method:
Grind the coconut with red chillies, coriander seeds to a very smooth paste. Do not add too much water (This needs a good Indian mixer). When it has become very smooth, add teppal and run the mixer for just couple of seconds. (Note: teppal should never be ground. It will entirely spoil the dish. This step is just to bring out the aroma, but not for grinding it).
In a thick bottomed pan, mix the paste with prawns, kokum, salt. Cook it on a low heat till prawns are done.
Serve as a side dish with rice. A little coconut oil drizzled on it tastes great.
Serves : 3-4
Preparation time : 20 mins
Pictorial:
Hey,
Yummy spicy prawns…Love them in coconut sauce…:)
Shilpa, those prawns look really mouthwatering!!
yummy… teppal and kokum are new ingredients to me. Would you think I can replace that with something else? Or skip them altogether? I dont they are available in desi stores here in US.
You can leave out teppal. And replace kokum with tamarind
Love the bright orange color. I can smell the teppal and coconut oil..yummm..
I recently tried a recipe for shrimp with Kokum for the first time. The taste was amazing. I did not know teppal is also called tirphal. Always struggled describing it to my friends.
Thanks!
What is teppal/tirphal?
Thanks,
Read about teppal here
you may add little coconut oil over the curry
I tried,it was yummy..very good… I added little lemon Juice….thanks…
Hi! Shilpa I make sungta hinga uddak.it has a finely ground masala of fresh coconut, tamarind, dry red chillies and a 1/2 tsp. hing [ asafoetida] powder . grind it to a fine paste. a pinch of raw rice. can be added while grinding. add this to boiled prawns when the whole gravy starts boiling add 4-5 tsp of oil and put off the gas heat. serve it with roti or hot rice. It can be prepared with less amount of water n it remains for 3-4 days
Can’t wait to try this dish. Sounds and looks simply delicious. Thanks for sharing.
i make same in button mashroom. i put tamrind juice, red chilly powder,teppal, termaric powder, salt, and little bit of last coconut oil. mixed it. and leave it 5 to 10 mint. after i put 15 mints boil in sim or medium heat. suppose rain season we cover in termaric leaf. that arom come very nice flouvar. it will leave almost 10 to 15 days. ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhaaaaaaaaa yummy yummy alambe hugge.
teppal is one of the spice. that one not tripal.sply used this in goa, karwar, costalareas. this is necessary ingredient of fish items in goa, karwar(karnataka),mumbaimaharastra some other area.even kokum also use in these follwing area. kokum in konkani birandasola.that on is very soured item. in goa konkani temple they give in lunch kokum water. thats called sollakadi or kokum.
and many of shop have also put sollakadi or kokum
Tonda udda aile.. Yummyyyyy.. I miss mummy:-(. Megel aayi bhi bare karta sungta sukke:-).
hi i also konkani
can i know prawns r fresh or dry???
Fresh
Its really nice……..I would definitely try…………we normally making prawns in kokani chicken style……….as we are also from kokan……….
Whatever you make Shilpa, I trust that it will come out well, and it does.
Thankyou for helping me in my cooking endeavors…especially of chicken and shrimp dishes.
Sending you a really big hug for sharing this with all of us!
I will have to try this recipe. My fiance is from Chennai and I am American. I am just learning to cook more and more Indian food. It’s quite a cultural mix. I have been posting the recipes I’ve come up with along with the story of our relationship on my blog. If you have a chance, please give me some feedback:http://amorysabor.com/category/food/recipes/
Hi,
I have been reading/using the recipes on your website for a while now. It’s a great collection!! Keep up the good work.
One thing to point out in all your recipes the red dried chillies have to be ‘belagi mirchi’ right? Otherwise the taste will vary and won’t be authentic right?
Thanks
Amit
Amit, I have used different red chillies in the gravies and it works well, as long as the chilies are hot variety and have good color. I do use Byadagi chillies when available, but others work too
I tried this recipe and it’s OH SO YUMM!!