Kerala Prawn Fry
Has this ever happened to you? You find this interesting recipe in a cookbook. You check the fridge and pantry and see that most of the ingredients are there. You put your chef’s hat on and get cooking, adding your own special touches to the recipe. The dish turns out to be a masterpiece, tastes wonderful, looks great! You are so hungry you could faint, but you feel it is your duty to share this gem with the world! So you transfer the food into a serving dish, click some pictures in a hurry. Then you go about devouring the dish like there is no tomorrow. Once the food is polished off, you get to the PC, download the pics from the camera, and oh the horror! The pictures are way off! None of these tell the story that you wanted to tell. It used to happen to me a lot when I first started blogging.
Work has been very hectic these days, so I haven’t been cooking much lately. Tonight I felt this sudden urge to blog, so I was browsing through my picture collection for anything that might have gotten overlooked, and came across the above picture. I still remember the taste of this one, one of my favorite preparations with this ingredient. But looking at the picture, the ingredient is unrecognizable. I decided to post it anyway, since it really is blogworthy. Before I publish the recipe, I want to see if anyone can guess what the main ingredient in this is…
Recipe coming up soon…. Come on… Guess away… The first one who guesses the ingredient right will be very lightly rewarded. 
Update 06/07 – Kerala Prawn Fry
Game over… Thanks everyone for playing along…
And the winner is…. Madhuli.
Raji, Anonymous and Archana got it right too
Yes, it is Prawn Fry. The white lump you see in the middle is indeed a prawn. Can you see a small black object to the bottom right of the white lump? That is Kudampuli aka Malabar Tamarind or Fish Tamarind or Gamboje as it is known in English. It is very similar to, but not the same as Kokum, but some of the Kerala cookbooks in English translates kudampuli to kokum. See what it looks like here.
Kudampuli is used in most traditional fish curries in Kerala in place of tamarind. It tastes different from tamarind, it has a very peculiar sour taste that adds an extra oomph to seafood. I don’t use kudampuli much, since Siv is the seafood guy, and his recipes are all using Tamarind. In fact, this is one of the few recipes where I use Kudampuli, and it makes a big difference to the taste. One of my favorite prawn recipes.
This recipe is adapted from Flavours of the Spice Coast by Mrs.K.M. Mathew
Ingredients
- 1 lb prawns, shelled and deveined
- To Grind
- 1 tbsp chilli powder
- 1 tsp coriander powder
- 1/4 tsp pepper powder
- 1/8 tsp turmeric powder
- 1 tbsp ginger slices
- 1 tbsp garlic slices
- 1/4 cup button onions
- 3 pieces of kudampuli
- a few curry leaves
- salt to taste
- 1 tsp ginger, thinly sliced
- For the seasoning
- 1 dsp oil
- 1 tsp mustard seeds
- 2 cups thinly sliced onions
- a few curry leaves
Method
Wash and soak the kudampuli in one cup of water
Coarsely grind all the ingredients in the To Grind section.
In a pan, mix the prawns, ground ingredients, kudampuli, ginger slices, curry leaves and salt with 1 cup of water. Cook covered until the prawns are soft. Uncover and cook on high till the water evaporates.
In another pan, heat oil and splutter the mustard seeds
Add the sliced onions and fry till translucent.
Add the curry leaves and cooked prawns and fry well.
Serve hot with rice.
Now, the reward I promised to the winner. Madhuli, Your blog gets to be the very first Blog of the Month, a new section I added to the sidebar. Well, I told you it is going to be a light reward. I believe a blogger’s biggest satisfaction comes from looking at the visitor stats and this might send some more visitors your way.
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Is it…fish?
well onion and curry leaves are visible…other stuff …is it brinjal?
LOL sig… i can relate to u… there r so many pics in my draft which are not that good but really r blogworthy:)
coming to guessing game…its onion, curry leaves and may be chicken… or potato…or yam… or ….what else is left?
curry leaves and fish / chicken with cabbage?
kaw I wont be the first….but will still put in my vote…for fish…
Is it Paneer…or tofu?? It looks great!
Chicken?
Prawns???
I have some bad photos too when I start blogging last year!;P
What I do is cook the same again and replace the photos!
I would guess it’s Chicken Do Piaza?!
must be chiken, but i’m going to say “cauliflower” anyway
I think its paneer!!
Can truely relate with that experience….. there are so many things which I haven’t blogged about all thanks to the moody lights and camera!!
Tofu?
Chicken ? Whatever it is looks so fiery I will use your recipe with chicken
hi..Sigma..this is not good…all we cud see is mustard, curry leaves,onions..can you plse shake that pan a little bit..so that we can have another look…
Is that shrimp?
I can relate! But not a lot.. I have learned from experiences, and now I click about 15 times hoping that at least one of them would turn out clear and good. But still..what looks great on the camera screen wouldn’t look the same once transfered to the computer.:D
Looks like chicken to me.. or maybe fish?
Is it some sort of shrimp dish?
It seems to be paneer
I changed my mind
It is egg
OR
The whole dish is a chilli Parota. So the main item is parota
Something with chicken and lots of onions?
Paneer Do Pyaza
It looks like chicken to me… But I’m gonna say potato!!
Probably contains any of the following:
onions, fresh bay leaves, paneer, cabbage, tomato, tofu, curry leaves, whole peppercorns, bell peppers.
Did I leave out anything
that little hint of whitish lump smothered by wonderful brown stuff… could it be quail eggs?
potato?
paneer?
fish?
ooh, and forgot to add: yes, many of my initial photos are horrible – truly horrible and I freely admit it – i can’t believe i was naive enough to daringly put them up! well, OK, (feel free to wipe off your smirk) they are not all that better now… and so i do exactly what Asha has mentioned: I simply replace the photo when I cook again and get a “better” shot…
Rabbit meat..haha
Duck?
i am going to be generic and say seafood – as I think I see prawns/shrimp, fish and maybe other seafood like scallops along with curry leaves and onions.
I take a zillion pictures and come see them on the computer and if they don’t please me I go back and take some more. Thank god for large hard drives!
Hi Sig
You inspired me to start restaurant reviews on family friendly stops we take our kids to.. check out my first review and tell me how what you think. I know I need to take some snaps too! Next Time!
Archana
chicken with onions or probably baingan
Thanks everyone for playing along… I guess it looked much worse than I initially thought, pretty much all the ingredients were covered here… Cabbage????? I want to cry
Anita, very close
Srivalli, lol, not even warm…
Sup,
good to know that I am not the only one… and sorry gal, you didn’t even come close..
Saju, hmmm chicken with cabbage, sounds like a great idea…
Dumela, again… it is all from the same place
Trupti, Paneer is a good guess, it does look like it
Indo, chicken would have been too easy, wouldn’t it
Madhuli, clap clap clap
Asha, do piaza is right
… I like your idea, I should start replacing my old pictures 
Richa,
that was very strategic …
Coffee, hmm… so you are blaming the bad light and the camera…
I’ve been thinking it is me, but your excuse is better hehe
Sukanya, good try, but sorry
Sandeepa, you can try it with fish… chicken with kudampuli, hmmmm that may not work, but who knows
Raji, a little too late
RP, I thought you will get it, this is the non-photogenic shrimp recipe I told you about
. Now I too take about 25-30 pics of each recipe from every possible angle 
Anon, you got it right, but anyone could clame your identity…
Asha, chili parotta,
I will try that next time.
Cynthia, lot of onions is right
Arts,
guess i should call this shrimp do pyasa…
Ramya… sorry girl…
cooker, you got a lot of it right, just not the main one
Sheela, I like the quail eggs idea, that reminded me of the can of quail eggs sitting in my pantry… I am going to take yours and Asha’s idea and start replacing old pics with new ones…
Gini, rabbit is an excellent guess…
Archana, good job, you got it right…
you are way too late though… I am going over to your place to check out the restaurant review… can’t wait, I am sure it will be great!
Roopa, I was publishing the result when you commented
That happens to me too…a ghastly representation to a lovely recipe…your picture , however, looks blogworthy enough …
sig, thats cheating…hw will ve vegetarians know abt prawns;) he he he… enjoyed playing this guessing game:)
Sig,what do I find in your place…Yaaaaaaaaay..happy(belated)anniv,dear.Cheers and hugs to you and siv..Yeah I was busy posting to balance my days of absence.The photos really rock rock rock.the 3rd one for the Prawn dish..
Wishing you many many more happy years of good health food happiness and togetherness…:)
Yippee….my wildest guess and dot on target,i can’t believe this!
and I don’t even eat prawns.
thanks for the light reward..i accept it heavily!:)
I am a veggie.. thats the reason i didnt recognise it probably
Would u believe if i say tht my husband said prawns when he saw the snap??[he eats non veg] i thot i had a better guess
Hey Sig,
I am posting this commentwell after you announced what the dish is
.
BTW, wish you a very very happy wedding anniversary dear
hope you had a splendid day. An email awaits you in the inbox.
cheers,
musical
Nice site, will you be intresed in posting some recipe in my site Bangalore Catering Services bangalore catering services
Sig I love your recipe index blog… maybe put a (V) next to veg dishes to differentiate… just my suggestion ….
Nice photo.Looks yummy…..
Hi Sig, thats a wonderfully light reward you gave!. You know something, I wanted to say it might be some seafood but said brinjal because thats how my brinjal dish came out when I last made…hehe…
Nice game this was..
ya I too do that sometimes. but when I experiment newly it also lands into the trash can:) the curry looks good.
Yes, I have been there, Sig. My poor husband has eaten many a warmed-up or cold meal as a result!
Bijeee, bijeeee ????
Thanks all for your lovely words, sorry I’ve been a little busy lately to respond. Back into action now..
Sandeepa, lol, I really was bijee bijee…
Hi Sig,
Whats kudampuli ?
I want to try this recipe
Thanks,
Hey Sig,
Is button onions the same thing as shallots? if not , can they be interchanged in recipes ?
Smithz