Prawn Roast!
For my second blog about cooking, I thought i will go for something simple to make and yet is one of the most sought after item in the sea food category. Most people I know crave for prawns...in any form! It is one of the easiest things to cook, although not fry as it is a pain turning those tiny ones before they burn! It's also a very versatile meat to cook with..you make fried rices, pulavs, byriani, curry, deep fry them, batter fry them or even make prawn roast!
Prawn roast is one of my favourite ways of eating prawns, though I think malayalees are often guilty of overcooking prawns in their attempt to "pulli ittu paatickal". Prawn when over cooked becomes a rubbery, chewy mess though it will still taste as awesome! But I'd say just best cook it minimum to get maximum effect.
Prawn roast is for those who really don't know much about cooking and still want to eat something delightful when they do decide to cook. This requires no technique whatsoever, just saute a few things and you are good to go. You just need to clean prawns well, by which I mean, buy fresh prawns, ask the fish monger to de-shell them, get it home and devein them. Prawns have a vein across their back that need to be removed to ensure you don't end up with an upset tummy the next day. After deveining, wash your prawns well, Add salt, rub your prawns and wash again. This takes off the sliminess and removes that very strong fishy taste. In fact most fishes should be washed with salt, preferably rock salt to take off the sliminess.
Now that you are done with the prawns and they are happy as they can be, let's start with the cooking.
You'll need: (this is for about 150 gm prawns)
2 medium sized onions chopped
2 medium sized tomatoes chopped
Ginger-garlic paste - about 1 table spoon
Curry leaves - 10 leaves
Kashmiri Chilli powder - 2 tablespoon
Coriander powder - 3 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4th teaspoon
Salt
Method:
Saute onions in a pan, till translucent. The trick to quicker onion cooking is adding the salt to the onions while cooking. Saute for about 2-3 mins and add the ginger garlic paste to it too. If you like really spicy food, adding a few slit green chillies now would be a great idea! Add the curry leaves too, though as you can see I didn't have any at home and so skipped the step.
Your sautéed onions should look something like this in about 3-4 mins. Slightly brown, translucent and most importantly not burnt! :) When they reach this stage, you know you can add your chopped tomatoes to them. Saute the two for another 3-4 mins to get to here
As you can see there is a certain glossiness that has returned to my onions and the masala is also becoming lumpy. In about 2 more mins I added my prawns to this mixture. While adding prawns I also added a bit of water as you need the prawns to cook. Cover with a lid and let steam on a medium flame.
Prawn roast is one of my favourite ways of eating prawns, though I think malayalees are often guilty of overcooking prawns in their attempt to "pulli ittu paatickal". Prawn when over cooked becomes a rubbery, chewy mess though it will still taste as awesome! But I'd say just best cook it minimum to get maximum effect.
Prawn roast is for those who really don't know much about cooking and still want to eat something delightful when they do decide to cook. This requires no technique whatsoever, just saute a few things and you are good to go. You just need to clean prawns well, by which I mean, buy fresh prawns, ask the fish monger to de-shell them, get it home and devein them. Prawns have a vein across their back that need to be removed to ensure you don't end up with an upset tummy the next day. After deveining, wash your prawns well, Add salt, rub your prawns and wash again. This takes off the sliminess and removes that very strong fishy taste. In fact most fishes should be washed with salt, preferably rock salt to take off the sliminess.
Now that you are done with the prawns and they are happy as they can be, let's start with the cooking.
You'll need: (this is for about 150 gm prawns)
2 medium sized onions chopped
2 medium sized tomatoes chopped
Ginger-garlic paste - about 1 table spoon
Curry leaves - 10 leaves
Kashmiri Chilli powder - 2 tablespoon
Coriander powder - 3 tablespoon
Turmeric powder - 1/4th teaspoon
Salt
Method:
Saute onions in a pan, till translucent. The trick to quicker onion cooking is adding the salt to the onions while cooking. Saute for about 2-3 mins and add the ginger garlic paste to it too. If you like really spicy food, adding a few slit green chillies now would be a great idea! Add the curry leaves too, though as you can see I didn't have any at home and so skipped the step.
Your sautéed onions should look something like this in about 3-4 mins. Slightly brown, translucent and most importantly not burnt! :) When they reach this stage, you know you can add your chopped tomatoes to them. Saute the two for another 3-4 mins to get to here
You will be now getting a raw smell from the tomatoes. Keep sautéing, till your tomatoes are mushy and you can see the skin separate from the pulp. You will also realise the raw smell has gone off by then.
Next you need to add your powders, and keep up with the sautéing. How do you know if your powders are roasted and cooked? Some people say the raw smell should leave it. What happens when i follow this is that people come to my kitchen and swear at me for choking them with all the masala related coughing! While others say check for the oil to separate. Now, if like me you prefer very little oil while cooking, there won't be much oil to separate from the masala. So my tried and tested method is to see when it is that the masala starts binding together again. What happens here, I believe is that the separating oil is making the masala to stick to each other. Thus is a pretty good indicator of roasted masala. For recipes that have tomatoes in them or are like a semi dry consistency, this method should work in knowing when to stop your masala cooking. This is how my masala looked like, when I decided enough was enough.
Come back to the prawns in about 5 mins and mostly you will end up with something looking like this.
Taste now and see if the salt is right. If you want to amp up the flavours, add a bit of pepper powder for the spice. Maybe you could also add a little bit of tamarind pulp to the mixture if you like your prawns to be a bit more tangy. Or maybe some lemon juice. More or less you are done. Anything that you add is your own twist to the prawn roast!
That's it. It must have taken you all of 15 mins to get to here and what you end up with is an amazing treat. You can serve it with rice, roti or even bread if you are lazy! I hope you try this yourself and if you have any suggestions please please tell me.
PS: Please excuse my terrible pics. I shall get better at them someday!
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