Keralan Prawn Biriyani Food

KERALAN PRAWN CURRY

Steps:

• To make the curry, preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas 6.
• Tip the tomatoes on the vines, the green pepper, onion, ginger, garlic, spices, curry leaves (if using), salt and oil into a roasting tin and mix really well to coat everything evenly. Roast for 15-20 minutes (if your oven runs hot and things start to char, rescue them after 15). Fish out the vines, squash down the tomatoes, add the coconut milk, prawns and spinach and return to the oven for 9-10 minutes, or until the prawns are pink and just cooked through.
• Meanwhile, make the rice. Place the rice and 400ml/14fl oz boiling water in a large glass microwave-safe bowl. Cover with a microwave-safe plate that neatly covers the top of the bowl to act as a lid. Microwave on medium power (800W) for 11 minutes. Leave to stand for 10 minutes.
• Taste and season the curry with the lime juice and more salt if needed. Scatter over the coriander and chilli and serve with the rice alongside.

KERALAN PRAWN BIRIYANI

Steps:

• Mix the powders for marinade together with the prawns. You can skip the 20 minutes marination time, but this step packs the prawns with flavour. If using frozen prawns thaw them first as this helps the marinade enter the prawns. I prefer raw prawns since the cooked ones wont absorb flavour and tend to go rubbery on further cooking.
• Now the 20 minutes cooking time starts. Pour 5 cups of water in a microwavable pot and add 2 1/2 cups of rice to it. This needs to be cooked on full power for 20 minutes.
• In a non-stick pan add 3 tbsp of oil and saute the onion for rice till soft. This way the rice remains white after cooking. Do not worry if tips of some slices turn a bit brown. Your biriyani would still taste superb. Take the rice pot from microwave and add the sauteed onion with salt to taste and resume cooking for the remaining time.
• In the same pan shallow fry the marinated prawns avoiding pile up. I use a 20 cm diameter deep pan which takes 20-22 tiger prawns at a time, so your can do 500g prawns in 2 batches. Fry one side for 4-5 minutes, turn sides and fry for another 1 minute. This way the prawns remain juicy inside. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to kitchen towel to mop up oil. Now comes the difficult job of trying to keep away from them. I suggest sucking on a sweetie or your kids lollipop, believe me nothing else works, or else you will end up with a no-prawns-prawn biriyani.
• In the same oil saute the onion for prawn masala till light brown and soft. Add ginger paste, garlic paste and green chillies and saute. Depending on your fiery threshold you can either add more chillies or take the seeds out of the chillies. Now add in order coriander powder, 1/2 cup water, salt, fried prawns, lemon juice, leaves and 1 1/2 tsp garam masala. Your prawn masala is ready. Now this can be used as an accompaniment to flat bread too if you like.
• I use coriander seeds instead of powder, toss them dry in a pan, let them cool down and coarse grind using pestle and mortar.
• If you fell up to it try making your own biriyani masala. My recipe contains 1/2 tsp fennel seeds, 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, 1/2 tsp shahjeera, 4 cloves, 1 cardamom pod, 1 inch cinnamon stick, 1/2 tsp nutmeg powder and 1 whole mace. I dry roast them for a few minutes to release their oils and till gorgeous aroma reaches your nose, let them cool down and grind them on the mill attachment on my food processor.
• You will see that there is still more time for the rice to cook. If brave enough (to add on a few more calories), use this time to fry some thin sliced onions, cashew nuts and raisins to use as garnish. Shop brought fried onions are a big no-no, they seem to taste of the weirdest oil ever. This may spoil all your hard work.
• Once the 20 minutes is up you will find the all the water is soaked up and the rice is dry on top. Use a fork to fluff up rice. Now you have two options. Either go traditional and layer rice and prawn masala in alternating layers together with the garnish and chopped coriander leaves in between layers and oven bake or microwave for another 10-12 minutes. I go for the easy option of lightly mixing the two together.
• To serve, transfer to a flat 5-6 cm deep serving plate and garnish with roasted cashew nuts, raisins and fried onions. Serve with yogurt raitha, hot pickle and poppadoms.
• For my other recipes go to http://kukskitchen.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/keralan-prawn-biriyani.html

KERALA PRAWN CURRY

Steps:

• In a food processor, blitz the chillies, onion and ginger with 3 tbsp water into a smoothish paste - you may need to scrape it down the sides.
• Heat the oil in a heavy pan or wok. When hot, toss in the mustard and fenugreek seeds, and curry leaves - they'll crackle and pop - and fry for 10 seconds. Add the onion paste, turn the heat down a tad and cook without colouring for about 5 minutes. Splash in some water if it starts to catch.
• Add the turmeric and cracked peppercorns and stir the spices around for a few seconds before tipping in the prawns. Pour in the coconut milk and bring to a simmer, stirring all the time. The milk will take on a yellow colour from the turmeric. Cook for 1 minute until everything's heated through. Squeeze over some lime, sprinkle with fresh coriander and serve with rice.