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Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Vellarikka Unakka Chemmeen with Mango Curry

This is a nice combination of dried small shrimps with vellarikka ( cucumber ) and unripe mango. Sour mango gives the tangy taste to the curry, so a very sour mango has to be used for this curry. Since vellarikka was not available, i have used half of a cucumber in its place.

Ingredients

4 oz / 100 gm - Dried shrimp
1 big - Unripe sour mango, cut to small pieces without skin
1 cup - Vellarikka, cut to small pieces
2 to 4 - Green chili, slit in center
1'' piece - Ginger
1/2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/2 tsp - Turmeric powder
1 sprig - Curry leaves
Salt to taste

To grind to a smooth paste

3/4 cup - Freshly grated Coconut
1/2 tsp - Red chili powder
1/4 tsp - Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp - Jeera / Cumin
1 small - Shallot

Seasoning

1 tsp - Mustard seeds
1 sprig - Curry leaves
2 big - Shallots, diced

Method

1 ) Wash dried shrimp. If it is very salty dried shrimp then wash very well to reduce the salt in the shrimp.

2 ) Add to a pan dried shrimp, mango, vellarikka, green chili, ginger, curry leaves, red chili and turmeric powder. Add enough water to cook the ingredients. When using cucumber instead of vellarikka, then add cucumber when other ingredients are half cooked, since cucumber will cook faster. Add salt accordingly. Cook till the mango pieces are soft and can be mashed with a spoon.Mash some of the mango pieces.

3 ) Add the ground coconut mixture to the cooked ingredients and add little water to make a thick gravy. Bring to a boil, adjust salt to taste. Cook for a minute and take off the stove.

4 ) In a small pan, heat oil, pop mustard seeds, then add shallots and curry leaves. Fry till shallots are browned. Pour this seasoning on top the curry and mix in.


Serve hot with rice.

12 comments:

Unknown said...

nice idea to use cucumber with shrimps..

Purnima said...

Wow this is also new to me, chemmeen wt vellarikka!! Dish looks so beautiful! Tks for sharing, Pravs!

Jamie said...

This dish looks wonderful. Only problem for me is that my mango selection is usually very poor. I will keep my eyes peeled for some nice ones! Thanks Pravs!

Anonymous said...

Cucumber with prawns....nice...
I have a couple of prawn dishes waiting to be blogged as well!

Kalai said...

Wow! A new dish for me to try. Love the combo of cucumber and shrimp! :)

Sagari said...

mouth watering recipe pravs ,looks so yummy

Dhivya said...

nice combo!looks so colorful

bha said...

This looks like a nice variation in shrimp cooking....this might surely intrest Mr Kanth, he is a shrimp lover.

Sumitha said...

Thanks pravs for this recipe.Looks like a very good version with vellarika.Glad you tried it out with cucumber too.

Pecos Blue said...

Looks yummy as usual

Anonymous said...

I had posted comments here 2 days back, but didn't see it here... Anyways...this veg and prawn combination is quite new to me. sounds delicious. I would like to try it but no unnakka chemmeen available here. Can anything else be substituted for that?

Oh by the way, I tried your microwaveable kaipakka kondaattam recipe today. It was yum! Will be making it again and again for sure.

Thanks
Rg.

Pravs said...

Divya : cucumber went well in place of vellarikka. Do try if you like this combination.

Purnima : Thanks :D chemmeen goes well with vegetables.

Jamie : Look for pickle mango in indian store, those will be sour. Since mango season is here, you might find some good ones now.

Rachel : Thanks :D will look out for your prawns recipes.

Kalai : You should surely try this then :)

Sagari, Dhivya : Thanks :D

Bhags : yeah, do please Mr kanth with these :D

Sumitha :i took a chance and it went well.

Pecos : Thanks for the encouraging words :D

Rg : Do try with fresh prawns if you can't get dried shrimp.
Sorry i didn't get that comment, to publish it. No idea what happened.
Microwave kaipakka kondaattam recipe is easy to make, right ? Good to know you liked it :D