Prawn caldine

By popular request, curries in my house tend to come from a limited repetoire - there's Thai green curry (Spud's all time favourite), Madhur Jaffrey's stuffed vegetable curry (from the excellent book/bad title The Curry Bible) and this one - prawn caldine.  Sometimes when we're feeling flush, it becomes prawn and monkfish caldine.

What I love about this one is that it is quite simple and can be thrown together very quickly.  We almost always have a big bag of large prawns in the freezer (we stock-up every so often at Wing Yip on the Purley Way) and there's generally chillies and ginger in the fridge, coconut milk in the cupboard and often a bunch of coriander on the windowsill.  The prawns can be defrosted in a matter of minutes under the cold tap, so this can make for a great mid-week meal.

The key to this recipe is its fresh taste - this comes from the vinegar, the ginger and above all the tamarind water.  I love skiddling my fingers into a bowl of warm water and tamarind.  The long slices of green chilli make for an interesting crunch - the idea is to use medium rather than hot chillies and plenty of them.

Prawn Caldine

1lb large prawns, peeled weight, defrosted
2tbsp coconut or rice vinegar
1tsp coriander seeds
1tsp cumin seeds
1tsp turmeric
3tbsp groundnut oil
1 onion thinly sliced
2" ginger finely diced
2 cloves garlic finely sliced
1 can coconut milk
3tsp tamarind paste, 'relaxed' and muddled in water, stones removed
5-6 long medium green chillies cut into long thin strips
2tbsp ground almonds
Small bunch of coriander, roughly chopped

Soak the prawns in the vinegar with a pinch of salt.  Finely grind the coriander and cumin, add some freshly ground black pepper and stir in the turmeric.

Heat the oil in a wok and cook the onions over a medium heat for a few minutes until soft.  Add the ginger, garlic and spices and continue to stir-fry.  Don't allow to burn!

Add the coconut milk, tamarind water, ground almonds and about a half of the chillies.  Cook for 5-10 minutes then add the prawns.  Cook for 3-4 minutes more or until the prawns are just cooked through and stir in the rest of the chillies.  Stir in half the coriander and use the rest for garnish. 

Serve with simple basmati rice and a bread - such as cumin puris. 

tags: fish  curry  

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