Today I am sharing a delicious, vibrant coloured prawn recipe inspired from South Indian cuisine. I have many South Indian friends and love their food too much.
I had chicken chukha dish in one of my friend’s house. I loved the colour and flavour of that dish. The red colour comes from tomato and red chilli powder, though red colour is added sometimes. A special blended spice is added to the gravy that is reach in the flavours of cinnamon, coriander and fennel . Sometimes toasted flakes of coconut is also added that really enhances the entire dish.
I used the same spices and made the dish with prawn instead of chicken. Take medium to large size prawns to make this prawn chukha. And try not to clean or remove the shell completely from the prawn. The shells really enhances the flavour and taste of the dish. I didn’t use use toasted coconut flakes, but if you have , add a handful of them at last part of the cooking.
Recipe details
- Preparation time: 20 min
- Cooking time: 30 min
- Serves: 6
- Difficulty time: medium
Ingredients
For the chukha spice
- 3-4 Kashmiri dry red chilli
- 3 teaspoon Coriander seeds
- 1 inch long Cinnamon stick
- 2 teaspoon Fennel seeds
Other ingredients
- 12 medium size Prawn
- 3 big Onions
- 3 medium size red Tomatoes
- 1 medium size Carrot
- 2 teaspoon Ginger-Garlic paste
- 1 tablespoon Lemon juice
- 1 teaspoon Kashmiri red chilli powder
- 2 tablespoon Cooking oil
- 5-6 Black pepper corns
- 1/2″ Cinnamon stick
- 1 handful Curry leaves
- 1 drop/1 pinch red Colour (optional)
- 1 tablespoon Gram flour or Besan
- Salt to taste
Method
Devein prawns, remove the head clean nicely.
Marinade the prawns with 1 teaspoon kashmiri red chilli powder, lemon juice and salt for 10-15 minutes.
Dry roast the chukha spices as mentioned above until aromatic.
Let the spices cool down and then grind to powder.
Thinly slice onions, tomatoes and carrot.
In a broad pan heat oil and temper cinnamon stick, black pepper and curry leaves.
Add in onion slices and cook until soft.
Next add 8n ginger-garlic paste and saute for 30-40 seconds.
Add in thinly sliced tomato and carrots, stir nicely. Also add in salt and cook 3-4 minutes.
When the mixture becomes soft add in the blended spice powder. 1st add in 1 tablespoon of the spice. It’s completely depends on your liking . If you like spicy,then add in more powder you prepared. Stir and mix well.
Add in little water, red food colour and salt to taste (optional).Cover and cook in low heat until the mixture becomes soft and mushy and oil seperates from gravy.
Now add in marinated prawns , stir well and cover. Cook in medium heat until prawns cook well. Prawns take 2-3 minutes only to cook properly.
Mix 1 tablespoon of gram flour/besan with 1/4 cup of water and make a slurry. When prawns cook completely, add in to the pan and mix well. This will help to stick the spices to the prawns nicely.
Add in toasted coconut if you have and then remove from heat. I didn’t have coconut flakes,so I couldn’t use. You can use.some dessicated coconut also in this stage. Delicious spicy prawn chukha is ready to serve now.
Goes well with steam rice, fried rice or noodles.
Barak Kitchen 