This Family Recipe for Coconut-Tamarind Shrimp Is One of My Favorite Dishes

One of my favorite ways to eat shrimp is the Indian dish khadkhadi, plump shrimp simmered in a rich and tart sauce featuring ingredients commonly used in the west coast of the country, including tamarind and coconut. I learned how to cook khadkhadi from my mother’s sister, Maya Kale-Laud, who cooked it often. It’s so loved by me and my family that Maya even contributed her recipe for it to my cookbook The Essential Marathi Cookbook.

The dish's name is an onomatopoeia: In Maya and my mother's mother tongue of Marathi, khadkhadna refers to the bubbling sound made by the ingredients cooking in a hot liquid. In the dish, shrimp are first brined to give them a plump, snappy texture, then they bubble away in a velvety coconutty sauce made tangy from tamarind pulp. It’s delightfully savory, a little sweet, and acidic all at once. Because the sound of the shrimp cooking is loud, I lovingly refer to the dish as “noisy” shrimp.  

Maya Maushi—Maushi means mother's sister in Marathi, the language of my state, Maharashtra—often cooked khadkhadi for her seafood-loving family, and it’s easy to see why: It’s a quick dish, ready in less than an hour and can be served hot right away or eaten cold as a pickled condiment for the next five days. As the shrimp brine briefly, you can soak the tamarind and make the coconut-garlic paste. Then after a mere 15 minutes of cooking, dinner is ready.

Hot, khadkhadi is a filling main course on white rice or a flavorful snack on toast. Out of the refrigerator, it can be used as a satisfyingly spicy condiment with Indian food or served cold on dressed greens for a lip-smacking salad. I keep the essence of Maushi’s recipe here, tweaking it only slightly. Here are a few tips for making this sweet, tart, and savory coconut and tamarind shrimp recipe at home.

Tips for Cooking Coconut and Tamarind Shrimp

For juicier shrimp, brine with salt and baking soda. Tossing the shrimp with salt and baking soda briefly before cooking greatly enhances the shrimp’s flavor and seasoning; brining with salt ensures the shrimp remain moist as they cook, while alkaline baking soda delivers a pleasantly firm texture.

Here, I toss the shrimp with the salt and baking soda plus red chile powder and ground turmeric for additional flavor. In my tests, I found that the shrimp had the best flavor and texture when brined for 30 to 45 minutes. Just make sure to refrigerate them during this time so they stay fresh, and use a glass or metal bowl that will not stain from the vibrant turmeric and chile powder.

Start with frozen fresh coconut flakes for a flavorful sauce. While Maushi used a grinding stone to make her coconut and garlic paste, here I call for a food processor. Using a food processor requires adding water to the coconut mixture to ensure the processor’s blade catches the mixture and blends until smooth. (If you prefer to use a mortar and pestle, you can omit water initially and add one tablespoon at a time if needed to loosen the mixture.) Make sure to use frozen fresh flakes, not desiccated or dried sweetened flakes. Fresh coconut flakes have a richer, more intense coconut flavor than dried varieties do.

Make your own tamarind paste; it’s easier than you think. Store-bought prepared tamarind paste is available at many Indian food markets, and may seem like the easier option since little to no prep is needed for it, but I strongly recommend not using prepared tamarind paste, which can vary greatly in texture and flavor and they often lack the depth of flavor and thicker texture of a paste that’s freshly prepared with tamarind pulp. Instead make your own paste from scratch with tamarind pulp; the effort is worth it for the balanced tart and sweet flavor it adds to the final dish. I recommend using Indian tamarind pulp, as Thai tamarind pulp is typically too sweet for this savory application. 

Start with a tamarind pulp block and cut or pinch off two ounces from the larger block into two-inch chunks. From there, steep it in boiling water for 15 minutes to soften, then squeeze and mash the pulp to separate it from the fibers and seeds, and finally press it through a fine-mesh strainer. Make sure to use a flexible spatula to scrape off any usable paste that clings to the underside of the strainer, and add it to the bowl with the rest of the paste. This process separates and removes the fibers and seeds from the pulp to form  a thick, sweet, tart, and complex tasting paste.

Serve hot or cold. One of my favorite things about this recipe is that it is great served hot right after cooking as a main dish, but it is also wonderful when cooled down, refrigerated, and served cold. As the shrimp sit in the acidic tamarind and coconut sauce, they pickle and develop a brighter, sharper flavor over time. The acidic sauce preserves the shrimp so they can last up to a full week in the refrigerator.

If you plan to eat the shrimp as a main course, I recommend using large shrimp. But If you plan to refrigerate it and serve it as a condiment or salad topping later, I recommend using small shrimp. I find that smaller shrimp clump together more in the sauce and are easier to spoon as a cohesive topping on toast, which is how I like to enjoy it. Think of the small pieces of mango you find in a mango pickle or chutney—you will have a similar experience with spreadability if using smaller shrimp.