Hed Chef: Curry prawns

The beauty of making your own curry paste is that you can control the level of spice to suit your taste.

The ingredients for making curry paste are quite basic. With a blender or grinder, it isn't difficult to blend your own rempah (spice paste).

The only tedious part is peeling shallots, but you can buy peeled ones if you are not fussy about freshness.

Get sea prawns if you can because the texture is slightly crunchier. I cooked them with shells on because the shell imparts a sweet flavour to the meat during the cooking process.

But lazy dinner guests may complain about having to shell the prawns at the table.

You can solve this problem by not inviting them. Fewer people to fight with you over the thick rich gravy.

If you have cooperative guests who appreciate the messy pleasure of shelling cooked prawns, throw in an extra treat - coconut rice.

If you find the coconut rice too dry during the cooking process, add a little water and cook for a while longer.

INGREDIENTS

600g sea prawns

10 curry leaves

1 tomato, chopped

1 stalk of lemongrass, bruised

3 kaffir lime leaves

100ml coconut cream

1 garlic clove, chopped

½ tsp salt

200ml water

Cooking oil

For rempah 
(spice paste)

8 red finger chillies

3 chilli padi

100g shallots

2 garlic cloves

20g ginger

10g fresh turmeric

1 stalk of lemongrass (use only 5cm of white root part)

2 candlenuts

2 tsp of belacan powder

1 flat tbsp curry powder

½ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

METHOD

1. Grind the spice paste ingredients

2. Heat 2 tbsp of oil and fry the paste on low heat for 15 minutes. (A)

3. Add the water and chopped tomato. Bring to a simmering boil. (B)

4. In another pan, heat 1 tbsp of oil and fry the chopped garlic until fragrant. Fry the prawns. (C)

When prawns are half-cooked, add in the simmering spice mixture.

Add the kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass stalk.

When the liquid heats up to a simmering boil, add in the coconut cream. Bring to a simmering boil and season with salt

Add the curry leaves.

Serve immediately.

Hed Chef Extra

Coconut rice
Ingredients

2 rice cups of rice

1 rice up of coconut cream

1.2 rice cups of water

6 pandan leaves, knotted

3 cloves

1 star anise

Pinch of salt

Pinch of sugar

Method
Place all the ingredients in rice cooker and cook.