Prawn Curry Recipe (aka my prawn ruby murray) – an easy curry recipe to create a rich and fragrant prawn curry packed with flavour and utterly delicious.
My Prawn Curry recipe offers real depth of flavour with a rich smoky tomato base, slightly sweet with a little tang, it compliments the sweetness of the prawns perfectly. An easy prawn curry recipe or as my ‘ol man’ would say; a lovely ruby murray!
This genuinely is my go-to prawn curry recipe; the kids love it as even though it is really rich and packed with flavour it isn’t hot. Which is a little annoying as I love a bit of chilli – in fact I think almost everything tastes a little better with some chilli – so I usually keep some chilli oil on the side for me to drizzle over.
I travelled around India for a few months and was lucky enough to have the odd family run cooking lesson. There were a couple of really good things I learnt in India when it comes to cooking a curry; read my top tips on making a curry here.
Weirdly, whenever it is really hot and sunny I always feel like having a really fragrant curry (obviously that’s when my wife won’t let me cook another BBQ…:)). I think this probably stems from travelling through India and Asia and eating some incredibly tasty and hot curries whilst sitting in the sunshine.
Ever since then, summer always has the connotations of hot salads or curries for me. But this actually makes sense, you eat something hot, perspire, raise your body’s temperature which in turn makes you feel cooler.
Want a coconut prawn curry instead?
It’s a bit like having a really cold shower on holiday – it feels great at the time but immediately as you turn the shower off you feel even hotter than you did before!
Enough of my climatic philosophy, here’s some info to ensure you make an incredible curry. It’s all about the ‘paste’ at the start, this is what gives real depth of flavour to your curry. If you want some top tips of making curries, check out my Curry making guide.
Note: The phrase ‘oil separates’ means when you see the oil within the paste suddenly re-appear. Don’t worry, I’ll explain. When you first combine the paste into the oil it will soak it all up (see fig.1) once the spices and paste are fully cooked the oil will separate (see fig.2) and become visible in the pan again. If you are unsure, trust your sense of smell; if the steam rising from the paste stops smelling of raw onions you are probably good to go.
Prawn Curry Recipe Serves 2 – Ingredients:
Curry Paste:
1 large white onion (about 150g)
6 cloves of garlic
3 inches of ginger
Dash of water (just to help the blender combine it)
Spice mix:
6 cloves whole
3 whole dried chillies puncture flesh once with a knife
1 teaspoon mild red chilli powder
1/2 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
TIP: Measure and put all the ground spices together before you start cooking so you can add them in one go (the cloves and dried chilli will go in separately)
Other Ingredients:
Just over 1/4 cup (about 80ml) light olive or rapeseed oil
1/2 cup / 120ml water
2 black cardamom pods
1/2tbl garam masala
Bowl of prawns (about 250gms)
1 small white onion cut into eighths
2 ripe tomatoes cut into eighths
1 tablespoon of brown soft sugar
1 tablespoons of fish sauce
1/2 tin of good quality chopped tomatoes or passata
Handful of fresh coriander chopped (stalks and leaves separated)
1/2 fresh lime juice
Tablespoon greek yoghurt per portion to serve
Prawn Curry Recipe – Method:
- Blend together all the paste ingredients until you have a fairly smooth paste (this is best done with a hand blender).
- On a medium heat add the oil to a pan (at least enough to fully cover the base of the pan), then add the cloves and dried chillies and let sizzle for 30 seconds before adding the rest of the Spice mix ingredients. Stir into the oil and sizzle for half a minute before adding the onion, garlic and ginger paste.
- Mix thoroughly to combine and turn the heat to low and let it gently cook, stirring occasionally for about 20-30 minutes or until the oil separates.
- This takes time; letting the paste cook long and slow will give a real depth of flavour that you can’t achieve otherwise. Trust me, let it cook on a very low heat for the 30 minutes give or take that it needs..
- Now add the tinned tomatoes, sliced onion, sugar, fish sauce, black cardamom pods, 1/2 cup water, the chopped coriander stalks and season lightly with salt and heavy with ground black pepper. Leave on low heat, uncovered, simmering for 20 mins (if it gets too thick add a dash more water).
- Finally add the fresh chopped tomato, prawns and garam masala. Leave on the heat for about 3-4 minutes or just long enough to cook the prawns through then remove from the heat (I add the fresh tomatoes near the end to lift the flavour and add a little freshness).
Once plated up; sprinkle the rest of the fresh coriander leaves on top with a good squeeze of lime juice and a dollop of Greek yoghurt.
Goes well with boiled rice, a cold beer and a really annoying cook who keeps asking how nice it is (sorry Anna – but it really is good isn’t it?!)
This is my absolute ‘go to’ curry. Simple and tasty and a little bit addictive! Thanks Theo!
Thanks Victoria – it’s one of my favourites!