What with planning a 4 year old’s birthday party, work going crazy for the holiday season, trying to get all those recipes in and round ups done before its too late for people who come looking for Christmas recipes, the last couple of weeks have been crazy busy. With hardly enough time to cook decent meals for all of us, I barely get to cook anything out of the ordinary these days. A Prawns Masala may not really be something out of the ordinary for most of you but with there being only one meataholic in the family, if I cook a meat or fish something, I have to cook something separate for myself. So, that’s practically like making two dinners.
I try and make some food on Sundays – a dal, something paneer, something veggie and save for dinners till Wednesday or so. That way I don’t have to think about dinner everyday of the week. We eat out once during the week and one night I cook something fresh. This plan works as long as I get time on Sunday. Otherwise it is improvisation for the whole week
Here is a quick Shrimp Curry – Prawns Tomato Masala to make a real quick meal on such crazy days! Even though it looks like there is roasting and grinding to do – the actual cooking time is way less!
P S: its super delicious on non-crazy days too
Kerala Style Prawns Tomato Curry – The Recipe
Ingredients:
Shrimp / Prawns , deveined and tail on - about 2 lbs
Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp
Black mustard seeds - ½ tsp
Curry leaves - 9-10
Tomatoes - 3
Salt - to taste
Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
Cayenne / Red Chilli Powder - 1 to 2 tsp
Garam Masala powder - 1 tbsp
Chopped Cilantro - a handful, for garnish
To be roasted and ground to a paste:
Shredded coconut - ¼ cup
Red Pearl Onions, peeled - 1 cup
Dried Red Chillies - 4
Garlic cloves - 4
Ginger - 1 tsp, when chopped
Method:
Dry roast the ingredients to "roast and grind" over medium heat, till the coconut turns medium brown in color. Keep stirring so as to get all parts of all ingredients equally roasted. Transfer to a plate and let it cool.
Grind to a fine paste, adding water as needed, in a mixer/blender/food processor.
Heat the oil in a wide bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the curry leaves. Pour the ground paste to it.
Add the turmeric, cayenne,garam masala and salt and sauté well.
Grind the tomatoes in a food processor until almost smooth and add to the pan.
Let it cook for a while, till the tomato thickens and the sauce looks like its all mixed well together.
Now add the shrimp and reduce heat to medium-low. Give it a good stir. Let it cook for just a couple of minutes till the shrimp is cooked. They will turn pink when cooked. You don't want to overcook them. So, be watchful.
Remove from heat and add the chopped cilantro as garnish.
Enjoy with rice, rotis, bread or whatever you choose to enjoy it with.
📖 Recipe
Kerala Style Prawns Tomato Curry ~ Shrimp Tomato Curry
Ingredients
- Shrimp / Prawns deveined and tail on - about 2 lbs
- Coconut Oil - 1 tbsp
- Black mustard seeds - ½ tsp
- Curry leaves - 9-10
- Tomatoes - 3
- Salt - to taste
- Turmeric powder - ½ tsp
- Cayenne / Red Chilli Powder - 1 to 2 tsp
- Garam Masala powder - 1 tbsp
- Chopped Cilantro - a handful for garnish
- To be roasted and ground to a paste:
- Shredded coconut - ¼ cup
- Red Pearl Onions peeled - 1 cup
- Dried Red Chillies - 4
- Garlic cloves - 4
- Ginger - 1 tsp when chopped
Don't forget to check out Step-by-step instructions with photos in the body of the post above
Instructions
- Dry roast the ingredients to "roast and grind" over medium heat, till the coconut turns medium brown in color. Keep stirring so as to get all parts of all ingredients equally roasted. Transfer to a plate and let it cool.
- Grind to a fine paste, adding water as needed, in a mixer/blender/food processor.
- Heat the oil in a wide bottomed pan. Add the mustard seeds and let them splutter. Add the curry leaves. Pour the ground paste to it.
- Add the turmeric, cayenne,garam masala and salt and sauté well.
- Grind the tomatoes in a food processor until almost smooth and add to the pan.
- Let it cook for a while, till the tomato thickens and the sauce looks like its all mixed well together.
- Now add the shrimp and reduce heat to medium-low. Give it a good stir. Let it cook for just a couple of minutes till the shrimp is cooked. They will turn pink when cooked. You don't want to overcook them. So, be watchful.
- Remove from heat and add the chopped cilantro as garnish.
- Enjoy with rice, rotis, bread or whatever you choose to enjoy it with.
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