Raw jack-fruit with dried shrimps By Nayana Afroz
Whenever I look for Bengali recipes, one of the sources I always seek help from is Nayana Afroz. Nayana-di is a home chef from Bangladesh. She shuttles to Kolkata often, and in one of such visits, I have been lucky enough to taste her fares in a pop-up she organised. This one from her repertoire is known to be a Chittagong delicacy.
Ingredients:
- Jack-fruit
- Dried Shrimps
- Warm Water
- Mustard Oil
- Ginger Garlic Pastes
- Turmeric
- Red Chilli
- Roasted Cumin Powder
- Salt
- Sugar
- Fried onions
- Green Chillies
Method:
- Cut the vegetable in small pieces and blanch it.
- Dry roast the dried shrimps and soak in warm water to clean the dust and sand off it.
- Heat mustard oil and add a mix of ginger garlic pastes, and turmeric, red chilli and roasted cumin powders.
- Add the dried shrimps and very little warm water, let this cook and add the blanched vegetable.
- Add salt. Mix everything well and add some warm water.
- Cook covered for about 10 minutes.
- When this mushy look comes add a pinch of sugar ( I do, the original recipe doesn’t have this) and some fried onions.
- Mix and add plenty of chopped green chillies.
- Take off heat sprinkling some fried onions on top.
- The fiery jack-fruit with dried shrimps is ready to be consumed with a plateful of steaming hot rice.