Kumro Chingri / Pumpkin With Prawns

My husband's ancestral home is in a village and my in-laws still live their. Ater marriage it was in that very village I lived for one month. To my ultimate horror and many nightmares, the experience was not that bad. The village is kind of modern in technology.

You will not see any mud house or cottage there. Every family has electricity and all are kind of wealthy. The only down side that I have faced was the lack of internet connection there. I could not connect to internet in my room nor I could call anyone. I had to go to the rooftop to call my parents.

 The other short coming was that it was completely detouched from the outer world. Everyone had their own means of transport. Not many people relied on the public transport because it had no consistency. One day we were waiting to catch the 7'o clock bus, but it came after 9:30 a.m, and as a result we had to change all our programs. But that does not mean that life there is boring. It is calm, peaceful and has its own kind of entertainment.

 Kids there play in the field with their friends, rather than being grossly obsessed over video games. People still gather in the evening and have their evening adda. Life there is not rushing like Kolkata or any other mega city.

 I went to the gardens of mango trees and palm trees and also visited the tribal community there, who lives on the outskirts of the village. The day I went there, they were having some kind of puja and everyone brought a hen as their sacrifice to the God. I did not wait their till the end of the puja and returned back home to have lunch.

I used to be a complete hater of pumpkin. I can not even remember how many times I fought with my mother over this particular legume. But with time you learn to love and appreciate things that once posed to be an ultimate hate story. And with time, I fell in love with the sweet, savory and soft pumpkin. I love to eat this Kumro Chingri / Pumpkin with Prawns, which has the beautiful taste and texture of pumpkin infused with the forever tasty prawns. A match made in heaven for all Bengali foodies. Eat this Kumro Chingri / Pumpkin with Prawns with luchi/puri or paratha or rice, and kumro chingri will become your very own comfort food.

Kumro Chingri / Pumpkin With Prawns
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 400gm pumpkin - cut into small cubes
• 150gm medium size prawns - cleaned, de-shelled and de-veined 
• 1 small onion - chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic - paste
• 1 inch stick of ginger - paste
• 1 tsp panch phoron / Bengali five spices (mixture of cumin seeds, mustard seeds, nigella seeds, fennel seeds and fenugreek seeds)
• 2 dry red chili
• 1 tsp + 1tsp turmeric powder
• 2 tsp red chili powder / green chili paste
• 1 tsp sugar
• salt to taste
• 1/4 cup of water
• 1 tbsp + 2 tbsp mustard oil / any flavored oil

Method:

• Marinate the prawns with salt and 1 tsp turmeric powder for 15 minutes.
• Heat the 1tbsp oil in a pan / kadai and fry the prawns in it until they are almost done. Take them out of the pan and keep aside.
• In the same pan add the rest of the oil. When the oil is hot enough add the panch phoron / five spices and the dry red chili into it. As they start spluttering and sizzling add the chopped up onions.
• Sauté until they become translucent.
• Now add the ginger - garlic paste and cook until the raw flavor of the garlic is gone. This will take some 2 - 3 minutes.
• Now add the cubed potatoes and cook a little bit. If you feel that the potatoes will burn add a little bit of water, and let them cook. Sprinkle some salt. Cover and cook for 8-10 minutes or until the potatoes are almost done.
• Now add the cubed pumpkin pieces, sugar, turmeric powder, red chili powder / red chili paste and mix everything nicely.
• Again cover and cook until the pumpkin and potatoes are cooked thoroughly. Check in between and if required add water to prevent them from burning. This may take 15 minutes on medium flame.
• When the pumpkins and potatoes are soft from inside add the kept aside fried prawns and mix properly.
• Taste and adjust seasoning.
• Simmer with cover for 2 minutes and put off the flame. You can also add some garam masala powder at this stage.