Spicy Chemmeen Peera...

This last Saturday we decided to eat out and we took my mom to a South Indian restaurant. Tired of the standardized Indian menu…the menu here was a big relief. It had Alapuzha fish curry, madras chicken, karimeen fry etc..etc. My mom was impressed and so we were planning on what to order even as Nirmal was staring at the prices on the menu !!!!

Nirmal being a big shrimp lover, ordered the madras shrimp masala and me and my mom order kari meen fry and alapuzha fish curry. The waiter promised to make the dishes spicy for us. So even before the cook had a chance to get his stove ready we started to talk about how great a find this restaurant was and I was explaining to my mother that since they had a malayalee cook, the taste should be close to what we have in kerala !!!! – It took me 20min to realize that I had spoken a little too fast.

The biggest disappointment was the madras shrimp masala. The dish was made from tiger shrimp and had these huge chunks of shrimps fried in a mix of onions, tomatoes, lot of masala and coconut milk. It was no where close to the kerala taste that we had expected and no where close to being spicy.

So in this recipe I would like to introduce to you the ‘Chemmeen Peera’(spicy shrimp with coconut mix) . It is a blend of the authentic Kerala taste, no masala and the necessary spice you can easily concoct this dish. Since it has no masala in it, the taste of shrimp will linger longer in your taste buds and if you can’t win your husband over with this – then there is no saying how else you can win !!!

THINGS U NEED:

• shrimp - 1 lb
• coconut grated - one half
• green chillies - 6
• small onions (shallot) - 10-15
• ginger - 1 inch peice
• curry leaves - 2 springs
• chilli powder - 3 tbs
• turmeric powder - 1/2 tsp
• coconut oil - 3 tsp
• salt to taste

METHOD:

• Clean the shrimp. Cut the shrimp into small bite size peices. Cut the oninons into very thin slices. chope the green chillies and ginger.put together all the ingredients in a bowl . Mix well this with 2 tsp of coconut oil.transfer this mix into a vessel and add just 1/2 cup of water.U don't need to add much water since the shrimp has a better moisture content.Cover the vessal with a lid and cook until done and all the water is evoparated.aprox time 20 mins. when its done remove from fire and add the remaining 1 teaspoon of oil and few curry leaves..

TIPS:

• The shrimp that we get in india is smaller in size and has a better taste than what we get here in U.S. To get all the masala into the shrimp, cut it into small bite sizes.
• I f u r not a big fan of spicy food, u can reduce the chilli powder to 2 tbs or even 1 tbs..but this perticular receipe need to be spicy to taste good!!