This is Naved’s special dish at Dishoom Covent Garden. It’s a light, fragrant and utterly delicious south-Indian-style curry, packed with juicy prawns and tempered with coconut milk. Although it looks impressive, it is actually very easy to make, so you can serve it either as a week-night supper or as an indulgent dinner. We serve it with idiyappam, the white, lacy noodle pancakes, also known as string hoppers. If you can’t get these, it goes just as well with steamed rice.

　　

Ingredients

4 servings

　　6 green chillies

　　55ml (about ¼ cup) vegetable oil

　　2 tsp. mustard seeds

　　30 fresh curry leaves

　　300g (2 cups) Spanish white onions, sliced (a little chunky is good)

　　15g (1 Tbsp.) garlic paste

　　15g (1 Tbsp.) ginger paste

　　2 tsp. fine sea salt

　　1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

　　1¼ tsp. ground turmeric

　　25g (¼ cup) fresh root ginger, cut into matchsticks

　　400ml (about 2 cups) coconut milk

　　250ml (about 1 cup) coconut cream

　　24 large prawns

　　300g (about 1 ½ cups) medium tomatoes, cut into small bite-sized wedges

　　Lemon wedges, to serve

　　

Step 1

Remove and discard the stalks from the chillies, then slice each one into 3 or 4 long strips. Set to one side.

　　

Step 2

Place a large saucepan over a medium heat. Add 40ml of the oil, let it warm for a few seconds, then add the mustard seeds and 20 curry leaves. Let them crackle for a few seconds.

　　

Step 3

Add the onions and sauté lightly for 12–14 minutes, until soft but not coloured.

　　

Step 4

Add the garlic and ginger pastes, salt, black pepper and turmeric and sauté for 3 minutes, stirring regularly. Add the sliced chillies and ginger matchsticks and cook for 3 minutes.

　　

Step 5

Pour in the coconut milk and cream and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

　　

Step 6

While the curry is simmering, place a small frying pan over a medium-high heat and add the remaining 1 tbsp oil. Toss in the rest of the curry leaves and fry for 1 minute, until crisp. Drain on kitchen paper and set aside.

　　

Step 7

Add the prawns and tomatoes to the sauce and simmer gently for a further 5–6 minutes, until the prawns are cooked; do not overcook or they will be tough.

　　

Step 8

Serve scattered with the fried curry leaves, with lemon wedges on the side.

　　Cooks' Note

　　If you’d like to prepare the dish in advance, make the sauce (up to and including step 5), chill and refrigerate, then reheat and continue from step 6 just before serving.

　　Excerpted from Dishoom: From Bombay With Love © 2019 by Shamil Thakrar, Kavi Thakrar, and Naved Nasir. Reproduced by permission of Bloomsbury Publishing. All rights reserved.Buy the full book from Amazon or Bookshop.