Chemmeen Olathiyathu – Sautéed Prawns Fry

Shall I give you a break from my lengthy prefaces and go straight to the recipe? :)

Staying in a place blessed with abundance of fresh seafood, my mother always knew how to preserve the essence of seafood, especially prawns, with her careful use of spices. Also, she always made sure that such preparations were served with light and simple curd based curries and vegetable stir-fries for our everyday meals, so that our taste buds really appreciated the flavours of sea. The ingredient list and cooking process may seem somewhat similar to my Chemmeen Varattiyathu/Spicy Prawn Roast which I had posted sometime back, but this is not heavily spiced up with pungent fennel and peppercorns and still the simplicity shines in all its vigour !

Ingredients:

• ½ kg (approx. 1.14lb) prawns or shrimp peeled, deveined and washed thoroughly
• 1 ½ cup red small onions thinly sliced
• 1 tbsp garlic minced
• 1 tbsp ginger minced
• 4 green chillies split lengthwise
• 2 sprigs of fresh curry leaves
• 1/3 cup small coconut slices/’Thengakothu’
• 1 piece ‘kudam-puli’/Gamboge
• ½ tsp + ½ tsp homemade garam masala
• ½ tsp + 1 tsp red chilly powder
• ¼ tsp + ¼ tsp turmeric powder
• ½ tsp pepper powder
• Salt to taste
• 2 tbsp coconut oil

Directions:

• Make a marinade with ½ tsp garam masala, ½ tsp chilly powder, turmeric, salt and few drops of water and apply it thoroughly on the cleaned prawns, using your hands and leave it in room temperature for around 20 minutes. Soak the kudam-puli in some water to make it soft.
• In the meantime, chop the red small onions, ginger and garlic.
• Heat oil in a big shallow pan, sauté the small onions until they turn pale in low flame; add minced garlic and ginger cook until everything turns transparent, At this stage, add turmeric powder, 1 tsp red chilly powder, pepper powder and garam masala and stir continuously until the raw smell goes and spices are sautéed well and combined thoroughly with the base mixture; make sure that you don’t burn your onions or spice powders. Now add the coconut slices (coconut slices should be smaller than the prawns) and a sprig of curry leaves and combine well with the base mixture and then add the marinated prawns to this; take out the leftover masala from the bowl by adding a couple of tablespoons of water and pour it to the pan and also the softened kudam-puli (without water) and cook covered, in medium heat, until the prawns changes its colour and is almost cooked. Do not add water to cook the prawns. Once the prawns are almost cooked, remove the lid and sauté them, in low flame for 5-10 minutes, until prawns are coated well with the spices, as in the picture. Whether to make it dry or keep it with some gravy-like masala, is purely one’s choice. Do a taste –test in between and adjust the salt, if needed. Just before turning off the stove, tear a sprig of curry leaves and coat the entire dish well with this herb.
• Serve warm with rice or chappathi (Indian bread).

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