The Hungry Girl’s Steamed Mustard Shrimp – Chingri Paturi

 All things considered, it probably is going to take me longer to organize and post this recipe than it did for me to actually make the dish. This dish was all about simple inspiration on a weeknight when I got home back home late from work. Since, I last made it I actually steamed it over the rice that I was cooking. If you have a pot of rice cooking, especially in a rice cooker with a steamer a nicely wrapped bunch of shrimp drenched in mustard sauce is the way to go! Of course, you can do this with nice plump pieces of a good oily fish like salmon or the Bhetki fish in India. Steaming shrimp in banana leaves is called paturi in Bengali, I have discussed this technique and style in my book, The Bengali Five Spice Chronicles, and share a recipe with Shaad fish, a great substitute for the Hilsa. The dish while simple enough, once you have the banana leaf wrapping part of it down, is one of the Bengali classic dishes. It is extremely enviromentally friendly, particularly considering banana leaves and trees are available in great abundance and very few meals on the Bengali table are complete without steaming pots of rice. Once done, the leaves are totally bio-degradable finding their way into the clay rich fertile soil of Bengal.

I was lucky enough to have my mother visit me this year in time for mother’s day, and I dug up this old recipe once again. We all have different visions of our mothers and this recipe reminds me of my mother who is ageless, adaptable and flexible. H-Mart in Hartsdale has been a great addition to my world shopping routine. Yes, but food shopping is very important to me and it makes all the difference in the world not to have to visit, five different stores to get things done. I shall tell you all about H-Mart on a different day, but for today it is safe to tell you that it is practically

priceless for me to be able to get my banana leaves (albeit frozen) and shrimp in one shopping route right alonside other staples and essentials.

Ironically enough, I used modern technology to do something that people did way back when the traditional earth friendly way, well almost… I did use the rice cooker. I have later ended up testing the recipe in the oven as well. So, the oven iteration worked quite well, the leaves were a little crisp, and infused a light smokey flavor to the dish.

My mother like a true blue Bengali, loves her fish in fact, she could probably live on just the fish, and has actually given up eating meat after my father’s death. So, I have taken the opportunity to test and try methods for some of the staple recipes at our house for Bengali fish dishes. It has been fun, for mom to actually see how the old-fashioned recipes are recreated in my chaotic and somewhat more contemporary household.

This can be done with foil as well, In Bengali cuisine, this is done by wrapping pieces of fish or vegetables in fresh banana leaves and steaming them while the rice cooks. I had some fresh mustard paste handy and actually through some fresh shrimp into a piece of foil a and cooked it over the steamer basket of the rice cooker. I did not have/take the time to add turmeric, which accounts for the reddish color of the shrimp which does not look bad, but the dish is usually a yellower color. If you tend to steam food the Indian way, the rice cooker steamer is quite the thing to do the job for you. In this case, I had dinner in about 25 minutes, without really any attention needed to cook things. I think this one is a keeper. I have tried this technique with a couple of other things just not done it so spontaneously. But hey, when you have a family to feed you get quick on your feet. The key to this recipe is having the Bengali mustard paste, which in my case I actually tempered with almonds rather than poppy seeds as it can get softer with a shorter soaking time.

BTW, if you plan on doing this in the oven, parchment paper works just fine too.