Prawns In Spicy Coconut Sauce (Sungta 

Sukke/Dhoddak)

The specialty of Konkani seafood dishes is – they are almost always quite spicy and made with coconut. A drizzle of coconut oil on top of these, with hot rice tastes heavenly. I can’t stress enough on how much I miss these dishes here. Being from coastal area, we always got very fresh fish and relished these spicy dishes made at home. Don’t know why I don’t make these often here.

Last week I was talking to my friend Hema over the phone. Like every time that we talk, she mentioned that she had a spicy sungta sukke that day. Ohh, just the name of it, made the Konkani girl in me crave for it. I kept thinking about it for next two days. Then finally gave up and asked her to give me her recipe. This is what she gave me, I tried on Sunday. We had awesome lunch.

Well, Hema’s recipe is slightly different than what aayi uses for dhoddak. We usually don’t use coriander and teppal/tirphal in same dish. Here is my aayi’s version. Also, I have rarely seen the usage of non-fried coriander seeds in aayi’s cooking. But for once, I wanted to try the recipe as it is, without modifying. It came out really well.

Ingredients:

1 lb (0.45kgs) prawns

2 tbl spn fresh/frozen coconut

9-10 red chillies (if you can handle more, increase it)

1/2 tea spn coriander seeds

3-4 teppal/tirphal

2-3 kokum pieces

Salt

Method:

Grind the coconut with red chillies, coriander seeds to a very smooth paste. Do not add too much water (This needs a good Indian mixer). When it has become very smooth, add teppal and run the mixer for just couple of seconds. (Note: teppal should never be ground. It will entirely spoil the dish. This step is just to bring out the aroma, but not for grinding it).

In a thick bottomed pan, mix the paste with prawns, kokum, salt. Cook it on a low heat till prawns are done.

Serve as a side dish with rice. A little coconut oil drizzled on it tastes great.

Serves : 3-4

Preparation time : 20 mins