Goan Prawn Curry

Method

1. Begin by making your curry paste. In the ingredients list, I have given quantities for both ground and whole spices. Ground spices are a bit more convenient but freshly roasted and ground spices always give the best flavour, so if you have dried red chillies, whole coriander and cumin seed and black peppercorns to hand, swap those for the ground versions.

2. Roast one tablespoon of coriander seed, one teaspoon each of black peppercorns and cumin seed and four dried red chillies in a dry pan over a medium heat until they are fragrant, about three minutes will do it.

3. Grind them to a powder in a mortar and pestle or a spice grinder. Put all the spices, along with the coconut milk, desiccated coconut, lemon juice, sugar and lime juice into a food processor and blitz to a smooth paste. Set aside for now.

4. Peel and finely chop the onion. Peel and grate the garlic and ginger. Grate the tomatoes into a bowl using the coarse side of a box grater, discarding the skins you will be left with when you get to the end of each tomato. If you prefer, you can finely chop the tomatoes, but I find grating them quicker and easier and they also incorporate into the sauce more smoothly.

5. Heat the coconut oil in a pan over a high heat. If you do not have any coconut oil, you can substitute rapeseed or olive oil. Reduce the heat to medium and add the chopped onion. Sauté the onion for about three minutes until it is soft and translucent.

6. Add the grated garlic and ginger and continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another two minutes taking care not to burn the garlic and ginger. Reduce the heat a little if needs be. Next, add the grated tomatoes. Stir to combine everything well and bring to the boil before reducing to a simmer and covering the pan. Simmer for five minutes.

7. Add the curry paste and the salt and bring the sauce back to a soft boil. Reduce the heat to a simmer once again, cover with a lid and cook for twelve to fifteen minutes. After that time, the sauce will have reduced just a little and deepened in colour.

8. Next, add the raw prawns to the pan. Stir to coat the prawns in the sauce and cook them for three to four minutes depending upon the size of the prawns. They take just minutes to cook perfectly, so be careful not to overcook them or they will become tough and lose their lovely sweet, juicy flavour.

9. Finally, roughly chop the basil and stir that through the curry. Taste and add more season if needed. Serve with boiled rice and some poppadom for a bit of crunch or with naan breads.