Coconut & Prawn Curry with home grown spice..

Have been teasing folks with pictures of our Coconut & Prawn/Shrimp Curry on Instagram & FaceBook so thought I would put a bit of a clip together as well ;-) While its great to be able to walk out the back & pick the spices fresh it can also be made with store bought ingredients as well.. 


Curry paste..

Chillies to taste (we use 2) + some for garnish if desired
Large thumb sized piece of ginger or about 2tsp of ginger paste
2 Large thumb sized  piece of galangal OR 3 heaped tsp powdered (not necessary but a favourite spice of mine)
2  Large thumbs of turmeric OR 3 heaped tsp of powdered
3 med cloves of garlic OR 2 heaped tsp garlic paste
¼ tsp salt
½ Tbsp oil

Chop spice into small pieces then pound all ingredients into a paste with a mortar & pestle OR you could cheat & use a food processor like me ;-)
A few tsp of water can be added if you are using powdered spice..

Coconut Prawn/Shrimp Curry..
Serves 2

oil for cooking
Curry paste from above or a good quality yellow curry paste..
¼ cup Shredded coconut 
1 med onion sliced into thinly
150-200g peeled prawn/shrimp  
10 water chestnuts, sliced or ½ small tin
½ med head of broccoli, cut into small florets & stem sliced thin
1 large handful of honey pod/sugar snap peas, sliced in half
½ capsicum/red pepper, sliced
200-250ml of coconut cream
salt

- Heat 2 Tbsp oil in Wok/large fry pan. 
- Fry curry paste for 1 minute then add shredded coconut, cook for another minute.
- Add onions & cook for 1 minute.
- Add in prawns & mix well with curry paste/onions. Some extra oil can go in if needed as well.
- When Prawns look ½ cooked add in veggies & mix well for 1 minute.
- Pour in coconut cream, mix through well then cover top of wok/fry pan & let curry simmer for 3 minutes to heat veggies through & finish off the prawns..
- Serve garnished with more chilli..
- ENJOY!!

Some optional extras to add would be a stalk of lemon grass added into the curry paste & a kaffir lime leaf added into the main dish with the onions

Hope you enjoy the dish as much as we do if you have a crack at it..
Cheers all :-)

Hot stuff from the patch.. Sambal oelek & Chilli Paste..

We have been very lucky so far this year in that we have had no **crosses every digit * fruit fly strike any of the chillies in the patch.. The bell chillies near the house were my big concern as they have no protection unlike the the large chilli in the hoop house.. 
A few weeks ago I decided to use up the collected chillies in a chilli paste so went searching on the interwebs for some inspiration.. An online friend (Tar Joy) pointed me in the direction of one she had tried & liked.. It looked promising but we were missing a few ingredients so I decided to make up my own using the recipe as a rough guide..
Below is what we came up with & am quite chuffed to say that the sugar & vinegar are the only ingredients we didn't grow ourselves :)»

Sambal Oelek...

• 500g/1 lb chillies, chopped
• 300g/10½oz galangal, peeled & chopped (some ginger would be nice as well as or instead of the galangal)
• 300g/10½oz garlic, peeled
• 4 stalks of lemongrass, chopped
• 2tbsp of grated lime skin (we use our kaffir fruit)
• small hand full of Kaffir lime leaves
• 350ml/1.5cup coconut vinegar
• 200g/7oz rapadura sugar
  
  

Add all ingredients, except for the sugar & vinegar, to the food processor & chop on high for about 30 seconds.
Slowly pour the vinegar in while the processor is on high until a smooth paste has formed.
Move the paste to a saucepan & bring to the boil.
Slowly add the sugar & stirred through until dissolved.
Reduced the heat & let simmer on low for 5 minutes. Adding a lid at this stage will aid in the clean up later as I found out ;)»

 This batch filled 3 sterilised 500ml jars..  2 of these were added to a hot water bath for 10 or so minutes so they could be stored for later use with one being gifted to some friends..

We have been very pleased with the fresh citrus flavour off this paste.. We have used it to spice up some leftover roast pork & also to make an AWESOME coconut prawn curry.. Can't wait to experiment with the next batch we make up..
Nice & easy Chilli paste..
A simple no frills recipe to make up this basic yet versatile paste..
Thanks to Granny Mel for a few pointers on the paste..
250g/½lb Chillies, chopped in ½
125ml/½ cup Vodka
15g/½oz salt
2Tbsp water



Process chillies on high for 30 seconds or until finely chopped.
Add to saucepan with water & salt then bring to the boil.
Reduce to a high simmer for 4-5 minutes.
Turn hotplate off & allow past to cool for 5 minutes.
Stir Vodka through paste then add to sterilised jar & seal.
I would recommend storing it in the fridge.

This is such a basic recipe that only takes 15 minutes to whip up & can be used in so many different styles of cooking..

Shall post the other chilli paste recipes later if I think they are tasty enough..

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Have a great one All...
:)»