Prawn Curry Recipe

Everybody has their favourite Prawn Curry Recipe. Two of the most delicious Indian dishes I know are prawn curries from Kerala and Bengal. They are as different as can be, but both are to die for. (In a later post I'll include a recipe for Thai Prawn Curry that takes some beating).
In the USA what Indians and Brits call prawns (sometimes king prawns) are known as shrimp, whereas in the UK shrimp are small and are usually potted in butter and served on toast. In all three recipes, large prawns (or shrimp) work best. From now on, to save confusion, we'll just call them "prawns".
One characteristic of prawns is that they are cooked in an instant. A minute or two at the most. Cook them any longer and you'll find them hard and chewy. Raw prawns – which are usually transparent with a blue hue – should be shelled and deveined before cooking. You can use cooked or frozen prawns but adjust the cooking time accordingly. Cooked prawns will only need heating up.

1. Kerala Prawn Curry Recipe
One of my fondest memories of India is of eating this curry in a shanty restaurant on the sand at Kovalam Beach on New Year's Eve 1997. The moon was high in the sky and the waves were crashing against rocks a few metres away.
We arrived a few minutes before 10pm and were greeted with a glass of Indian sparkling wine that was supposedly champagne, but tasted more like sparkling brass-cleaner. As the restaurant was a semi-legal temporary structure and unlicensed, the owners faced imprisonment just for serving it.
The main course was so delicious, I asked for the recipe. Here it is for us all to share:
Ingredients
450 grams (1lb) prawns, shelled and deveined
1 medium-sized onion, finely sliced
3 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
2.5 cms (1 inch) ginger root (grated)
½ teaspoon chilli powder
1½ teaspoons paprika powder
¼ teaspoon turmeric powder
300ml coconut milk
10 curry leaves
2 green chillies
1 teaspoon tamrind extract
1 teaspoon black or brown mustard seeds
Oil & salt as required.

Masala paste:
2 teaspoons each of coriander and fenugreek seeds

10 curry leaves

¼ teaspoon black pepper

Dry roast the fenugreek seeds, coriander seeds, and black pepper and whizz into a fine powder with the curry leaves. Add five raw prawns with some water and blend into a paste.
Heat oil, add the mustard seeds and when they pop, drop in the curry leaves, garlic and onion and sauté until golden. Add the ginger and fry over for an extra minute for luck. Then pop in the chilli, paprika and turmeric powders, plus the ground paste and keep on frying until blended. Spoon in the tamarind extract, salt,green chillies and let it bubble. To this gravy add the coconut milk and mix up until you have a lovely sauce. Reduce slightly for a minute or two over the heat before adding the raw prawns.
When the prawns are cooked – which should only take a minute or two – add salt if you need to (the prawns can be salty enough themselves),  and serve with hot basmati rice or bread.

2. Bengal Prawn Curry Recipe
The area known as Bengal straddles the north-eastern border of India and Bangladesh and includes the whole of Bangladesh. plus West Bengal and parts of the states of Bihar, Assam and Orissa. It's a wide area and rich in culinary traditions. They love to cook in mustard oil, which is difficult to find in the west in grades deemed suitable for human consumption! The mustard adds pungency to the food, further heated up by the liberal use of chillies. This authentic recipe comes from Mrs Chowdhury of Howrah, and those not used to hot food might want to leave out some of the chillies or even avoid the dish altogether! To those of us addicted to chilli heat, it is divine!

Ingredients
450 grams (1 lb) prawns, shelled and deveined.
2 teaspoons black or brown mustard seeds
½ teaspoon each of ground turmeric, chilli powder and salt
¼ teaspoon wild onion seed (nigella/ kalonji)
3 whole dried red chillies
2 fresh hot green chillies

Grind the mustard seeds and mix into a paste with the ground spices (turmeric, chilli powder and salt) and a dollop of water. Heat the oil in a pan – let it smoke, if using mustard oil – and chuck in the wild onion seeds followed by the red chillies and the prawns. Stir for a minute or so until the prawns turn pink and start to frazzle slightly around the edges. Immediately pour in the green chillies and the spice paste. Stir and turn down the heat. When the sauce has thickened and the prawns are cooked take off the heat at once and serve with steamed basmati rice, yoghurt and dal.
Yum, yum!