Saturday 8 December 2007

Kerala Eral Kuzhambu (Kerala Prawn Curry)


A Madhu Jaffery recipe again with a twist. This is from her book ‘The flavours of India’ and she opens the recipe with the line ‘I Love this dish with a passion’. I have made a twist, a tip I found here. Having spent 21 years of my lifetime in Coimbatore, means that the Kerala influence is inescapable. We had a neighbour from Kerala who also happened to be a great cook. She would share many of her special dishes with our family. I was lucky enough to spend a few days in Kerala and I cherish that experience. Lots of yummy food everywhere we went. Unfortunately I was with a gang who was fussy about food and was complaining. Nevertheless I enjoyed the food and loved it. Nothing I am ever going to say will do justice to Kerala food. Here goes the recipe,

  • Prawns - 600 gms (Shelled and deveined)
  • Onion - 1 (medium sized thinly sliced into half moons)
  • Garlic - 5 (cut into thin pieces)
  • Ginger - 1 inch (grated)
  • Chilli powder - ½ tsp
  • Paprika - 2 Tbsp
  • Turmeric Powder - ¼ tsp
  • Coconut milk - 400 ml
  • Curry leaves - 1 twig
  • Green chillies - 3
  • Tamarind - lemon size
  • Mustard seeds - 1 tsp
  • Oil - 2Tbsp
  • Salt as required


Grinding

    • Coriander seeds - 3 Tbsps
    • Fenugreek seeds - ¼ tsp
    • Pepper - 1 tsp
    • Curry leaves - 1 twig

Dry roast the coriander seeds, fenugreek seeds and pepper and powder it in a blender with the curry leaves. Once the powder is fine add 5 raw prawns to it and grind it with some water. Heat the tamarind with water for 2 minutes on high. Dilute with cold water and extract the juice. Heat oil and add the mustard seeds and when they pop add the curry leaves, onion, garlic and fry till brown. Once brown add the ginger and sauté for one more minute. To this add the chilli, paprika, turmeric powders and the ground paste and fry till blended. Add the tamarind extract, salt,green chillies and let it bubble. To this gravy add the coconut milk and the prawns. When the prawns are cooked, remove from fire and enjoy with hot boiled rice. If you enjoy very spicy food, the paprika can be replaced with chilli powder. The gravy is thick and would go well with Chapatti as well. This dish is a treat for your senses. It looks, smells and tastes divine.

12 comments:

Finla said...

Wow love any kind of prawn dish.
Looks really delicious. If u had not written that it was a kerala dish i would have thought it was a Goan dish

Rachel said...

The prawns are big ones! Similar to goan prawn curry!

Devi said...

@ happycook
The dish is called Konju Pappas in Kerala. I have to try Goan style prawn curry, may be for Christmas !!!
@ We get only big prawns raw here, the small ones unfortunately are only available pre cooked which I use for fried rice and some pasta dishes.

Swaroopa said...

i love prawns...thanx for sharing...

Shella said...

I love prawns, n your curry looks so incredibly good.

Finla said...

Will look froward to your goan dish

Pixie said...

This looks and sounds delicious. Thanks for sharing such fabulous recipes.

K Praveen Jayakar Thomas said...

I followed your procedure, the curry came out very well. thanks for sharing the recipe and keep posting more.

thanks
praveen

Anonymous said...

What's the twist? That link is broken.

This looks amazing and I will be trying it out really soon.

Liz

Richard Lisboa said...

You know as an Indian/portuguese fellow who likes to cook.. this is great!!! Loved it.. im making it right now as im typing this post!!! Good job.. anyway I have a few more recipes on grouprecipes.com/uk2nyc i live in Milan now so im experimenting with Indo-Italian food!!!

Cheers,

Richard

Unknown said...

Hi
I made this dish today and it came out really well. Thanks

Aseem Saxena said...

Dear Devi,

We tried this recipe yesterday... and it turned out great... This is what I did:

1. I added 2 tsp red chilly powder as I had no paprika

2. I added 1.25 tsp salt

One query: By the time my prawns had cooked, my gravy had become very thick... much thicker than yours...

Although it tasted great, I was wondering if you could tell me as to what could I do to get your consistency

Thanks,

Aseem