Burmese Prawn Curry

I went to a great talk given by Jocelyn Dimbleby years ago when she launched her wonderful cookery book Orchards in the Oasis, all about food, travels and memories. At the talk they served a fabulous Burmese Fish Curry, literally the best tasting dish ever! I have tweaked it slightly by adding prawns but you can using a firm white fish like Pollack too.

It takes a bit of time to prepare but it doesn’t take long to cook and the taste is just fabulous. My boys absolutely love it so it’s become a staple in my family meal repertoire. I hope you enjoy cooking it and please do let me know how you get on…..

Serves 6

Ingredients 

2 fresh red chillies (you can leave these out or just add one, depends on how adventurous the family is!)

400g medium tomatoes – skin removed and roughly chopped

5cm piece fresh ginger root – grated

4 large cloves of garlic – grated

1 large red onion – finely chopped

5 tbsp groundnut oil – plus extra for frying

3 rounded tsp ground turmeric

1kg raw peeled prawns

1 tsp honey

2 tbsp fish sauce

300ml water

juice of 1-2 lemons

bunch of spring onions

Method

In a large bowl whisk the ground nut oil and turmeric powder together, throw in the prawns and coat well. Set aside.

Next prepare the tomatoes by boiling a kettle, criss cross the skin of the tomatoes by the stem and place in a bowl. Pour boiling water of them and leave for 2 mins, then peel the skin away.

Discard skin and finely chop the tomatoes, making sure to keep all seeds and juice. Set to one side in a bowl.

Heat a tbsp of ground nut oil in heavy based pan, with lid. When the oil is smoking fry the prawns quickly, remove as soon as they have some colour – set aside.

Add the onions and cook for 5 mins until slightly browned. Then add the ginger and garlic, cook for another minute.

Now add in the tomatoes and chilli, cook until the tomatoes are mushy about 5 mins.

Stir in the honey, water, fish sauce, prawns, spring onions and lemon juice. Pop the lid on, let it cook through very gently about 3-5 mins.

Serve with steam rice, quinoa and green salad