Malabar spinach greens cooked with small river prawns in a quick, mustard-oil-based stir-fry. A everyday Bengali vegetable-and-fish dish from the delta.
Pui shak chingri is an everyday Bengali dish of Malabar spinach (pui shak) cooked with small river prawns, eaten across the delta wherever vegetables and prawns are both available. The dish is simple and fast: the prawns are lightly fried, then the chopped greens are added and cooked down until they wilt and release their water, the prawns and greens melding into a single, savoury, slightly slimy (in a good way) dish. The mustard oil gives the characteristic Bengali pungency, and the prawns add umami and protein to what would otherwise be a plain vegetable dish. Eaten with rice, it is everyday home food, the kind of dish made when there is no time for a curry.
Soft, wilted greens with sweet little prawns, the mustard oil pungent, the greens slightly mucilaginous and tender, the prawns providing bursts of sweetness. Each spoonful is a mix of vegetable and seafood, deeply savoury and satisfying.
The technique is a quick stir-fry. Small river prawns (about 200g, cleaned) are lightly fried in mustard oil with turmeric and salt, about 1 minute, and removed. In the same oil, a tempering of panch phoron (Bengali five-spice) or nigella seeds is done, then chopped Malabar spinach (pui shak, about 300g, stems and leaves) is added and stir-fried over high heat. The greens release water and wilt within 5 minutes. The prawns are returned, and the dish is cooked another 2 minutes. The high heat and the quick cooking keep the prawns tender and the greens bright.
Variations
Some add garlic. A version with dried fish instead of prawns is sharper.
On the Palate
Where Pui Shak Chingri sits in the Bangladeshi flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
5 steps · 15 min
- 14 min
Lightly fry 200g cleaned small prawns in 2 tbsp mustard oil with turmeric and salt for 1 minute; remove.
Watch outSear the prawns just a minute and lift them out — they finish later; leave them in and they overcook to rubber by the time the greens are done.
- 25 min
Add 1 tsp nigella seeds to the oil; add 300g chopped Malabar spinach (stems and leaves).
- 35 min
Stir-fry over high heat 5 minutes until the greens wilt and release water.
Watch outStir-fry the greens hard and fast on high — Malabar spinach should wilt and release its water in a few minutes and stay bright green, not stew down grey.
- 44 min
Return the prawns; cook 2 more minutes.
- 53 min
Add salt; serve with rice.
