Gongura Prawns also popularly known as gongura royyala kura is a winner and exotic dish from the Andhra cuisine. It is an amazing dish where the luscious prawns/ shrimp are cooked in a thick, tangy gongura sauce. This dish is generally served dry or with gravy and is a wonderful accompaniment to chapatti or rice.
Prawns – Shrimp cooked in sour greens gongura is an excellent, typical Andhra style side dish. This gravy is mixed with rice and eaten (pretty much like eating sambhar and rice or dal and rice). It is an awesome seafood dish that is almost liked by all the seafood lovers. Gongura is a leafy plant having a distinctive natural sour taste. These fresh greens are used in many culinary uses, the most popular is the Gongura pickle. Gongura comes in two varieties, green or red stemmed leaf.
The red stemmed variety is sourer than the green stemmed variety. Gongura is a fresh green veggie popular in the state of Andhra Pradesh. It is used for making the Gongura Pappu (dal based dish), Gongura Mutton, Gongura Chicken etc. In Maharashtra, it is called as Ambadi. Ambadi ki bhajji is a very popular dish in this region. Gongura greens is a summer crop and the hotter the place the more sour the leaf gets. Andhra Pradesh produces the best quality Gongura. Gongura is called as Kenaf leaves in English.
Gongura or Sorrel leaves are mainly prized for its distinctive sour and tangy taste. It is one of the vital ingredients in authentic Andhra cuisine. The Prawns cooked in sour greens gongura just wakes up your taste buds and makes you crave for its unique taste.
Apart from making the tangy pickle or using it in dals, gongura pulihora is a wonderful rice based dish. Gongura Prawns and Gongura Mutton is the most relished combo dish all over Andhra Pradesh. Prawns are a versatile ingredient that can be added to rice to make an exotic and delicious Prawn biryani. Methi prawn is also a wonderful dish, flavourful and delicious to eat. Gongura Prawns is easy and simple to prepare. The gongura leaves are slightly cooked with green chillies and later made to a fine paste.
The prawns are seasoned with some spices and then the gongura paste is added and nicely cooked in its own until done. For preparing Prawns – Shrimp cooked in sour greens gongura, firstly wash the greens and keep aside. Heat little oil in a pan and when it gets hot, add few green chillies, gongura leaves and cook well until the leaves becomes soft.
Grind these two ingredients together in the blender to a paste and keep aside. Now in the same pan, add some oil and add mustard seeds. When they start crackling, add chopped onion, salt and fry until the onions are browned. Add turmeric powder, ginger garlic paste, coriander powder, cumin powder and shrimp and mix well. Let it cook for few minutes and then add the gongura paste, garam masala.
Mix well and cook until the shrimps are done. Tips -The green chillies can be increased or decreased according to you spiciness. You can also add more quantity of gongura leaves according to your taste. When the sorrel leaves are cooked it becomes very soft and reduces to a very smaller quantity.
Gongura is a very rich source of Iron, vitamins C, folic acid and anti-oxidants essential for human nutrition. They are rich in calcium, zinc and Vitamin A. In addition, they also are a very good source of riboflavin, another important B vitamin for cardiovascular health since it is necessary for the proper functioning of B6.
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Enjoy Cooking!