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Best Sri Lankan spicy prawn recipe

Tuesday, October 13th, 2020 at , Life & Art (https://themalaysianreserve.com/category/life-art/)

Hoppers restaurant gives Londoners a taste for spicy southern Davours

HOPPERS(HTTPS://THEMALAYSIANRESERVE.COM/)
restaurant was a sensation when
it opened in London’s Soho in 2015.

Diners were unfamiliar with Sri Lankan

cuisine, and long queues formed. You might
wait two hours to enjoy inexpensive dishes,
whose spicing was subtly different from the north Indian restaurants for which the city is well
known. Five years on and there are now three Hoppers outlets, where you can book tables in
advance. The long lines are gone, but the popularity and quality remain.

Hoppers’ director, Karan Gokani, didn’t train as a

professional chef. He’s a former lawyer and worked
for Linklaters LLP before entering the restaurant
business. (Hoppers is owned by JKS Restaurants,
of which his wife Sunaina Sethi was one of the
three founders, with her brothers Karam and
Jyotin. Karam is among the UK’s most inDuential
chefs, known for restaurants such as Gymkhana.)

There are now 3 Hoppers outlets where

you can book tables in advance (Source:
Hoppers London Twitter)

But Karan is accomplished in the kitchen. Chef Andrew Wong, who holds a Michelin star at A.
Wong, has eaten at his home and describes him as “an amazing cook, a super-talented chef”.

Karan grew up in Mumbai in a Gujarati family eating mainly vegetarian dishes, but some of the
best food was cooked by a Tamil great uncle. Karan came to love South Indian and Sri Lankan
cuisine. (He proposed to Sunaina in Sri Lanka and they married in Kerala.)

For Bloomberg, Karan has supplied a recipe for home-style Sri Lankan prawn curry, or isso kari.
The only ingredient I had dicculty in sourcing was Sri Lankan roasted curry powder. “It’s vastly
different from the garam masalas or the typical Madras curry powders you dnd on supermarket
shelves,” he says. So I knew I wasn’t allowed that short cut and found a jar online.
He recommends using prawns with heads and shells on, which you can ask a dshmonger to
clean and prep for you. But I bought headless fresh prawns from a supermarket and he says
that is okay, but you really need dsh stock for depth of Davour. Cooked prawns are an absolute
no-no as they will go rubbery without absorbing the spices, Karan says.

I enjoyed the dish, which was hotter than I’d anticipated. (It was only later that I noticed the
Kings curry powder I used is 32% dried red chillies.) If you don’t want prawns, this recipe also
works with mackerel, sardines or dllets of bream or bass. The recipe is supposed to serve three
to four people. As usual, I just ate it all myself. — Bloomberg

Richard Vines is chief food critic at Bloomberg.

Home-style Sri Lankan Prawn Curry

Ingredients

600g of raw prawns with skin and head

on; or about 350g if without shells
1⁄4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds 2 garlic
cloves, minced
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 onion, dnely chopped
2 very ripe medium tomatoes, diced
250ml coconut milk
100ml water or dsh stock
10-12 curry leaves, ideally fresh
1 cinnamon stick
2 long green chillies, slit (remove seeds if
you prefer less spicy, or leave out
completely if you prefer milder still) Karan recommends using prawns with heads
1.5 tbsp roasted Sri Lankan curry powder and shells on (Source: Hoppers London
1⁄2 tsp turmeric Twitter)
1 tsp chilli Dakes
1⁄4 tsp salt
2 tbsp coconut oil

To garnish:

Finely chopped coriander Lime, cut into 4

Preparation

Marinate prawns in a pinch of salt and turmeric for an hour.

Heat the oil in a wok or saucepan over medium heat.

Add the fenugreek seeds and stir until they get a shade or two darker in colour, but being careful
not to burn them or they will go bitter.

Add the cinnamon stick, onion, garlic and ginger, and sweat for about dve minutes over medium
heat till the onions go translucent and soft, and the garlic doesn’t smell raw anymore. The
onions don’t need to be browned as some recipes call for. If they begin to catch/stick to the pan
at any point, add a splash of water or stock and keep cooking.

Add the tomatoes and cook for three minutes until soft and pulpy.

Add the curry leaves and remaining spices, and cook for a further three minutes adding a splash
of stock if they stick or burn.

Add the coconut milk, dsh stock and salt, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Don’t allow the
curry to boil as the milk could split. If you’d like the curry thicker, simmer it for a little longer until
you are satisded with the consistency.

Add the chillies and prawns, and continue to simmer for four to six minutes until the prawns
turn pink and are fully cooked through. If you use peeled raw prawns, they won’t need any more
than a couple of minutes, depending on their size. Don’t overcook or they will go rubbery and
hard.

Check seasoning, garnish with coriander and serve with steamed rice or string hoppers and a
wedge of lime to squeeze over.

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