Quick-fix meals: Chingri Bhape a la moi

I was first intrigued by the classic Bengali dish Chingri Bhape (Translation : Steamed Prawns) when the lovely Madhur Jaffrey demonstrated the recipe in her fantastic TV show Flavours of India. The fact that the recipe calls for throwing together all the ingredients and letting them all steam for a few minutes and voila - lunch is ready! rather than the multi-step cooking that most Indian recipes demand (Chop veggies/meat - Make the tadka - Fry the veggies/meat - Add other stuff (rice/dal/what have you) - Adjust seasoning - Let it cook, STIRRING AT REGULAR INTERVALS SO THAT IT DOESNT BURN/STICK TO THE PAN - Serve)made me feel light-headed and liberated - this was cooking, Nigella-style! (Though I had no idea about Nigella Lawson's existence when I first saw this recipe. I guess I was attracted by the typical Nigella-esque bang-it-on-the-stove-or-in-the-oven-and-forget-about-it-for-the-next-30-minutes-and-hey-lunch-is-done style of cooking that this dish subscribed to)

The classic recipe calls for dumping together prawns, mustard-and-poppy-seed paste, coconut, salt and green chillies along with a generous splosh of mustard oil in a pot, and let it steam gently over a pan of boiling water for 10-15 minutes - and what you get is (ostensibly, I have never made this dish) a fragrant, flavoursome curry perfect to drench over boiled rice - a meal-in-moments, with minimal effort and maximum taste.

Now, considering I do NOT have a violent attraction to the heady aroma of mustard oil/paste, I never really took this recipe seriously, never thought I would have anything to do with it. Till a few days ago, when I was pondering over light-and-quick meal ideas when it came to me as a flash of inspiration - I could make my own version of Chingri Bhape, using flavours I like but the same basic technique! After all, I think what makes CB a success is that there is both richness (coconut, poppy seed paste, mustard oil) and sharpness (mustard paste, chillies) in the taste - and as long as I used ingredients which produced a similar result, I was sure the dish wouldn't fail.

So, I did some thinking and came up with the following substitutes - richness would come from melted butter (yum!) and pungency would be lent by chopped garlic and paprika (garlic-and-butter is such a naughtily rich combination, as Vir Sanghvi says!)

I have tried out my own remixed recipe to utterly satisfying results, and hence have no qualms sharing it with all of you here:

Ingredients:
Prawns, shelled, deveined and cleaned - 10 medium-sized ones/15-20 small ones (I used frozen ones, but fresh would be yummier)
Butter, melted - 1 tablespoon (or you can use a combo of melted butter and olive oil - but not more than 1 tablespoon in total)
Paprika/chilli flakes (use the stuff Dominoes/Smoking Joes/Any other Pizza Delivery Place gives in small sachets) - to taste
Garlic- peeled and chopped - 3-4 cloves
Salt and sugar (to taste)

Procedure:
Thaw the prawns if frozen.
In a deep wok, add 2 cups of water and put it on the flame, letting it come to a boil

Meanwhile:
Rub the thawed prawns with salt and set aside for 10-15 minutes

In a pot/deep-ish saucepan, throw in the prawns, the garlic, the chilli flakes (and a touch of sugar if you prefer it) and mix well with your hands, massaging in the spices into the prawns. Add the melted butter and give it one quick stir with the spoon. DO NOT give in to the temptation of adding more butter because it looks dry and you think it'll dry off and burn rather than be steamed till juicily cooked. The juices from the prawns will provide plenty moisture to cook the whole thing.

Cover with a lid and put it in the wok containing the boiling water.

Cover the wok as well (if you find a lid tall enough to cover the wok along with pot standing in the wok) and let it steam gently.

While the prawns are being steamed, lightly toast bread (you can use garlic bread for a wonderful matching aroma, but plain bread is fine too) - toast it till just the sides crisp up and the centre is still soft - we dont want gritty crackly toast, we want softness to mop up the prawny, garlicky, buttery sauce.

Take the wok+pot off the flame once the prawns seem done (they turn opaque as they cook). TAKE CARE THAT THE PRAWNS DON'T OVERCOOK - ELSE THEY BECOME CHEWY AND RUBBERY. Turn off the flame the moment the prawns start turning opaque.

Garnish with chilli flakes and/or dried oregano. Serve with toasted bread (and a salad if you're feeling particularly virtuous)

I think the same dish can be made by stir frying all the ingredients in a pan on high heat, but I suspect one would get a dry-ish stir fry rather than the silken soft moist texture of the just-cooked prawns and the buttery sauce that the prawn juices, garlic, chilli and butter produce when steamed together.

The absence of coconut/mustard paste/poppy seed paste not only robs the dish of its Bengali identity, but also of its utility as a curry to be had with rice. But what you get is a delicious tumble of prawns drunken in a pool of golden sauce that can be heaped onto bread or into canape shells or mixed through some boiled spaghetti for an instant prawn-garlic-and-butter hit.

Enjoy!