I love love love this prawn dish! And I'm going to repeat this dish quite often in the future. It's very nice.
After I cooked this dish, I realized why this is a dish that Bongs will serve whenever they have guests. It's because it is easy and delicious!
Frying the prawns before adding to the gravy is a lovely step to add flavour. Just like Cantonese way of cooking prawns, we like to give the prawns a high heat searing or a quick deep fry to enhance the flavour. And don't leave out the shells. That's where the flavour is. If you sear it with or without the shells, the fragrance will be obviously different. And to see this technique applied to this prawn curry is really an eye opener.
In Bangladeshi restaurants, it's usually cooked with large prawns or lobsters, shell on. But since I have some medium prawns, I just used that. Some recipes didn't mind using smaller prawns and some even use the prawn flesh only, without any shells at all.
I cooked this dish with reference to two recipes, taking some part from this and some part from that. I prefer cumin over coriander and I prefer red chilli powder over fresh green chilli. The rest pretty much remains for both recipes.
Mustard oil is an important ingredient when it comes to cooking seafood in Bangladesh, and I substituted it with oil flavoured with mustard seeds. I know it could be different, but that's the best that I can do.
I'm really glad I tried out this dish.
Creamy Prawn Curry Bangladeshi Style
Reference: Food Punch and My Saffron Kitchen
300gm prawns
1/4 tsp salt
pinch of turmeric
1 tsp mustard seeds
3 Tbsp oil
1cm ginger
1 small onion
1 inch cinnamon
3 cloves
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1 small Indian bay leaf
1 tsp chilli powder
1/2 tsp turmeric powder
150ml coconut milk
100 ml water
1. Clean prawns and marinate with salt and turmeric.
2. Grate or grind ginger and onion to a paste.
3. Heat wok/pan and put in 3 Tbsp oil. Put in mustard seeds and let them cook until they sputter. Turn off the heat and remove the seeds*.
4. On high heat, sear the prawns until they curl up. Push them to the side, and let excess oil drip down into the wok.
5. With the same oil and wok , on medium low heat, saute cinnamon, cumin and cloves first, for a few seconds. Add in ginger and onion, and saute until it looks glossy. Add in chilli powder and turmeric powder and cook for around 10 seconds.
6. Add in water and coconut milk. Stir it gently all the while. Add in some salt to taste and cook until the gravy reaches your preferred consistency
7. Add in the prawns and bring it back to a boil. Turn off the heat and dish up.
* I sprinkled the fried mustard seeds onto some stir fried cabbage. No wastage.
