In Kerala, we call this dish Chemeen and khoorka olathu. This is a versatile dish you can have this with either Puttu or flaky parathas or just even plain rice. All you need is fresh prawns and cooked Chinese potato. It is spicy, full of flavour and is really the taste of Kerala -God’s own country !

I have chosen a very simple easy to follow recipe of this particular dish, all the ingredients are easily available and my house help Mary who has been with us for so many years make this dish so well, it looks so effortless and just too good to resist.

This recipe is a 2 in one recipe. If you follow the steps without the prawns you get a vegetarian dish – khoorka fry or Chinese potato fry, which is very tasty on its own. It is the cooking of prawns for a couple of minutes that’s most important so as to make sure that the prawns are just tender and moist.This is a favourite dish at home too- when I’ve got both prawns and Chinese potato available.

Happy to be sharing this recipe with all of you,

Ingredients:

• Cleaned prawns -1/2 kg
• Chinese potato-1/4 kg
• Small onions -10-12 sliced
• Green chilli slit -2
• Chilli flakes -a big pinch
• Garlic – 4-5 flakes chopped fine
• Curry leaves
• Dry red chillies -2
• Pepper powder- 1 tsp
• Coconut oil

To marinate the prawns:

• Ginger- garlic paste -1 tbsp
• Chilli powder-1 tsp
• Turmeric powder-1 tsp
• Curry leaves minced -a few

Method:

• Clean and soak the Chinese potato in lots of water for a hour or so.
• Clean the surface with a scrapper and remove the outer skin.
• Wash and chop and keep aside.
• Apply turmeric and salt and place in a pressure cooker and cook for 1 whistle. Remove and keep aside. There should be a bite to it. Do not overcook.
• Marinate the prawns in the marinade given above.
• Heat 3-4 tablespoons of coconut oil and fry the chopped small onions till light brown.
• Add the chopped garlic, chilly flakes, broken dry red chillies and slit green chillies and fry well.
• Add the cooked cubes of Chinese potato and mix well. Check for salt.
• Add a pinch of pepper powder and mix well.
• Finally add the marinated prawns and stir well. Keep covered for a couple of minutes till the prawns are cooked and just soft.(3-4 minutes)
• Remove lid and stir on a high flame till just moist.( there should be no liquid remaining).
• Add a few drops of coconut oil and mix well.
• Serve immediately.

Chefs tips:

• Medium- size fresh prawns, should be deveined and cleaned and kept aside to marinate.
• In case shallots are not available, you can use 2 medium sized big onions.
• You could add a couple of bite sized coconut pieces to fry along with the shallots.
• In case you do not like the flavour of coconut oil, add any vegetable oil to cook the dish.
• Cook with love, it makes all the difference.
• This dish serves 2-4 adults.

Till my next post,

Cheers

Rose