Shrimp Balchao

A teaspoon of this goes a long way! This dish turns out very spicy and I prefer to cook on summer/fall days since the house needs to be well ventilated while frying the ground paste. The taste is quite similar to shrimp pickle & stays well refrigerated for a few weeks.

This recipe reminds me of Amma's (my Mother) Shrimp pickle which was always in her refrigerator during Monsoon days when the fish mongers didn't show up at her door.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 lb shrimp,peeled and deveined
2 medium onions, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 sprig curry leaves
10-12 dried red chillies (byadgi)
1"cinnamon
8 cloves
4 green cardamom
1-2 tsp pepper corns
1 tsp jeera(cumin seeds)
1/2 tsp haldi(turmeric powder)
1"ginger
4-6 cloves garlic
1 tsp vinegar
oil
salt to taste

How it's made:

Grind red chillies, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, pepper corns, jeera, haldi, ginger, garlic, vinegar to a fine paste with very little water.
In a kadai or skillet, fry onions until light brown. Add ground masala & fry for atleast 20 mins. The more you fry the masala, the better the taste. Add tomatoes & curry leaves. After the tomatoes turn mushy, add shrimp. Do not add water. Cover & cook until shrimp is cooked- maybe 10 mins. Shrimp turns to be chewy if over cooked. Adjust salt.