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.