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Doc: You shouldn’t eat Fish, it’ll cause you acidity.
Bong Patient: No problem S(a)ir, I’ll take an antacid afterwards
– A joke on a typical Bong’s love for fish
Well, you can’t keep off a Bengali from fish for too long, can you? After the series on Breakfast with Egg, it time to go back to Fish. Chingri Bhaape is on the platter today.
Grinding of the spices to a paste just before preparing the dish is a typical of the Bengali recipes. We prefer the freshly prepared spices more than the preserved dry spice powder. Even while preparing Chingri Bhaape, I used a paste of mustard seeds (aka shorshe, sorshe, sarshe).

Chingri Bhaape is an authentic Bangali recipe, and had been prepared in every household since ages. It is enjoyed best with warm white rice. The pungent taste of mustard paste makes the sarshe chingri bhaapa even more appealing. Hilsa is also used similarly to prepare ilish bhapa.
Preparation time: 10 mins
Cooking time: 5 – 8mins
Serves: 4
Ingredients:
- Tiger Prawns (Chingri Maach): ½ kg, cleaned and deveined
- Mustard seed (Sarse): 5 tablespoons, ground with 1 tablespoon water to make a paste
- Turmeric powder (Halud guro): ½ teaspoon
- Mustard oil (Sarser tel): 3 tablespoon
- Green chili (Kacha Lanka): 5 – 6
- Salt to taste
Preparation:
- In a heat proof bowl, that has a lid (better to use a steel tiffin box) put all the ingredients together and mix well
- Close the lid and put it in a double boiler (bain marie) to cook for 5 minutes, check if the prawns have become tender, else cook for sometime more till the prawns are tender
- Take it out and serve with warm rice
Hot Tips – Cut the back of the prawn with a knife and take out the dorsal vein completely. It is the main cause of food poisoning due to prawns.
Alternative cooking – Along with the above ingredients mentioned you can also put in two tablespoons of freshly desiccated coconut. You can also cook it in a pressure cooker. Lace the steel box inside a pressure cooker and fill it with one-inch of water and wait till the first whistle.

Double boiler-If you don’t own a double boiler, here’s a workaround. Just place the box in a deep pan and fill the pan with water upto a little below the lid of the box.
Further Readings-Shorshe Chingri Bhapa, Chingrir Malaikari
Sending this recipe to Indrani of Appyayan for hosting the first event on her blog, Spotlight: Fish.
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I’m salivating. 🙂
Have you heard of something called “baro bakhorer pathar shira”, meaning, “twelve herbs’ soup”?
Muhamad,
I really don’t have any idea about this. If you have the recipe, please do share it with me, you can even send me the recipe along with a photo of the recipe to make a guest post in our blog.
Hi, Sudeshna,
I don’t have any idea either. 🙂 I live in the UK, and I’ve got scant memories of my mum making it. My mum said she’ll send some pics along with the recipe.
Wow, a guest post, that would be great. Thanks.
Hi Muhamad,
Yeah sure you can have a guest post here in my blog. I would just love that. Please do let me know when you are ready with the recipe.
Bhapa Chingri (Prawns) are looking soft and nice. My son enjoys eating non-veg.
Hi Lakshmi,
Thanks for dropping by. I hope your son likes this preparation too. You can lessen the amount of mustard paste when you prepare it for your son.