Prawn and Pumpkin Curry

Here's a dish that is typical of the South of India. It combines seafood with pumpkin,  a vegetable grown in abundance, and finished off with coconut for a sweet creaminess. It doesn't rely too heavily on spices but instead balances the flavours well with the acidity of the vinegar balancing the sweetness of the coconut.


This dish is best if you can get some nice big king prawns, and preferably fresh. Even though I was able to get some good sardines at the fresh market at a very good price, I wasn't able to find any nice big king prawns which were uncooked. I have to settle for some medium sized frozen ones and you can really tell the difference. The fresh prawns have a certain crunch to them whereas the frozen ones seem a bit more mushy. They just don't taste the same either. Anyhow, I made the most of what I had and the diners were happy with this.

Ingredients:
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- a dozen curry leaves
- an inch of ginger sliced into strips
- 2 green chillis sliced open lengthways
- 2 onions sliced
- 200g pumpkin flesh sliced
- 1 tsp ground tumeric
- 400ml coconut milk
- 500g raw prawns peeled
- 1tsp white vinegar
- salt to taste

Pan fry the mustard seeds and cumin seeds in hot oil until they start to pop. Then throw in the ginger, onion, chillies and curry leaves and fry on a medium heat until the onion browns.

Next, add the pumpkin and tumeric and fry for a few minutes, stirring occasionally

Then add the coconut milk and bring gently to a boil. At this point, the cookbook I was using suggests that I should add 250ml of water. Actually I think this is not needed as my curry ended up being too watery and I think next time I'll skip it. Don't boil for too long though as you don't want the sauce to split.

Add theprawns, cover with a lid and turn off the heat. This way, the prawns are cooking off the heat in the sauce rather than being boiled away. They will come out more tender this way.

Finally, just before serving, add the vinegar and salt to taste. I personally think a little bit of sugar may be needed if you find the coconut milk hasn't sweetened it enough.

Stay tuned for my next dish later in the week: shallow fried masala sardines!