I’ve always been a huge fan of Indian food, I remember having curries as young as 3 or 4.

Curries have always been a real treat and until recently I’ve always struggled to make them as good as a restaurant or take away…..

However…. I experimented with a few pastes and sauces and came up with this really tasty version of a Pathia for Prawns. (A curry I love to order from the take away).

The great thing is you can use the curry base for any other curry,

Vegetable, chicken, lamb. I’ve made lentil, lamb mince and chicken curries from the same base. You can even reduce the base for less time or bother blending it add vegetables or prepared lentils and make a fast curry.

You can make the base a day or 2 before if you like.

Serves 4

Time 2 hours.

Curry base
1 Red onion

1 Teaspoon ground coriander

1 Teaspoon Paprika

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 Teaspoon Chilli powder

1 Teaspoon ground cumin

1/ Teaspoon black mustard seeds

1 tablespooon of crushed garlic

1 tablespoon finely chopped ginger

Can of Plum tomatoes

250ml of water or stock

Curry Sauce –

1 onion

1 green pepper

2 fresh tomatoes

3 cloves of garlic- crushed.

1 Teaspoon of chopped ginger

1 Teaspoon of chilli powder

1 Teaspoon of ground coriander

1 Teaspoon of ground Cumin

1 Teaspoon of cinnamon

2 Tablespoons of sugar

1 Teaspoon of tamarind paste

1 Tablespoons of white wine vinegar

8 giant whole Raw Tiger prawns or 2 250 gram bags of Raw jumbo king prawns

250ml fish stock

Method –

Curry base-

1. Chop the garlic, ginger and onion.

2. Heat some sunflower or vegetable oil in a frying pan, enough to cover the bottom of the pan.

3. Add the garlic, ginger, dried spices and fry till fragrant.

4. Add the onion and soften in a low heat for around 10 minutes.

5. Add the water and tomatoes.

6. Reduce till there is hardly any liquid left and the mixture is thick- can take up to an hour.

7. Let the curry base cool then blend in a blender.

 

Prawns–

If using whole giant prawns- butterfly them-

1. Lay flat in their bellies and make a slit all the way from behind the head to the tail.

If using peeled prawns – butterfly thm-

1. make a cut all the way down the back of the prawns

Curry sauce –

1. Chop the onions, garlic, pepper, ginger

2. Measure out the spices separately.

3. Heat some sunflower oil.

4. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli powder, Cumin and coriander salt and pepper.

5. Heat till fragrant.

6. Add the onion and pepper.

7. Chop the tomatoes into 4.

8. Soften for ten minutes on a gentle heat.

9. Add the curry base, fish stock , sugar, tamarind, vinegar, cinnamon and tomatoes,

10. Cook down until the sauce is thick and rich.

11. Add the prawns and cook until they turn pink.

Serve with Rice, – I usually make a mushroom pilau which is very simple.

I fry some diced onion in oil with curry leaf, sprinkles of turmeric, Paprika, cumin, 2 bashed cardamon pods and 2 cloves with salt and pepper then add some boiled basmati rice and stir through, works perfectly.