Chingri posto

Shyamali Sinha’s Chingri Posto sears prawns in mustard oil before returning them to a Bengali poppy-seed and coconut gravy. Her version uses onion and garlic, with coconut sweetness and the nutty flavour she describes for poppy seeds.

For this selected paste method, poppy seeds and salt are ground in a coffee grinder, then water is mixed in. Red onion and garlic are chopped, while the recipe also lists a separate green-chilli paste.

The prawns are briefly fried on both sides with some salt and lifted out. Dried red chilli and chopped onion cook in the same oil before garlic, salt and turmeric join; the onion softens and turns golden.

Grated coconut, the remaining turmeric and Kashmiri chilli powder cook with the onion mixture. The fried prawns return before the poppy-seed paste cooks briefly, followed by the main hot water and the selected optional sugar.

The curry is brought to a boil and cooks briefly under a lid, with the offered optional slit green chilli added for flavour. After a final stir it rests covered before serving; Shyamali offers the dish with steamed rice.