Samarachi Kodi

Mum visited us a couple of weeks ago, cooked us up some Samarachi Kodi. For those who lived in Goa would know the significance of this meal, in the good old days Goa was shut during the monsoons, houses were stacked prior to the monsoons with dry prawns, dry fish, sausages to last till the end of the monsoons.

Then my Aunty Sunita from Moira came over and told us a little more of good old Goa in the monsoons how people bought rock salt, buy tamarind for the entire year as it was available on in april and may. Chillies too were stocked up on, the non spicy Aldona chillies for color and taste. The small red onions tied in bunches in the kitchen, that perhaps had a smoked effect.

Water pickles, feni, vinegar, all stored of course running out of feni was very common with an alcoholic in the house :) If you have some story to share of the good old days do post a comment!

This curry can be made with dry prawns and you can try experimenting with dry bombay ducks, todays Samarachi Kodi recipe is a dry prawn curry, perfect for the rainy season. A special thanks to Annarita for help with this recipe :)

Main Samarachi Kodi Ingredients

1 Tin dry prawns
2 Big onions
1/2 Scraped coconut
1 Small Ball Tamarind
1 Tomato
Salt to taste

Samarachi Kodi Masala Ingredients:

1/2 Coconut
6 - 8 Kashmiri Chillies
1/2 Orange Flower
1/2 Daggad phool (Star Anise)
1/2 Teaspoon Mace (Javitri)
1 Teaspoon Turmeric powder
2 Pieces of Cinnamon
1/4 Teaspoon Methi seeds
3 - 4 Pepper corns
6 Cloves
1 Small Onion
2 Teaspoon Corriander seeds
6 Flakes of Garlic
1 Inch Ginger
A pinch of Jeera

So now that you've got your ingredients ready lets start making our Samarachi Kodi. Roast the half scraped coconut with the small onion and haldi powder
While thats getting done, clean the dry prawns by removing their heads if there are any and soak. You also need to soak the small ball of tamarind in water.

When the coconut is roasted, roast all the masala ingredients and grind.

Getting your Samarachi Kodi Masala was relatively simple, the only thing is this recipe requires a few unique ingredients as compared to what we have used in our other Goan recipes so far.

Keep the Masala aside, chop the onions, tomato, ginger, your prawns should be well soaked by now.

Get your coconut milk ready, if you have been following our recipes you would know how to do that by now :)

Sauté the onions till slightly brown.

Add the ginger and the big tomato and continue to fry

Add the soaked dry prawns, don't add the water only the prawns.

Keep frying for a while.

Then add the Samarachi Kodi masala along with the Tamarind water.

Depending on how thick you want your curry add the coconut milk
To give it a little more tangy taste you can add some raw mango to the dish.

Remember you are already adding tamarind water so according to your taste buds.

So there you have it, your Samarachi Kodi should be ready in a bit.

Enjoy eating it with hot rice and pickle on a cold rainy day.