Prawns masala cooked with desiccated coconut is quintessentially a coastal preparation. They are ideal to be served as a side dish with meals or a starter snack.
My sole aim of those umpteen visits to Global Fusion – (an all day dining buffet restaurant in Mumbai), is their CHEESE GARLIC BUTTERFRIED PRAWNS , they simply melt in the mouth.
This place is massive and has a very impressive spread of lavishly displayed world cusines. I have lost count on how many visits I would have made to this restaurant at both their venues in Mumbai – Bandra as well as Times Square in Andheri, either for family dinners or for an evening out with friends.
Global Fusion – Times Square (Mumbai)
My love for prawns is no secret, I have expressed it couple of times through my blog. Firstly, because they are wonderfully flavoursome, second they are easy to prepare and last but not the least prawns are so versatile !
When it comes to sea food, it is the freshness that makes a world of difference to the final dish.
I cannot stress this enough, because I have often bulk purchased prawns and pushed them into the freezer to be cooked at a later date. Anyone who is a sea-food lover can tell the difference in taste between frozen and fresh prawns. The frozen prawns would have lost some flavour during storage, and their taste cannot be compared to the fresh ones. So now I have decided to buy smaller quantities.
This I realised a few years ago, when we visited one of our friend’s bungalow at Gorai (an island in Mumbai). We were fortunate to lay our hands on some freshly caught prawns right off the fisherman’s boat at the Gorai beach. Later that night our friend’s mother simply marinated them with green chilly and garlic paste with a sprinkling of some salt and pepper. Which was later cooked on the barbecue. I had never tasted prawns this good !
Let’s move on to the spicy prawn masala recipe. In this recipe the spice quotient needs to be a little high, but you can always adjust if you prefer less spicy. The recipe is courtesy my neighbour, who is a Keralite. (Kerala is a south-western Indian coastal state) This magnificiently beautiful state is referred to as – GOD’S OWN COUNTRY. Just like in Goa, the curries here have loads of fresh coconut. The beauty of prawn curry or prawn masala is that the recipe changes with every small coastal village. But the basics do remain the same that is the coconut, the kokum and the curry leaves. As the prawns cook in those aromatic spices, they release their juices and the flavour intensifies.
Try cooking this recipe with organic coconut oil you will love the final result !! it enhances the flavours beautifully !
SPICY PRAWN MASALA
Ingredients
• 500 g Prawns Shelled and Cleaned
• 2 tbsp Coconut Oil
• 2 cloves Garlic crushed
• 1 inch Ginger crushed
• ½ tsp Ground Cumin
• ¼ tsp Ground Coriander
• ¼ tsp Ground Turmeric
• 1 tsp Red Chilli Powder
• 1 tbsp dessicated coconut
• ½ Lemon Juice
• Salt and Pepper
• Few kokum pcs (2 -3 )
• To Serve
• ¼ Lemon Juice only
• Few mint leaves
Method :
• Marinade the prawns for 5 minutes in 1 tsp of organic coconut oil and the spices mentioned above.
• Heat oil in a pan and flash fry the marinated prawns for 5 to 7 minutes.
• Sprinkle dessicated coconut and the kokum pcs.
• Cover with a lid and cook further for a couple of minutes more
• Garnish with mint leaves and serve with a squeeze of lemon Juice.
A word of caution : Prawns may be easy to cook but they do dry out more easily. So be careful not to overcook them. You don’t want to eat rubbery prawns, do you ?
Trivia: In India only 14% of the vast *brackish waters is used for prawns farming and yet, India stands second largest producer of prawns after China in the world.
Odisha is emerging as India’s leading shrimp producers.
*brackish water is saltier than fresh water but not as salty as the sea.
