LA MAISON DE VILLE PRAWN CURRY
Greeting from my French kitchen all chefs and food lovers. Trust all is well and my compliments to the administrators and members who is still doing such a great job keeping this site so interesting and people sharing their love for food.
Being back in SA is always super exciting and today I want to share a prawn curry recipe which I got from a guest from the beautiful Sri Lanka. I‘ve changed a few ingredients such as adding the wine and some spices and I feel the recipe is something all can enjoy because the tastes come through fantastically. As a rule I like cooking prawns in the shells to be tender but in this case if you follow the recipe, you will be surprised. Before you start pour yourself a glass of wine 😉
- 1 kg prawns
- 3 medium onions, finely chopped
- 5 tomatoes, grated
- 5 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 3 cinnamon sticks
- 4 cloves of garlic, chopped
- 400 ml white wine (semisweet is my choice or dry white is good too)
- 3 green or red chillies, finely chopped, I prefer green
- 3 tablespoons garlic and ginger paste
- 1,5 teaspoon turmeric
- 1,5 teaspoon red chilli powder
- 1,5 teaspoon coriander powder
- 1 heaped tablespoon cumin powder
- 1,5 tablespoon masala powder or mild curry powder
- 2 tablespoon tomato paste
- 2 cups (500 ml) boiling water
- 1,5 tins coconut cream
Chop the onions in small cubes.
Remove the skin and grate the tomatoes.
Finely chopped the chilli’s.
De-vain and remove the shells of the prawns.
Put the oil in a pot and add the 3 cinnamon sticks and fry for about 5 min and turn down the heat and add the chopped garlic cloves and cook for about 3 min then and don’t allow the garlic to burn.
Add the wine and allow to simmer for 5 min.
Add the onions and cook until almost transparent (about 10 min) and add the chillies and the garlic and ginger paste cook about 5 min.
Add the dry ingredients, turmeric, coriander, chilli powder and masala powder but not the cumin.
Let it simmer and then add the tomatoes.
Add the tomato paste and the boiling water.
Allow to simmer until the mixture becomes thicker and the water reduced to half.
Add the coconut cream and the cumin powder.
Add salt and pepper to taste.
Allow to cook but don’t overcook the sauce as the taste will become bland.
Add the prawns to this mixture, but if they over cook they will become rubbery. (My suggestion is for you to take one prawns cut in half and stick a fork into it and submerge into the mixture and check it after 2 min and taste. From there you try the other piece and go a little bit longer to get the timing right)
If you are familiar with prawn dishes, add the prawns to the mixture and try one after about 3 min until its cooked but tender.
Note:
The basic rule is if the prawns form the shape of a “C” it is cooked. If it curls completely into a ring it is over cooked.
Serve with rice and a salad and extra sauce if you prefer.
Recipe and photos: Johan De V Swanepoel
