Prawn in Sweet and Hot Curry
A patia that is so delicious my mouth is watering I have made it with prawns as well as prawns/aubergine/mushrooms Lovely thick tomato sauce with just the right amount of hot and sour
A patia that is so delicious my mouth is watering I have made it with prawns as well as prawns/aubergine/mushrooms Lovely thick tomato sauce with just the right amount of hot and sour
- salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
- 2 onions large
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1 teaspoon garam masala powder
- 10 curry leaves
- 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
- 8 ounces prawns uncooked and shelled
- 1 1/2 teaspoons tamarinnd pulp
- 5 green chilis chopped
- 3 garlic cloves plump
- 3/4 teaspoon cilantro/coriander powder
- 3/4 teaspoon red chile powder
- 1/2 teaspoon tumeric powder
- 2 tomatoes medium, finely chopped
- 1 teaspoon jaggery
- 1/4 cup cilantro/corriander leaves
- Carbohydrate 24.5412408391309 g
- Cholesterol 86.182550224 mg
- Fat 19.7374425375621 g
- Fiber 5.54512606308122 g
- Protein 15.5750565715649 g
- Saturated Fat 1.74157455900792 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (499g)
- Sodium 1177.90096336639 mg
- Sugar 18.9961147760497 g
- Trans Fat 4.38889152269515 g
- Calories 295 calories
Step-by-step
- If using freh prawns, wash and remove the veins.
- Soak the tamarind in 1/2 cup of water for about 30 minutes
- Grind the 5 chillies, 2 garlic clovves and cumin seeds to a paste.
- Heat the oil in a cooking pot and fry the onions until deep pink. Add the chopped garlic and gren chilli paste and fry for a further 2 minutes.
- Add the cumin, coriander, red chilli, garam masala and tumeric powders. Stir constantly for 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoe, and fry for 4 - 5 minutes, stiring from time to time.
- Add half the tamarind water, the jaggery, curry and coriander leaves and about 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Taste andn adjust the sour, sweet and salt flavours to your taste. Add 3/4 cup water and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 mins. Put in the prawns and cook for as long as necessary, remembering that rawns cook very quickly. This dish has a thick,non-runny gravy.
Why does the sauce taste sharp and one-dimensional before the jaggery goes in? Balance arrives when concentrated acids meet unrefined sugar, neutralizing aggressive sourness from tamarind pulp without flattening the profile. Cooking onions until deep pink—roughly 10 to 12 minutes over medium heat—caramelizes natural sugars to form a structural base for the thick tomato gravy.
Controlling Heat and Sourness
Blooming ground spices like cumin, coriander, and turmeric in hot oil for precisely 60 seconds drives fat-soluble flavor compounds out of their cellular walls. Add green chile and garlic paste immediately after the onions reach maximum pigmentation to prevent scorching the aromatics. Substituting tamarind with lime juice alters the final viscosity because fruit pulp contributes pectin that commercial bottled juices lack.
- Undercooking onions yields a watery base rather than a thick sauce.
- Overcooking prawns turns their muscle fibers rubbery within two minutes.
- Adjusting salt levels must happen after simmering the tamarind water to account for reduction.
