Kochupata Chingri is a very popular Bengali dish. it tastes so delicious. Here the shrimp or kucho chingri is cooked with kochu pata or young colocasia leaves with coconut and mustard paste. The freshness of kochupata or colocasia leaves, and the flavour of mustard oil and mustard paste make this dish so tasty. You have to be very careful about the leaves, since colocasia leaves may give you an itchy throat. You have to boil it with little salt and lemon and discard the water. Discarding the water is very important step of cooking this dish as it omits the chances of itchiness of throat.
Kochupata Chingri – a forgotten recipe
It has been almost 10 years since we lived outside Kolkata. Every year before going to Kolkata, I make a list of what to eat from different restaurants there. Last year when I went to Kolkata, I had this dish at a Bengali hotel called Kasturi. I have tasted this dish first time in my life. Really the taste was really mouth watering, I just thought I’d make it home one day. Many say it is an old and popular Bengali cuisine. But I have never seen anyone in my family cook this dish at home. Although we see variations in cooking in different families of the same community. When I started blogging a few years ago, I found out about this dish from different food bloggers. From then on I started exploring this dish. From various sources I can find that it is truly a traditional Bengali cuisine though today it is a lost recipe from the Bengali’s kitchen. The dish is available at various Bengali restaurants in Kolkata, Kasturi is one of them.
Making Kochupata Chingri at home
Although almost everything is found in Bangalore, but still some things are not so readily available here. Kochupata or colocasia leaves is one of them, which you can not get easily here. A few days ago I went to the HAL market ( very popular market in Bangalore) and suddenly I saw some soft colocasia leaves. The first thing that comes to my mind when I look at the colocasia leaves is Kochupata Chingri. Then I bought some kucho chingri or shrimp to make delicious and popular Bengali dish Kochupata Chingri. It tastes delicious when served with hot steamed rice.
You can check the following recipes from this blog
Shrimp - 500 grams Colocasia leaves - 10 (small) Mustard paste - 2 tablespoon Green chili paste - 2 teaspoon Green chilies - 2 + 2 ( slit ) Grated Coconut - 2 tablespoon Turmeric Paste - 1/2 teaspoon Salt to taste Mustard oil - 3 tablespoon + 1 tablespoon Lemon - 1/2 Finely chop colocasia leaves Wash colocasia leaves under running water few times and then soak into water for 15 minutes Drain the water and add colocasia leaves in a gas proof bowl Boil the leaves with water, lemon and a pinch of salt Then discard the water, discarding the water is very important step of cooking this dish as it omits the chances of itchiness of throat Add mustard paste, green chili paste, grated coconut, turmeric powder, salt in a bowl and mix with little water Mix shrimps with salt and turmeric powder Heat oil in a pan, fry the shrimp until light brown ( don't overcook otherwise shrimps will get hard) Keep the shrimps aside Add the mustard paste in the pan, saut then for few minutes Add green chilies Add boiled colocasia leaves, mix and stir for 5 to 6 minutes on low flame Switch off the gas Transfer this dish into a serving bowl Drizzle some mustard oil on top Serve with hot steamed rice How to make Mustard paste
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1. If you have traditional flat mortal pestle then you soak black mustard seed with few water for few times, after that drink the water and make a paste adding with little salt, 2 green chillies and little water.
2. If you want to make the paste in mixer grinder then you have to be sure that you mixer grinder pot is totally dry. add two tableespoom black mustard seeds and a pinch of salt in a grinder then just grind without adding a little water for using for few seconds. Then add little water and 2 chilies and make a fine paste.
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