Coconut Prawns with Spices

This is one recipe that I turn back to again and again when I am lost in thought on what to prepare for side dish! We, approaching the edge of being fully carnivorous, I have to come up with some non-veg side dishes to go with any vegetarian main course. This is one quick side dish that I prepare with some ready peeled prawns in the freezer. Very unexpected marriage of flavours happening in here, unlike the regular prawn preparations you may find in my blog and I have ever eaten. I found this recipe on pack of maggi coconut milk powder, made few lazy tweaks and here is the final outcome. Please refer to notes for the original notes.

Ingredients:

250g Cleaned jumbo king prawns

1 Tbsp oil (vegetable or coconut)

1 Large onion, grated (140g)

1 Large clove of Garlic grated

2 Dried Kashmiri chillies, chopped finely (optional)

½ tsp cumin powder

1 tsp paprika/Kashmiri Chilli powder

1 ½ Tbsp yogurt

Scant ¼ tsp cardamom, powdered

Scant ¼ tsp cinnamon, powdered

Scant ¼ tsp cloves, powdered

½ tsp crushed cumin seeds

2 Tbsp coconut milk powder
Salt - as required

Preparation:

1.Heat oil in a saucepan or frying pan. Add grated onion,grated garlic, chopped chillies, paprika or chilli powder and salt. Sauté until onions starts to turn golden.

2. Add prawns and curd. Mix well, cover and cook for around 8-10 minutes on medium flame until almost cooked.

3. Add coconut powder along with rest of the spice, stir well and cook for further 3-4 minutes until the gravy is almost dry and smothered in the sauce.

Notes:

1. The original recipe calls for pounding fresh spices and adding it at the end. If you are patient enough to pound the spices, roast 1 cardamom, 2 whole cloves and a small pieces of cinnamon stick and pound it fine. Add it at the end along with coconut instead of ready made spice powders. Freshly pounded spices give it a fresh aroma than the ready powdered spices.

2. Original recipe also doesn’t call for dried chillies. Adding dried chillies and chilli powder makes it really hot. So add paprika along with the dried red chillies or omit the dried ones as per your taste.