Prawn Fry

I remember the first time I had prawns when I was a little girl at my grandmother's house. Growing up inlands, I was not exposed to sea-food at all, except when I visited my grandmother at Chennai. It was a Sunday special for them to head to the wet market and purchase fish/prawns. I had no idea what prawns looked like or tasted like. It was a couple of hours before they got back and another couple of hours before they could clean it well to start cooking. Those were small prawns so it took a lot effort to clean and when cooked they rolled up to the size of buttons. I found that fascinating and not to mention yummy.

 

At that time, I did not realize that it would be more than a couple of decades before I started cooking prawns myself. And from the first experience, I was not looking forward to the cumbersome cleaning that was involved.  

One evening my husband had ordered jumbo prawns (cleaned and deveined) from an online store and instead they sent small ones without deveining. He patiently started cleaning them and got tired mid-way and left the deveined prawns right on the kitchen top and uncleaned ones in the sink and scooted off. I stepped in to cook dinner and could not get to the sink without finishing up what he started and cleaning the sink and kitchen top as well. It took me a couple of hours to get through the whole chore and obviously dinner was delayed way beyond. I was furious with the online store and with my husband. 😡

But all that effort is worth it when the prawns are cooked 😉. I personally prefer prawns soup or prawn curry based on coconut milk, but somehow my daughters prefer the fry. As expected their preference wins 😁. But hey! When the kids polish off their bowls and look satiated that is a reward in itself right? So no complaints on that front. 

Anyways to the recipe. This recipe is something I remember having seen on facebook. Based on what I remembered from that video, I tried it out and it turned out well, I just kept at it since then only varying the spices level. 

Recipe (serves 4)

For garnishing:

Curry leaves - 4-5

Cumin seeds - 1 tsp 

Green chillies (slit) - 2 (optional, I always leave this out)

For the fry:

Onions (finely chopped) - 1 medium

Tomato (finely chopped) -  1 small 

Salt - to taste

Turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp

Chilli powder - 1/2 tsp 

Cumin powder - 1/4 tsp

Ginger - 1 inch piece (mashed well)

Garlic - 4-5 cloves (mashed well)

Prawns (medium sized about 25-30 in number) - 500g

Oil - for frying (I prefer olive oil or coconut oil)

Method: 

Heat some oil in a frying pan, add the curry leaves, cumin seeds and green chillies. When the cumin turns colour, add the onions and turmeric powder. Fry until the onions turn transparent and then start shrinking. Add the tomatoes and mashed ginger and garlic. If you prefer to use the garlic-ginger paste, you can use about 1 tsp of the paste. 

Fry until the tomatoes turn into a nice pulpy consistency. Add a little more oil if needed. Finally add the chilli and cumin powder until the whole mix comes together and the oil starts to separate. 

At this stage add the cleaned deveined prawns and toss the fried paste around the prawns. Fry for a while (2-3 mins) and watch in fascination as they shrink and start shrivelling. 

Close the lid of the frying pan and let it sit for a few minutes. The prawns release water. There is no need to add any more water. I usually leave the lid closed for about 3-4 mins. Do not overcook the prawns. Open the lid and let the water evaporate. 

Garnish with coriander leaves and serve hot with rice or roti. 

Tip: Whenever I fry something, I feel a lot of the spices and gravy get stuck to the pan and go straight down the sink when washed. My mom used a trick to make use of the remnants of gravy in the pan and I adopted the same more for the taste. Take a couple of spoons of white rice and toss it into the kadai and scrape off the oil and spices and gravy stuck to the frying pan. Now your pan is clean and you have about 1/2 cup of flavoured and yummy rice. My daughter loves this. 

Verdict: I have standardized the above recipe as I have cooked it several times. It turns out mildly spiced and I prefer it with olive oil as opposed to coconut oil. You can use the oil of preference, and adjust the spices as per your taste.