Tuesday 21 June 2016

Spicy Prawn Curry


Venturing into the world of seafood has been a reluctant journey for me. I live in a place where fresh seafood is “almost” impossible to find. Hence, my reluctant nature! I have always been skeptical about cooking fish and other “fishy” things; however, the sheer love that I carry in my heart for prawns/calamari/squid/octopus etc is making me undertake an unwilling voyage.

This is not my first prawn curry, I have cooked prawns before but this is the first curry where I have allowed myself to put a unique "me" twist. This is also a very fuss free quick prawn curry.

For the Marinade:

15-20 deveined tiger prawns
1 tsp garlic paste
½ tsp ginger paste
½ tsp cumin powder
½ tsp black pepper powder
3-4 tbsp lemon juice

Mix all the ingredients and set it in the fridge for at least 2-3 hours. I marinated these prawns overnight. I used frozen tiger prawns for this recipe and that is why I find it absolutely necessary to marinade these prawns as it needs to take on the flavor of the spices. If fresh prawns are used, you can cut down the marinade time.

For the Curry:

2 cups of fresh curry leaves
1 tsp garlic paste
½ tsp ginger paste
3 medium onions
3-4 green chilies
1 tsp fresh black pepper
1 tsp whole cumin
2 tsp whole coriander
2-3 tbsp any flavorless oil
½ tsp whole cumin
200 ml coconut milk
Salt to taste

I used fresh whole spices, made it into a powder before using it in the curry. I find it very alluring that the flavor is much more when freshly ground spices are used. You can, of course, use powdered spices.

Grind the curry leaves with about 1/4th cup water added. Extract the water from the curry leaves using a sieve. If you want to add a rustic charm to your dish, please feel free to use the ground curry leaves without sieving it.

Blitz the ginger, garlic, chilies and onion until you obtain a fine paste. Heat the oil in a pan and pop the whole cumin. Once it releases the fragrance, add the fresh paste and stir on a low heat. You will need to be patient here as it takes a little time for the paste to let the oil separate. As soon as the oil is separated, go ahead and add the ground spices. Fry the ground spices for few seconds before adding in the marinated prawns. Give that a good toss in the pan and add the water from the ground curry leaves. Add some seasoning and allow it to bubble. Let it simmer for about 10minutes before checking the seasoning and the balance of spices. Add the coconut milk and let it bubble away for some more time. At this stage the curry should have a dark green-ish tinge. Once it comes to a thick gravy consistency, check for seasoning again and serve hot.


Steamed rice is the best accompaniment for this dish.


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