Chingri Diye Pyaj Kolir Torkari / Chingri Pyaj Koli / Bengali Style Dry Spring Onion Curry With Prawns

One of the tasty attractions of winters in Kolkata is the abundant availability of the green onions / spring onions. However do not confuse them with the very fresh and young spring onions, which are used in the Chinese / Thai cooking. The spring onions, which we Bengalis love to eat, are the all grownups (but their bulb is not yet swelled up), which have a small bud on top of it. May be that is the reason they are called “pyaj koli”, which literally means, the bud of an onion. These spring onions are also thick in texture and also bear a sweet smell.

Pyaj Koli is generally cooked with some potato, and sugar is used to give the dish a sweetish tinge. But like every other “niramish khadyo” (vegetarian food), this also could not escape the wrath of us, the always non-veg craving, fish loving Bengalis and so we added prawns to them, and “pyaj koli” became our favourite too.

A few weeks ago I asked my husband to bring some spring onion for adding in my sweet corn soup, as I forgot to buy them earlier. And he brought home a big batch of them. Needless to say that, most of them remained unused and I immediately thought to make some “aloo pyaj koli”. Then I noticed my frozen prawns in the freezer, lying there...doing almost nothing and gazing towards the box of frozen chickens....and I knew, I have found my ultimate companion. Of course, prawns are the best add-ons to any curry, sabzi / torkari, lentils...as well as soups. They are meaty, as well a fishy..and every time I have a bite of them, I can almost smell the sea behind, so they are perfect whenever I want to have something veggie but something also fishy!! He hE!!!

When I make Spring Onion with Prawns, I sauté a little onion beforehand, and then add sliced potatoes and chopped spring onions. Lastly, I finish it off with adding the fried prawns. Do not forget the seasoning ingredients, i.e. turmeric powder, red chilli powder and tempering the oil with kalo jeera / nigella seeds before sautéing the onions. Hope you will enjoy it too.

Chingri Diye Pyaj Kolir Torkari / Bengali Style Dry Spring Onion Curry with Prawns

Serves 2

Ingredients:

6 bunches of spring onion

1 small onion - sliced

2 medium potatoes

½ tsp nigella seeds / kalo jeera

2 tsp turmeric powder

½ tsp red chilli powder / 1 green chilli – chopped

200gm small prawns / shrimp

Salt

1 tbsp mustard oil / any unflavoured oil

Method:

Chop the spring onions in chunky sizes.

Peel and cut the potatoes lengthwise and then halve them.

Take 1 tsp turmeric powder and salt and rub them over the prawns, and ensure that each one of them gets a good coating. Marinate the prawns for 5-7 minutes.

Heat oil in a pan / kadai and shallow fry the prawns / shrimp until they become orange from both the sides. Once done, take them out of the pan and keep aside.

Take away most of the oil from the kadai and keep only that much, in which you are comfortable to cook.

Heat that oil and put the nigella seeds /kalo jeera.

As they start to sizzle add in the sliced onions. Stir and sauté for 2-3 minutes, or until they become translucent.

Now add the potatoes and cook till they are half done. It will take somewhat 5-6 minutes. If you see that the potatoes are going to stick to the bottom of the pan / kadai add in a dash of water to them.

Now add the chopped spring onion, salt, turmeric powder, red chilli powder / chopped green chilli. Give a good stir and put cover. Let it cook for 3-5 minutes, or until the spring onions become soft and kind of wilted. Check and stir in between to prevent it from burning.

Once the spring onions are almost cooked, add a dash of water and the fried prawns.

Cover and cook till the prawns and spring onions are cooked perfectly.

Taste and adjust seasoning and put off the flame.

Serve hot with some dal and plain rice. You can also add some fried bori / sun dried dumplings on top of the chingri pyaj koli, which gives a nice crunch to the dish.