Sometimes, a recipe just works so well and is so tasty, that it needs to be blogged ahead of the queue. This is one such.
I found this recipe in the latest BBC Good Food magazine and you can find the original recipe - which deals with raw King Prawns as opposed to cooked King Prawns - if you click here. The recipe apparently comes from a lady called Jagdish Kaur who hails from the Punjab'n de Rasoi cafe in Edinburgh. I liked the recipe as it looked awfully easy to make (which is always a good thing) and had interestingly few ingredients. So many curry recipes have ingredient lists as long as your two arms, that it was intriguing to find one working along such minimalist lines.
I won't deny that the notion of using three live chillis and some dried chilli flakes caused several ominous gyrations of my stomach, but the "Taste Team Comment" indicated that the heat was agreeable. However, in the interest of self preservation I changed one of the chillis to a milder red version and removed all the seeds from it.
I also included a little fish stock - in my case, the lovely Essential Cuisine fish stock and have reflected these changes in the recipe below. I think that adding just water to a recipe is often missing a golden opportunity to inject a little more flavour. I accept that, in some curry recipes, the addition of stock would be inconsistent with the integrity of the style. However, in this instance it worked very well.
In fact, we very nearly didn't have the curry at all. I completely forgot about marinating the prawns on the night before and again first thing the next morning. Even worse, we had a breakdown in communications and only got one bag of prawns out of the freezer, needing to defrost the remaining pack at the last minute, in a sieve, under the tap! So, it may be worth bearing in mind that the marination of my prawns only took place for around a half an hour! Oops!
The actual cooking of the recipe lived up to my expectation and was easy peasy. I think it took longer to chop up the onions, tomatoes and coriander, than it took to do the cooking.
One cook's note that is worth bearing in mind, is that once the water is added it is worthwhile cooking the sauce until all the water has evaporated and the sauce is really thick - which is contrary to how the original recipe goes. The reason for this is because as soon as you add the yoghurt and prawns, the yoghurt is going to melt to a certain degree and - no matter how well you've dried the prawns - they're going to release moisture. If you haven't reduced the sauce to begin with, you're going to land up with a really dilute sauce which if you then try to reduce, you'll end up with rubbery prawns and split yoghurt. Not good! So make sure your sauce is reduced as far as it can go, before you add the marinated prawns.
Very definitely a hit with the family, I'll be making this again - perhaps with chicken next time. Hubby declared it the best curry he'd had in many a long year (which is enormous praise, especially considering he was concerned about it turning to "pond water"). Son and heir didn't say anything, just sat stolidly moving his spoon from plate to mouth until it was all gone. I think he liked it. For me, I loved the flavours that were bright and fresh - and although the chilli effect made my nose run and the tip of my tongue hurt, I'd have it again tomorrow - and you don't get to say that about every recipe you make!
HOT PUNJABI KING PRAWN CURRY (serves 3-4)
Ingredients :
For the marinade
600g cooked, peeled king prawns
6 tbsp full fat natural yoghurt
2 green chillies, finely sliced, with seeds
half a tsp of sea salt.
For the curry
2 tbsp sunflower oil plus 2 tbsp rapeseed oil
half a tsp of cumin seeds
2 medium onions, finely chopped
1 tbsp finely chopped garlic
1 tsp turmeric
1 red chilli, finely sliced
2 tsp Garam masala
2 medium tomatoes, roughly chopped
half a tsp of sea salt
half a tsp of fish stock powder, or half a fish stock cube
half a tsp of dried red chilli flakes
2 tbsp fresh coriander leaves, finely chopped.
Method :
1. For the marinade: Rinse and drain
the prawns. Pat them dry and put into a non-reactive bowl. Add the
yogurt, chillies and ½ teaspoon of salt. Mix well, cover and marinate
overnight in the fridge.
2. For the curry: Pour the oil into a deep sided wok or frying pan and set it over a medium heat.
3. Once the oil is hot, spoon in the cumin seeds, swirl and brown for 10 seconds. Add the
onions and sauté for about 10 minutes, or until golden all over.
4. Add the garlic, reduce the heat to low and stir and fry for 2 minutes. Mix in the turmeric and stir for 1 minute.
5. Add the red chilli, increase the heat to medium and stir for 1
minute. Mix in 1½ teaspoons of the Garam masala and stir for 1 minute.
6. Add all of the tomatoes, a pinch of sea salt and the chilli flakes.
Cook until the tomatoes have broken down, then add 120ml boiling water and the fish stock powder or cube. Stir to combine. Allow the curry to boil and reduce until all the extra liquid has gone and the sauce is really thick.
7. Stir
in the prawns and their marinade plus the chopped coriander and cook over a high heat until they
are heated through.
8. Sprinkle the remaining Garam masala over the top and stir.
Serve.
Printable version
So there I was, plucking up courage to cook the Beef Rendang. However, I knew that the Rendang didn't contain anything in the way of vegetable matter (well, except for shallots and chillis). You know how I'm always keen to get some vegetables into my chaps, so I set out to find a recipe for an accompaniment that would complement the Rendang, whilst ticking off some of the all-important vegetable matter.
I knew the Rendang was likely to be saucy (ooh, matron!), so didn't really want another saucy dish for fear of swamping out the plate. What was required was something like a bhajee - a fairly dry vegetable recipe.
There, on the My Dish website, I found a recipe for Saag Aloo which was attributed to someone called Renu. Thank you, Renu, for providing the perfect accompaniment!
Now you won't be surprised to hear that I deviated from the original recipe somewhat. After all, it'd be unusual if I didn't, hey?
Firstly, I couldn't find any frozen spinach in our local supermarket so bought the biggest bag of fresh spinach it was possible to buy - and wilted it in a dry pan at the beginning of the recipe. To be honest, I think this was probably an improvement on the requirement for frozen spinach, as it wasn't all munched up and indistinguishable. Even after being squeezed out between two plates (my Nanna's preferred method for removing the water from spinach or cabbage) it was still distinguishable as spinach leaves. Plus, it just feels worthier to be using fresh spinach, even if it isn't.
The second deviation from the original, was that I added a chopped onion to the mix. Now I can recall seeing and tasting fried onion in Saag Aloo that I've had from the takeaway and it didn't seem right to not include some. I do appreciate that it may not have been authentic to include the onion, but I was going for "what we like" rather than "authenticity", on this occasion.
I also didn't have any asafoetida or any jaggery, so left the former out and substituted soft brown sugar for the latter. It may have made a huge difference, but we were certainly happy enough with the results, so I think it worked.
The recipe was very acceptably simple to produce and I was perfectly able to conduct the trio of pans (Rendang, Saag Aloo and Rice) without getting all stressed and in a flap.
It was lovely to use the whole spices (mustard seeds and cumin seeds) and toasting them in the pan beforehand almost had me feeling like a proper chef.
One point worth noting is that, regarding the potatoes and because of hubby's hatred of the poor old things, I gave them three minutes in the microwave (with a small amount of water) once I'd diced them. This just softened them down enough that once they went into the pan, they didn't take so long to cook and were at the stage of just beginning to break up by the time they were served. Hubby declared that he wouldn't have wanted the potatoes again, but the spinach was fine. Both he and son & heir cleared their plates though, so not only was this a vote of confidence in the recipe, but I managed to get an unfeasibly huge amount of spinach into the pair of them! Result!
SAAG ALOO (serves 3)
Ingredients :
350g bag of fresh spinach, washed
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 knob of butter
1 onion, chopped fine
3 medium potatoes, peeled and diced finely
2 cloves garlic, grated
1 tsp turmeric powder
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp soft brown sugar or jaggery
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp chopped red chilli
1 tsp ginger paste
a handful of chopped fresh coriander.
Method :
1. Gently heat a large wok, then add the fresh spinach. Allow to wilt without browning and drain the excess water from the pan.
2. Once wilted, place the spinach onto a plate and place another identical plate on top of the spinach. Squeeze the two plates together, effectively squashing all the water from the spinach. Once water has stopped running, set aside.
3. Dry the pan and replace onto a medium heat. Add the mustard and cumin seeds and occasionally toss, to toast them evenly. You'll know when they're done as the cumin will darken, the mustard seeds will pop and the aroma will be fabulous.
4. Add the knob of butter and onions and stir to combine. Cook the onions for 4-5 minutes or until they are softened and just beginning to brown.
5. Add the potatoes and a splash of hot water and stir to combine. Allow to cook for 2-3 minutes, so that the potatoes begin to take on a little colour.
6. Add the garlic, turmeric, salt, sugar, ground cumin, ground coriander, chillis and ginger and stir to combine. Allow to cook until the potatoes are tender. You may need to add a little more water to encourage the potatoes to cook, but take care to not swamp the mixture.
7. When the potatoes are done (and not before), add the spinach and fresh coriander and give everything a good stir to ensure the vegetables all have a good coating of spices. Place a lid on the pan to help the vegetables to heat through and serve.
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