Daily Food Post #7: Not Shrimp Vindaloo

I wanted a change of color. That's what drove me into making this beautiful dish. I came up with this recipe myself, no googling involved, whatsoever! Now am not sure I can claim sole proprietor rights to this recipe because, well, I have found that recipes are pretty universal, and somebody in some other part of the world would have made something similar. But just to humor myself, I'll say that this is indeed my innovation. About me wanting a change of color- well, Indian curries that I make, often end up being red and/brown because of the use of ingredients such as tomatoes, tamarind, and/or garam masala. I decided not to use any of these.

Shrimp simmered in a poppy seed, ginger, coconut, and mustard sauce, with a hint of flowery cardamom, spicy cinnamon, and a little bit of pleasurable heat from thai chilies:

YUMMY! 

Ingredients: 

Shrimp 1 lb (can use raw or pre-cooked)  

Poppy Seeds 2 tbs

Cardamom 4-6 pods

Cloves 4-6

*Toast the poppy seeds, cardamom, and cloves for a couple minutes to enhance flavors

Coconut- grated, 2-3 tbs

Ginger 1.5 inch, chopped

Garlic 2 cloves (garlic powder okay)

Green chilis (thai) 4-6 or up to your preferred heat level

Cinnamon powder a pinch

Mustard seeds 1/2 tsp

Cooking oil 4-5 tsp

Water 1/2-1 cup (adjust according to your liking)

Salt to taste

Freshly ground pepper 1/2 tsp

Poppy seeds, cardamom, cloves

The sauce base

Method: 

1. Coarsely grind toasted poppy seeds, cardamom, cloves, coconut, ginger, garlic, and green chilis in a food processor. Can use a little bit of water to aid in the grinding process.

Coarsely ground poppy seed- coconut- ginger- garlic- chili- cardamom-clove 

2. In a pot, with some oil, splutter mustard seeds, and transfer the above ground masala into it, quickly fry for about 3-5 minutes. Add 1/2-1 cup of water. Bring to boil.

3. Then fold in the shrimp into this. Add a pinch of cinnamon powder, salt to taste, and some freshly ground pepper. If using pre-cooked shrimp, lower flame, and simmer for 5 minutes, to marry all the flavors. If using fresh shrimp, well, that'll take ~5 minutes to cook, and then simmer to marry all the flavors. :)

Shrimp in beautiful sauce 

And it's ready! It's a lovely gingery-coconutty-flowery-mildly hot and spicy curry, perfect for these winter nights. Serve with hot basmati infused with saffron- YUM!

You don't always have to cook shrimp vindaloo, you know! ;)