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Written by This Prawn Curry Recipe is one of those that saw Deena Naidoo sweep through the early rounds of MasterChef SA.
Deena Naidoo very quickly built his reputation on MasterChef around his curry recipes. This was to be expected though as the man is Indian and most importantly hails from Durban.
You may want to increase some of the spice quantities slightly if you like your curry hot. We have tempered the quantities a bit.You can always add a little more curry powder or garam masala near the end of the process when you add the potatoes.
Deena recommends serving this Prawn Curry Recipe with Jeera Rice which is a common way of eating rice in India. It is rice flavoured with cumin seeds and onions, Jeera is the Hindi word for “cumin seeds”.
Serves: 4 | Preparation: 15 min | Cooking: 30 min
Ingredients
| For the prawns | |
| Shelled Prawns | 400g |
| Whole Peeled Tomatoes | 410g |
| Ground Ginger | 1 teaspoon |
| Yellow Mustard Seeds | 1 teaspoon |
| Garlic Paste | 1 teaspoon |
| Curry Leaves | 6 |
| Chicken Stock | 125 ml |
| Onions | 1 |
| Green Chilles | 2-3 |
| Tomato Paste | 70g |
| Ground Coriander | 1 teaspoon |
| Curry Powder | 1 teaspoon |
| For the Jeera Rice | |
| Basmati Rice | 250g |
| Water | 500ml |
| Butter | 80 g |
| Onion | 1 |
| Cumin Seeds | 1 teaspoon |
Method:For the prawn curry
- Heat some oil in a pan (medium heat)
- Toast the mustard seeds
- When the mustard seeds begin to pop add the one of the onions and garlic paste, saute until soft and translucent (reduce to low)
- Add the green chillies and curry leaves
- Add the ginger, ground coriander and curry powder
- Cook for a minute
- Add the tomato paste and whole peeled tomatoes
- Simmer for about 3 minutes
- Pour in the chicken stock
- Reduce over a low heat to half the volume
- Taste and season with salt
- Add the prawns,
- Cook for approximately 3-5 minutes until the prawns are cooked
- Garnish with coriander.
For the rice
- Boil the rice as per packet instructions
- Toast the cumin seeds
- Heat up some oil and butter in a pan and sauté the chopped onion adding the toasted cumin seeds
- When the onion is soft and translucent add the cooked rice and coat in the butter
- Serve and garnish with fresh coriander
A little wiki about Prawns
Prawns are decapod crustaceans of which there are 540 extant species, in seven families, and a fossil record extending back to the Devonian.
They differ from other, similar crustaceans, such as shrimp and boxer shrimp by the branching form of the gills and by the fact that they do not brood their eggs, but release them directly into the water. Prawns may reach a length of over 330 millimetres and a mass of 450 grams and are widely fished and farmed for human consumption. In many contexts such as commercial farming and fisheries both shrimp and prawns are referred to interchangeably. However, recent aquaculture literature increasingly uses the term “prawn” only for the freshwater forms of palaemonids and “shrimp” for the marine penaeids.
In the United Kingdom, the word “prawn” is more common on menus than “shrimp“, while the opposite is the case in North America. The term “prawn” is also loosely used to describe any large shrimp, especially those like “king prawns”, sometimes known as “jumbo shrimp”. South Africa, Australia and some other Commonwealth nations follow this British usage to an even greater extent, using the word “prawn” almost exclusively. When Australian comedian Paul Hogan used the phrase, “I’ll slip an extra shrimp on the barbie for you” in an American television advertisement it was intended to make what he was saying easier for his American audience to understand, and was thus a deliberate distortion of what an Australian would typically say.
A little wiki about Jeera Rice
Jeera rice is an Indian dish consisting of rice and cumin seeds. It is a popular dish in North India, an everyday rice dish It is easy to prepare unlike a biryani. Jeera is the Hindi word for cumin seeds. The ingredients used are rice, cumin seeds, vegetable oil, onions and coriander leaves.
