Dried shrimp in coconut sauce - Unakka chemmeen curry

23 02 2007

We recently tried a recipe from this blog and it turned out great. And last week we tried this dish from the same blog. It was spectacular. Thank you Shiny for posting these favorite dishes. Her blog is like a cookbook dream come true for me.

The dish is made of dried shrimp. This is available in Kerala grocery stores in the US. Fish and coconut are integral to Kerala cuisine, and this dish is a happy combo of the two. Dried fish are stinky, but taste great. The prepared dish doesn’t smell of the dried shrimp at all. Dried shrimp is cooked with some water and mango, coconut ground to a silky paste is added to it and finally dressed up with shallots and curry leaves in coconut oil.

Dried shrimp

Although I didn’t have fresh mango, I substituted amchur powder as the recipe suggested. It worked quite well.

Recipe: Here

This recipe is a keeper. It is easy to make and tastes great. Thank you Shynee!!

Rice with chemmeen curry and radish saute.

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Information

Date : 23 February 2007
Categories : By Cuisine, Coconut, Dried Shrimp, Indian Cooking- By Region, Indian Food, Kerala, Seafood, Vegetables

18 responses to “Dried shrimp in coconut sauce - Unakka chemmeen curry”

23 02 2007: Aruna (12:12:04) :

Hello,

You pictures are beautiful…
Have a question, do u have to remove the shells of the dried prawns before using it ???
Thx
Aruna.

No Aruna, you use the shrimp as it is. Most of the dried shrimp is actually the shell, I think. Have to wash them a couple of times

.
23 02 2007: Annita (15:17:24) :

i’m almost drooling here,Gini..You know my husband hates fish especially shrimp..so now way i could prepare it.Lucky you!!!

He hates all fish or just dried fish? And he is a Malayalee? Definitely need therapy.
23 02 2007: Archana (18:24:55) :

OMG, i can’t wait to make it again. I just love all those unakka chemmeen curries. Nice pics, i love all those served platters you show us in your posts.

You mean, there are more recipes!. We make a sammanthi with this but that’s all I know. Share the recipes, will you please? I have half a packet to finish. I will gladly make this recipe again, but if you have anything else…
24 02 2007: jacob (11:36:12) :

long time, no see, gini. my mother makes this with green mangoes, and it’s what she uses to tempt me back home

I know, Jacob! Was in the middle of exams and assignments.
I wish I had some green mangoes, but no luck!! Our mothers know all the right things to tempt us with
24 02 2007: maheswari (16:47:30) :

Gini..i couldn’t stop myself drooling.I have had this dish many times but never tried myself before.It’s hard to get fry shrimps here.Starting my extensive search now itself…

Do you live in Ilinois? They must have some Kerala grocery stores. I think a lot of Malayalees live there, right?
24 02 2007: sandeepa (19:08:48) :

I love shrimp and posted aprawn dish only last night. This is looking delicious the mango and dried shrimp makes my mouth water though I have never tried Dried shrimp before

Shrimps are our favorite too! You can make this with fresh shrimp and mango too!!
24 02 2007: outofthegarden (21:29:33) :

Hi Gini, you always take nice pics, but these are especially lovely! Will we get the radish saute recipe too?

Thanks, Linda! Radish saute recipe is here
26 02 2007: Priya Balabhaskaran (02:18:18) :

Gini, mouthwatering…going to try this one soon….am drooling here seeing the pictures

Priya, I had almost forgotten about this dish. It was so tasty! Do you guys have a spring break coming up. Mine starts today. Hurrah!!
26 02 2007: Bhargavi (11:22:02) :

Nice Pictures as usual Gini!
Good day!

Thanks Bhargavi!
26 02 2007: A Yunus (16:44:34) :

Tempting one Gini!

Amaan loves the dried prawns like anything….I ll have to search for them, and make this asap. Thanks for sharing!!

Anisha, I am sure you will score big with this dish. Satish was super excited when I served this for dinner. We ate like 2 happy kids that day!!
27 02 2007: Spandana (02:45:27) :

Hello…
Nice pics and the dish looks tempting….
Have to make it for weekend… hope it comes out as good as u made it
Thanks for sharing!!!

I hope so too.. Good luck with your new blog! It’s looking good!!
27 02 2007: VV (15:28:43) :

Are you kidding, I love ur blog!! I was goin to be modest and thank you for ur compliments u left on my blog!
But you have a really well done and such an organized blog, well…now I will keep botherin u..I think you have tons of south dishes. I recently got a idli stand (my mom got it from India), guess what i am goin to try next
1 03 2007: giniann (09:24:28) :

Hi VV, nice to see you here and thanks for your very generous compliments. The spinach cake has taken over my thoughts. That is my next cake to bake.
An Idli stand is a wonderful thing to have. Idli, idiyappam…what is going to be on those idli stands?
1 03 2007: Mishmash! (11:41:24) :

Gini, How did i miss this post of urs…I was here almost everyday to see the new one….always the okra dish was coming up for me!! unakka chemmeen curry is my favorutie,Gini and urs looks quite delectable…lovely photographs, as usual. I still cant figure out how I missed this post which was posted on feb 23!!! Is it coz i closed the page before it got fully loaded and was stuck with okra pic??

Shn
1 03 2007: Arjuna (11:52:38) :

Gorgeous pics Gini!
2 03 2007: Aruna (07:59:42) :

Gini,

Pardon my ignorance , is the shrimp shell supposed to be removed while eating this curry ??

Thanks, ARuna.
2 03 2007: Anu (12:24:52) :

YOu have got great photography talent…

chemeen curry looks great..
5 09 2007: Shella (04:28:24) :

Hey my mom always has a stock of dried chemeen & makes this all the time. I just love it. But I love the onaka chemeen olatu with loads of onions . Its so satisfying to eat it with plain rice