Making this dish, purportedly originating in Oman, involves forming balls of cooked rice and ground shrimp, and cooking them in a tamarind-based sauce. The sauce takes longer, so make it first:
Soak tamarind pump in boiling water for a while. In a large flat pan (we would use the sauté pan next time), large enough to hold many shrimp balls side-by-side, sauté all but 2 Tbsp of onions until soft. Press the tamarind mixture through a sieve into the pot and add nutmeg, cinnamon, the cardamom pod, tomato, chile, and sugar. Bring the sauce to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes, seasoning with salt and sugar if necessary.
Cook rice and, once cool, combine it with shrimp, coriander, turmeric, ginger, lime zest, cilantro, and 2 Tbsp of onions. Turn them into a sticky paste in a meat grinder or food processor. Form the paste into balls and cook them in the sauce for ~20 minutes.
Ingredients for 4 as a main course
- 1/2 cup cooked rice
- 2 lb shrimp, shelled and de-veined after weighting
- 2 tsp coriander seeds, coarsely ground
- 1 tsp ground turmeric
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1/2 tsp lime zest (ideally, grated black lime)
- few sprigs of cilantro / fresh coriander, chopped
- 2 Tbsp onions, chopped
Sauce
- 3 Tbsp tamarind pulp
- 1 cup boiling water
- 1 cup onions, chopped
- 1/4 tsp nutmeg, freshly grated
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon, freshly ground
- 1 cardamom pod
- 1 large tomato, finely chopped
- 1 dried chile, bruised
- 1 tsp sugar
- salt