Malabar spinach and prawns cooked dry (bhuna style) with mustard oil, garlic and green chilies. Distinct from the wet version, the bhuna concentrates all flavours.
Pui shak chingri bhuna is a dry-fried version of the Bengali Malabar spinach and prawn stir-fry, where the greens and prawns are cooked uncovered until all moisture evaporates, concentrating the flavours into a coating paste. The dish is everyday home food across the Khulna-Barisal delta, eaten with rice. The bhuna technique (cooking uncovered until the oil separates) intensifies both the greens and the prawns, the mustard oil giving a sharp base.
Dry, intensely flavoured, the wilted greens and prawns coated in a concentrated spice-oil paste, the mustard oil sharp, each bite bursting with prawn umami and green vegetal sweetness.
The technique is bhuna (dry-fried) cooking uncovered. Prawns are fried in mustard oil, removed. Greens are added and cooked uncovered over high heat until wilted and most of their water has evaporated. The prawns are returned, spices (turmeric, garlic, green chili) added, and the dish cooked until the oil separates and the mixture is dry and coated. The uncovered cooking and high heat evaporate all liquid, concentrating the flavours.
Variations
Some add dried red chili for heat. A version with sesame oil is milder.
On the Palate
Where Pui Shak Chingri Bhuna sits in the Bangladeshi flavor cloud
Ingredients
Serves 4How it's made
5 steps · 15 min
- 14 min
Fry 200g small prawns in 2 tbsp mustard oil with turmeric; remove.
- 25 min
Add 300g chopped Malabar spinach to the same oil; cook uncovered over high heat 5 minutes until wilted.
- 35 min
Return prawns; add 3 garlic cloves minced, 3 green chilies, salt.
- 44 min
Cook uncovered 5 more minutes until dry and oil separates.
Watch outKeep frying uncovered on high until it's dry and the oil separates out — that pooling oil is the sign the bhuna is done and the flavors have concentrated.
- 53 min
Serve with rice.
