Thai Red Curry Prawns

I am a big fan of spicy food (especially Thai) but have never cooked any that does not involve pre-mixed curry paste. Making my own curry paste has always been on my to-do list, but I am put off by the  long list of ingredients required. This Thai Red Curry Prawns recipe is a great recipe for me to start with since I do know all the ingredients. Besides, it looks so good that I had to have some!

The list of ingredients for the curry paste is fairly straight forward and easily available.

Even as I was blending the paste in my mixer, I could smell the wonderful spicy fragrance from the various ingredients. I am so proud of my first bowl of home-made curry paste! My mouth was already watering when I was cooking this. Right after it was ready, I did not even wait for meal time but immediately scooped some of the sauce over rice and ate it up! The prawns went well with this curry, but I think chicken would be great too.

What I would do differently next time is blend all the ingredients into a fine paste (the recipe recommends leaving it coarsely blended for texture). I had to remove some lemongrass bits as it was too hard to chew. Alternatively, one can sieve out the bits before serving the dish. This is really a fragrant and scrumptious recipe which is easy to make at home and tastes like a restaurant meal.

Thai Red Curry Prawns (Serves 4)
By Greta, MasterChef Contestant

Ingredients

Curry paste

• 1 stalk lemongrass, outer leaves and tough ends trimmed
• ½ long red chilli
• 1 clove garlic, peeled
• 2 kaffir lime leaves
• Bunch coriander, roots and stems
• 3 tablespoons capsicum, chopped
• 1 teaspoon tomato puree
• 2 teaspoons fish sauce
• 1 cm fresh ginger, peeled
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil

Curry

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 4 king prawns, unshelled
• 100 g sugar snap peas, ends removed
• 200 g tiger prawns, peeled, deveined
• 150 g tin coconut milk

To serve

• Coriander leaves
• 1 lime, cut into wedges
• ½ cup steamed rice

Method

• Cook rice in boiling water or in rice cooker.
• For curry paste, bash lemongrass stalks with the side of a knife and place in a food processor with chilli, garlic, lime leaves, coriander roots and stems, capsicum, tomato puree, fish sauce, soy sauce, ginger and sesame oil. Process, but do not make into a paste, allowing the paste to retain some texture.
• For curry, drizzle olive oil into a hot frying pan and add the unshelled king prawns. Fry for one minute and add a tablespoon of the curry paste. Fry for one more minute.
• Reduce to a medium heat, drizzle with olive oil and add the sugar snap peas and tiger prawns.
• Spoon in the remaining curry paste and stir fry for a minute before adding coconut milk. Simmer over low heat to melt down coconut milk.
• To serve, garnish with coriander leaves and lime wedges and steamed rice on the side.