Know Your Food Blogger- Jayati & her Prawn Dumpukht

    In the series "Know Your Food Blogger" hosted by "Kolkata Food Bloggers", this week the featured blogger is Jayati of "Jayati & Tito's Food Journey" who is relatively new in our group and in blogging world. She is a full-time working woman, and blogs about her passion - food in her blog when time permits. In this food blogging journey, her inspiration is her son, Tito and this justifies her blog name. I am yet to meet her personally, but thru this event, I get to know her blog well. The blog is full of very unusual and interesting bengali recipes as well as International recipes. She covers from bengali to chinese cuisine and her recipe selection is quite impressive. That's why I had a hard time to decide what to try from her blog, I bookmarked many recipes and for this event, I decided this recipe "Prawn Dumpukht", as I am a big prawn lover. So this came first in the list :)) You have to visit her blog to believe me.

Dumpukht is a cooking form where cooking is done in a sealed and tightly closed container in very slow flame and let the food cook in its own juice. Fish and meat are mostly cooked in this method. 
Here we are cooking with medium-big sized prawns and potato in this method with very minimal spices using very less oil. I almost followed her recipe, just added few extra ingredients, so sharing my version here. Find her version here.

You Need :
Prawn(medium-big) : 10-12 pcs.
Potato : 2, medium, cut into big chunks
Onion paste : 2 tblsp.
Ginger-garlic paste : 1 tblsp.
Baby onions : 3-4 nos.(keep whole)
Tomato : 1, medium, divide into 4
Turmeric powder : 2 tsp.
Red chilli powder : 2 tsp.
Coriander powder : 2 tsp.
Garam Masala Powder : 1 tsp.(grind together 2 cardamom, 2 cloves and 1/2" cinnamon stick)
Mustard oil : 3 tblsp.
Spices to temper
Bay leaf : 1
Cinnamon : 1" stick
Cardamom : 2
Cloves : 3

 How To :

• Clean all prawns, sprinkle a pinch of salt and turmeric powder and keep aside for 10 minutes.
• Fry the potatoes just until lightly brown, adding a pinch of salt. Keep aside. In the same pan, Saute the prawns in very low flame just for 2 minutes on each side. Keep aside.
• Now in a big bowl, add sauted prawns, potatoes, baby onions, onion-ginger-garlic paste, tomatoes, 2 tsp. turmeric powder, salt and red chilli powder to taste, coriander powder and 1 tblsp mustard oil. Mix well everything and set aside for 1/2 an hour.
• Heat about 1 tblsp. oil in the same pan, temper with bay leaf, cinnamon, cardamom and cloves, when spices start to splutter, add whole marinated mixture. In medium-low flame, saute the whole mixture until raw smells of onion and ginger are evaporated and the smell of spices are coming out well. You can add little water to avoid burning at the bottom. 
• When spiced are coated well with the potatoes and prawns, add just enough water to cook the potatoes and cover the lid. Let it simmer for 10 minutes. When potatoes are done, check the seasoning. It's upto you, how much gravy you want to have. I love a thin soup like gravy, so kept thin gravy to enjoy with rice. 
• Lastly add garam masala powder, remove from heat and keep the lid covered until serving. Enjoy with piping hot rice or pulao.