Prawn Curry

[Goldberg]

Been experimenting a lot lately with cooking. I have taken some inspiration from the many cook books I have and I have started to try things out for myself.

Last night I had an Onion and some Celery in the fridge. I also knew I had a huge bag of frozen prawns (shelled and uncooked) in the freezer so it had to involve them.

So I thought a curry would be in order considering it is in the 20's outside....

Firstly I cannot recommend this enough : Kenwood CH180 Mini Chopper, 300 Watts: Amazon.co.uk: Kitchen & Home@@AMEPARAM@@http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/411TAN7S5PL.@@AMEPARAM@@411TAN7S5PL

It saves so much time, not only preparing food but cleaning the thing.

So the ingredients (serves 2 people with some left over):

1 Large Onion
1 Handful of finger chillies (or Birds Eye etc.) depending on how hot you like the curry
4 Sticks of Celery
1 Heaped teaspoon of Ground Garam Massala
1 Heaped teaspoon of Ground Tumeric
1 Teaspoon of Ground Cumin
6 Green Cardamon pods
1 Handful of dried Bay Leaves
1 Small cup of easy cook Basmalti Rice
1 Vegetable Stock Cube
1 Tin chopped Tomatoes
1 squirt of Tomato Puree
Salt & Pepper
Good handful of Prawns (20 maybe)
Thumb sized piece of Ginger (I used the pre cut Pickled stuff)
4+ Cloves of Garlic (Again I use the 'Lazy' Stuff)
Coriander (I use the Chopped Frozen stuff from Waitrose)
Good glug of White Wine Vinegar
Splash of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 Lemon for it's Juice

So, in the Mini Chopper add the Ginger, Garlic, Onion, Celery and Chillies. You may need to do this in batches, mixing the ingredients each time. It obviously helps to chop it up in order to fit it in.

You are looking for very finely chopped and not a liquid here! It will soften into a nice consistency when cooking.
Add this to a large pan with a good glug of the Olive Oil and some seasoning.
To this add the Garam Massala, Tumeric and Cumin.
Stir with a wooden spoon on a medium heat for about 5 minutes. We don't want it sticking to the pan.
After 5 mins add the White Wine Vinegar and the Juice of the Lemon. Throw in the Cardamon Pods and some of the Bay Leaves.
Again Stir for about 5 minutes.

Boil the Kettle, add the stock cube to another pan with some salt and bay leaves.
Pour the water in and add the Rice (washed first in a sieve under cold water).

It is important to stir the rice regularly in order to prevent it sticking to the Pan.

Check the pan with the other ingredients, the spices with the onion and lemon will probably burn your eyes out at this point!
If it looks like a nice paste with a bit of liquid, add the tin of tomatoes.
Reduce the heat right down and continue to stir. You may want to add a bit of water, rinse the tin out from the tomatoes and use about a third full of water. At some point you may want to add a squeeze of Tomato Puree too if the Lemon or Chilli is too much.

Continue to stir the Rice and the Curry base. When you think the rice has about 5-7 mins left, add the defrosted Prawns (I defrost them in a bowl of room temperature water).

Stir gently and let the prawns cook whilst slowly taking in a lot of the flavours.

Check on the rice and once done sieve. Let it stand for a minute and shake it so all the water is out, remove the Bay Leaves also.

Turn the Curry of and remove the Cardamon Pods if you can find them. Add in the Corriander and stir.

If you want to be cocky like I was last night, spoon the rice into a ramekin tightly, Put a plate on top and turn over. Give the ramekin a tap and lift. You should be left with a nice formed pile of rice.

Spoon some of the Curry on the plate next to it and serve.

If you want bread etc... this is your call.

It got rave reviews off the missus and I was very surprised indeed myself. Never thought to use Celery before but it works.

You cannot taste it, in fact the over powering taste is probably the Lemon with a nice hit from the Chillies.

Give it a try, mess around with it (add some coconut or cream etc..) but I recommend it of course and not a jar of Pataks in sight! (and I use that often).
I did have some carrots but I thought that was going too far!

[ant3b]

Sounds good mate.. need a picture next time, I want to know what this formed rice looks like

[Goldberg]

I know! I nearly took one but couldn't find the phone! It basically looked like a Ramekin shape
You know how you get 'turrets' in some Indians etc...

When it is cooking the Tumeric makes it properly yellow. Adding the Tomatoes (and a squeeze of Puree) makes it reddish/brown.

*Edit*

The Rice looked like this:


Only not as sticky and mine was better as it was cooked in Vegetable Stock