Chingri Paturi for #thebookclubcookbookCC

This month we are kicking off a new club called The Book Club Cookbook Cooking Club.  That is quite a mouthful isn't it?  We will be showing off our posts and recipes as #thebookclubcookbookCC. We have all purchased and are following a cookbook called......You guessed it...The Book Club Cook Book.  There are 12 of us in the group and each month one of us will choose a recipe from the cookbook for the rest of the group, and anyone else who wishes to join us, to make.  Now you don't have to make the exact recipe. You can just draw inspiration from the recipe, or the prose in the cookbook that talks about the book the recipe came from, or the "novel thoughts" that are writings from other book clubs that have read the chosen book or you can read the book yourself and draw inspiration...that is what I did this month.

We would love for a bunch of our friends to jump on the bandwagon.  You can learn how to join us by going to Camilla's Invitation Post.  Cam is our fearless leader and you can rest assured that if you choose to join us everything will go off without a hitch because Cam crosses every t and dots every i to make things runs as smoothly as possible.

In fact, we want you to join us so much that we are giving you the chance to win the cookbook for yourself so you don't have to purchase it!  Be sure to check out the giveaway at the bottom of the post.

Phew...now that all the housekeeping is done, let me tell you about this month's selection chosen by Cam.  The book is Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri.  It is a selection of short stories about people who are living between 2 cultures one of which is Indian and the other of which is another culture, often American sometimes European.  It was an interesting study for me.  I don't know much about the Indian culture except what I have learned from reading novels and what I learned from one of my students when I was working as a liaison officer in a high school and she joined my SADD group.

The recipes printed in the cookbook were Hard Boiled Egg Curry in Mustard Sauce and Mango Lassi.  I did not choose to make either of these.  Instead I got my inspiration from a story in the book itself.  I chose a dish from the 4th story of the book called "A Real Durwan".  This is the story of a homeless woman who suffers from mental illness and is taken care of by the residents of an apartment building in which she takes care of the stairwell and sleeps at the bottom of the stairs.  The woman tells the story of how she was once very wealthy and lived in the lap of luxury.  Nobody knows if these are truths or fallacies but Boori Ma's stories never change.  One of her stories is how they ate Prawns steamed in Banana Leaves.  This sounded delicious to me and my recipe was decided.

I did a google search and found this recipe by Rinku of Spice Chronicles.  I then set off to find an Indian store to purchase the ingredients needed.  Luckily for me there is a large Indian/Pakistani community about a half hour drive away.  I went to 2 different stores looking for all the ingredients neither of which carried or ever heard of mustard paste or poppy seed paste.  I was able to get the rest of the ingredients and decided to use the almond method given in the recipe and substitute curry paste for the mustard paste.  I used mild Curry Paste and only 2 chiles as my husband is spice sensitive.

When I posted our Weekly Menu I had told you that tonight was going to be date night but then we had the opportunity to take care of Little Miss while her mom went to the movies with a friend so I decided to make this dish for Fish Friday instead.

Chingri Paturi (Steamed Mustard Shrimp)

adapted from Spice Chronicles

20 shelled almonds, soaked in 2 T. water for 30 minutes

1 lb. large shrimp, shelled and deveined

2 T. Curry paste ( I used mild)

2 T. Mustard Oil

2 green thai chiles, slit

1 t. salt

Banana leaves or Aluminum Foil

Grind the almonds and water into a paste.  Place the shrimp in a sealable plastic bag.  Add almonds, curry, mustard oil, chiles and salt.  Squish around to combine and coat the shrimp.  Lay the shrimp on the banana leaves and enclose, sealing tightly.  You can use kitchen twine to hold the banana leaves tightly closed.  Steam over a steamer for 20 minutes.  Let rest for 10 minutes before serving over steamed rice.  Print Recipe

Giveaway

And to kick-off the event, Camilla at Culinary Adventures with Camilla, this month's host, is giving away a copy of the book.* Enter to win a copy of the cookbook so you can join us in future months, if you wish!

One of our lucky readers - US and Canada only! - can enter to win a copy ofThe Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authorsby Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp, courtesy ofTarcher-Penguin.Giveaway runs from July 1st till July 31st at 6 o'clock PM, Pacific time. Please see terms and conditions in the rafflecopter widget below. Many thanks to Tarcher Books. You may find Tarcher: on the web, on Facebook, on Twitter, and on Pinterest.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*Disclosure: Camilla received a complimentary copy ofThe Book Club Cookbook, Revised Edition: Recipes and Food for Thought from Your Book Club's Favorite Books and Authors by Judy Gelman and Vicki Levy Krupp to use in this year-long project plus the opportunity to give a copy away. Opinions are our own. We received no further compensation for our posts.

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