Prawn Sukka (Spiced Coconut Prawns)

One of the few regrets in my life is that I never had the opportunity to cook with my grandparents. My paternal grandfather passed away before I was born. My paternal grandmother was in the USA for a lot of my life, and though she is still alive today, she is not good shape right now, being all of a 105 years. Both my maternal grandparents were alive for a long time, but it was mostly in my teens and early twenties, when I was naive enough to believe that they would live forever. Or at least I would get to see them often enough, that I could get recipes and instructions from them, and cook with them. But this was the arrogance of youth, to think that they would wait forever for me. 

My grandfather died when I was in the UK, in the first three months. My grandmother survived a lot longer, and I was lucky enough to talk to her and get some of her recipes over the phone and through my mother and aunts. She got too old and too sick very soon after though, and I never really got to cook with her. When I went searching for her 'samadde', her hand carved wooden spice box, it had already been given away. I was still lucky enough to have a little of her jewellery, but let's face it, no one really wears that much jewellery here in Canada. They're still my heirlooms though, so I keep them, in the hope of passing them on my daughter sometime. 

I am luckier than most though, because after all said and done, I do have some recipes and a lot of memories of my folks' cooking, and those are memories I treasure. Whether it is making boti, or climbing mango trees, or spending summers at my grandparents' house, they are there, and they will be there with me.

The reason I went down memory lane with my grandparents though, is that my recipe today is inspired by another grandmother, my friend Rohan's Nana Betty. This is her, in the below photograph.

Nana Betty, photo courtesy Rohan Gonsalves

Rohan, an old school and college friend of mine, is a lucky man. He has been quarantining with his grandmother in Mangalore, and one of the things he started doing was posting photo recipes of his grandmother cooking. You can imagine that went down rather well with the grandparent-parched generation all over the world. Not just mine, but strangely, also the generation before and after mine. The request for recipes became so numerous, that Rohan had to actually create a Facebook page for Nana's Recipes (you have to be a Facebook member to access, sorry), where he posts picture journeys of the recipe with his grandmother, and collection of aunts and uncles. 

I call Rohan a lucky man, because, had I had the opportunity, this is exactly what I should have done with my own grandparents. Granted, recording recipes is very different today, with our camera phones, and social media, as opposed to frantically writing everything down as fast as the spices would go in. But even then, what he has with his nana, is a dream a lot of us have had, I would imagine. To cook with our parents, or aunties, and relatives, it is a dream that is not always possible in today's world where a lot of us are away from our families and building our own families. It is a familiar pain, but then Nana Betty (or rather, Rohan) would post a new recipe, and for a while Nana Betty stands in for our own grandparents and everything is okay for a while. And in today's world, we need it.

This recipe is a result of inspiration from Nana's Clam Sukka, or spicy clams with coconut. I wasn't able to go out for clams, but I did have a bag of raw prawns that were perfect for this version of prawn sukka. These prawns can be served as a side dish with rice and vegetables, or as a finger food with toothpicks stuck in them. Either way, they are delicious, just as I imagine Nana's clams were.

Recipe: 

250g shelled prawns
1/2 teaspoon turmeric
1 tablespoon neutral oil (I use grapeseed) 
1 small onion, finely diced
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tomato, diced
1 teaspoon (or to taste) bafat spice mix
Salt to taste
1/4 cup unsweetened dessicated coconut

For the seasoning: 

1 tablespoon neutral oil
1 sprig (5 - 6) curry leaves
1 clove of garlic, bruised, but left whole

Method: 

Place the shelled prawns in a bowl, and sprinkle over the turmeric. Keep aside.

In a shallow pan, over a medium heat, heat the oil and add the onions. When the onions are golden around the edges, about 5 minutes, add the ginger and garlic. Saute for a minute, then add the tomatoes and the bafat spice mix.

Cook this mixture for about 5 - 7 minutes, until the raw smell of spices disappears. Add the prawns to the pan, and cook together for about 5 minutes, until the prawns have cooked through.

Season with salt to taste, then stir in the dessicated coconut. Taste and adjust seasoning.

In a small pan, heat the tablespoon of oil, then add the curry leaves and garlic. Sizzle everything together for a minute, then pour the fragrant oil and seasonings into the cooked prawns, and stir in.

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Mangalorean Fried Prawns With Chilli and Vinegar (Sungtan Meeth Mirsang)

So the Yeggies came and went, and as I predicted, I didn't win :) But I did get the opportunity to chat about food with CTV's Morning Live with host, Stacey Brotzel. I haven't been on TV since my Masterchef days, so I hated how I looked and sounded, obviously. Of course, I then had to go and have a look at my old MC video and I was kind of shocked how much my accent had changed and how blimmin' young I looked in those videos. Anyway I'll let you be judge, as the video is over here. Just try not too laugh too hard, will you?

Meanwhile, in other news, Aditi has been getting all cheeky on me. Today, I had a ladybird fly into my hand. So I got all excited, and told Aditi, 'hey, look, a ladybird flew into my hand... I am going to be so lucky' At which point, she deigned to look up at me from her game, all bored, like, and went 'yeah mom, you are lucky. You have me'... ooooh, that li'l monster. If she didn't have her moments like the one below, she'd be sold to the gypsies in a second (kidding, of course, no one would pay anything for her, in fact they'd probably pay me to take her back, haha)

So what did she say that made me bawl? Well, she's been getting an allowance of a dollar every Friday, and she has been saving up hard for a backpack toy. Every week she counts her coins and decides how many more she needs for the toy.

So she comes up to me a few days ago and said, 'Mom, I've decided not to buy the toy after all'. So I said, 'Why not, Aditi?' She then says to me, 'Mom, cause next Sunday is Mother's Day and I have two more Fridays to go before that... and I want to spend all my coins buying you the best present in the world!' I was stunned and asked 'Did Dad tell you to do this?' and she was like 'No, I just decided this, and of course Dad will be taking me to get you a present, but I want to spend my own money and its going to be the best surprise you ever had'.

I think I already got the best present in the world!

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Kerala Style Sweet and Spicy Prawn Fry

The original Malayali name for this dish is Eruvum Madhuravum Ulla Chemmeen Varathathu. I now challenge you to say that fast ten times :)

Malayalam is a pretty complicated language, and a lot of Kerala dishes have very complicated names. My favourite South Indian restaurant in Liverpool, Maharaja, had a delicious Kerala aubergine curry on the menu, one that Kay just adored, and it was called  Vazuthanangapal curry. Poor Kay always struggled to order it. Though he just told me that they've taken it off the menu now... perhaps no one ordered it because of its name! 

I loved growing up on the Indian coast. Fish days were always exciting, and dad would load up on fresh fish, crabs, clams and prawns straight off the dock. Mum would spend the afternoon cleaning the fish, deveining and portioning up prawns and crabs and on clam days we almost always had a delicious clam and dumpling curry or clams with coconut. I really miss the fish and seafood of my childhood, and now I am unfortunate enough to live in a landlocked province, I miss it even more. Ocasionally we are lucky enough to get fresh clams or fish, but I am almost always too impatient to make the slow curries of my childhood and I end up steaming and eating it in a hurry, which I guess is a real shame. 

That said, in India, we didn't normally experiment wildly with different dishes from various parts of the country. Indian cuisine is very regional, and its not often that home cooks venture out of their comfort zone. So most of the food we ate was very much traditional, and it was rare to get a taste of a different region, let alone different countries (maybe the odd Chinese food, but to be honest, the Chinese food we ate was as far away from traditional Chinese cuisine... as, well, the moon is from the earth? Hehe) It was only once I grew up and moved to university that I tried out European food, and I still recall my first taste of Italian food... which again, was very different from the traditional Italian food that I eventually ended up eating in Italy :) 

But mum was a school teacher in Kerala, also known as God's own country... so we did get some very Keralite food on ocasion. My paternal grandfather was also from Kerala, one of the older plantation owners there, but moved to Mangalore to be with my grandmother. Sadly many of his recipes are no longer with us, as no one thought to write them down thanks to the expectation that Indian recipes would always be passed down through the oral tradition... again, something that has now, sadly, been lost. But that something I am aiming to change. My notebook is now full of old Indian recipes that I hope that I will have the time to make and test soon. 

 

That said, this recipe comes from an excellent book that I was recently sent from India. On ocasion, I get my sister and mum to send me a care package, mainly general items from India that are not available here, like these coconut shell ladles in the pictures for this post, some lovely sandalwood soaps and such like... 

This time round I got them to send me a ton of older cookbooks, and my mum sent me this excellent book called The Essential Kerala Cookbook by Vijayan Kannampilly. I already own a few books in this collection, all published by Penguin India, and I've never had a dud recipe ever. Which is really saying something... I do adapt these recipes though, since they make no concession to the less spice tolerant palate, but on the whole I love making these dishes as my everyday meals for the family. 

The recipe for these sweet and spicy prawns jumped up out at me when I was reading through the book, and I almost could taste these just from the ingredients. Kannampilly calls this a Christian dish, and I agree, as I have had numerous variations of this dish in my own home. But as prawn dishes go, this is now up there for me as one of the favourites. Its almost too easy and unbelievably quick to prepare, usually taking me less than 20 minutes to make. I start my rice at the same time as the prawns, and when the rice is done, the prawns are sizzling. Add a light salad and that's supper sorted in less than 30 minutes. Now that's what I call a winner of a recipe. 

And the flavours? Well, let me put it this way... the first time I made this, my husband, him of the jaded-not-another-for-the-blog-recipe palate, went 'Wow!!! Mich, this is delicious... what on earth did you do to those prawns?'  So that's a success, I take it? 

The taste is delicious with complex flavours all melding into each other. Considering that this dish has only red chillies as the major spice, that's really saying something. But for me, this is the ultimate comfort food. Sweet, spicy, tangy and fresh, with the fragrance of curry leaves... its a dish that defines Kerala, and the beautiful coast I grew up on. And that's magical, indeed.

Recipe: 

(Printable Recipe) 

Serves 4 - 6 as a side dish 

Adapted from Vijayan Kannampilly's 'The Essential Kerala Cookbook' 

1 bag (400g) large frozen prawns, peeled, but ideally with the tails left on, thawed
2 tablespoons coconut oil (or any other neutral oil) + a little extra
1 large onion, finely diced
2 small tomatoes, finely diced
1 teaspoon sugar

Marinade:

1 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
3 - 4 teaspoons red wine vinegar
½ teaspoon ground turmeric
Salt to taste

Spice paste:

5 long mild red chillies (or 1 tablespoon mild Kashmiri chilly powder, see spice paste instructions)
About ½ cup hot water
4 - 5 cloves of garlic, crushed

Garnish:

1 tablespoon coconut or neutral oil
10 - 15 curry leaves

Method:

Marinate the prawns – place the thawed, cleaned prawns in a bowl, and add the ginger, red wine vinegar, turmeric and about ½ teaspoon of salt (or to taste) Place in the fridge for at lease 1 hour.

Make the spice paste – soak the dried chillies in the hot water, topping up with a little extra, if required for about 5 - 10 minutes. Drain, reserving the water. Blend to a fine paste with the garlic cloves, adding about 2 tablespoons of the reserved chilli soaking water, or as required to make a loose spice paste. Keep aside. Or - place the mild Kashmiri chilli powder in a bowl, add the crushed garlic and water to make a spice paste. Reduce water to ¼ cup if making this version.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a heavy based pot, and add the marinated shrimp. Cook on a high heat, until the shrimp are just pink. Remove to a bowl.

Heat the remaining 1 tablespoon of oil in the same pan. Add the onions and tomatoes, and fry for 2 minutes.

Reduce the heat and add the spice paste to the pan, and fry for about 3 - 4 minutes, stirring constantly, and adding a little more oil, if required.

Stir in the prawns and fry together for another 2 - 3 minutes. Season to taste with salt.

Stir in the sugar, and adjust seasoning to your taste.

To make the garnish, heat 1 tablespoon oil in a small pan, and toss in the curry leaves. Sizzle for about 30 - 40 seconds, then pour over the whole thing into the prawn fry. Serve hot with rice.

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